Page 58 of Knot All That Glitters: Part 2

But I still can’t quite bring myself to agree… because I’m not sure that the Calloway pack isn’t my perfect pack. If we’d met under different circumstances, if they’d been genuine from the start, like they appear to be now, I would say they are my pack.Mine.Even knowing that they had an omega before me, that Janie was truly theirs, I would try to make it work.

Something inside me still thinks that to some extent. My omega hates that I’m even doubting it. She’s been harping after me to hop in their dicks and let them knot me, to mate them and have them bite me.

I have to remind her they found their fated mate—Janie. And I can’t play second fiddle to a ghost. To a person who made such an impact on them, they’ve spent the last ten years hyper-focused on nothing else but getting revenge for what was done to her.

Don’t get me wrong. They should. Janie deserves to be avenged and they deserve to avenge her, but what will it be like when they’ve accomplished what they’ve set out to do? Will they feel at peace with Janie’s memory? Or will it only get worse? Without revenge to focus on, will they sink into their grief? Will they even still be a pack?

I can tell their bonds are, at the very least, strained now. If they don’t have revenge as a joint goal, will they snap?

Would I be enough to hold them together?

Not likely.

Maybe if Janie had just been an omega and nottheiromega, if I wasn’t considering replacing their fated mate, I could be what they need, but that’s not the case.

Everyone knows fated mates are for life.

Even if they never bonded her.

They’ll always love her. Always long for her.

I deserve better than that.

So I nod slowly. “You’re right. I can’t just stay here indefinitely. I need to start living my life.” Ren doesn’t smile at my agreement, instead she tilts her head and considers me for one long moment. Uncomfortable with her attention for some unknown reason—probably because she can read me better than anyone and undoubtedly can see that I’m lying through my teeth—I slump down on the bed and change the subject. “But I agree I shouldn’t go gallivanting around the city while my father is still out there.”

Ren wrinkles her nose and shifts her attention over my shoulder, a haunted look taking over her face, likely remembering what it was like to be under my father’s command.

I hate that she knows what that feels like, to not have control of her body. To be unable to fight back.

“Yeah,” she says after a moment. “Yeah, that’s not safe for you.” Her kaleidoscope eyes drag back to me. “Has there been any movement on that front?”

I snort and shake my head. “Nope. Every time I ask, they tell me not to worry my pretty little head about it. That they have it handled.”

It’s been frustrating, to say the least. I need this finished and over with, so I can move on. The most they’ve done is ruin Brian, which was a delight to see, but barely touched my father. A few well-timed interviews where he hints he suspected something like this was happening, hence the canceled engagement, a few tears shed at how deceived he was, how betrayed, and everyone believes him.

Well, noteveryone, but most people.

Its nauseating.

Ren hums, brows narrowing in concentration. “Are they… Are they putting it off?”

“Why would they do that?”

She shrugs and picks at a piece of lint on the blanket over her lap. “I don’t know. But it seems like after ten years they’d be more than ready to pull the trigger, right?”

Right.

“Well, they had to rework some stuff because they aren’t using-”me.They aren’t using the videos of me begging for their knots, giving in to my omega instincts. They aren’t trying to hurt my father in that way anymore. But that can’t have been the extent of what they had planned. Their entire plan didn’t hinge on me, surely.

I mean, what would they have done if I actually supported my father’s views? If I resisted them and never agreed to sneak out to meet them? Their entire plan would have been shot to hell.

And besides, hadn’t Hale told me they planned on pulling their funding? On robbing him? Why haven’t they done that yet?

Surely, surely, they have more planned. They worked for ten years on revenge. Ren is right, they should be more than ready to pull the trigger, so why haven’t they yet?

“What would hold them back?” My best friend muses out loud. “What is more important to them than getting revenge on the alpha who ruined their lives?”

“Oh.” I blurt. “Oh. No. No. They wouldn’t…”

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