Page 257 of Knot Unwanted: Part One

I don’t answer. There’s something about the way he’s holding me, about the anger in his voice that doesn’t quite mask the concern, that leaves me speechless.

Out of everything I imagined…I didn’t imagine this.

When we reach the cabin, he kicks the door open with more force than necessary. The old hinges creak in protest. The warm glow from inside spills out into the night, and I catch a glimpse of the room before he sets me down on a chair near the small table.

“Stay there,” he orders, his voice sharp as he moves to the fireplace.

I watch as he crouches down, striking a match and setting it to the kindling already stacked in the hearth. The fire catches quickly, the warm, golden light flickering across the room.

The cabin looks…different from how I remember.

This was my first refuge after escaping the Academy, theplace where Stone had first found me. Back then, it had been sparsely furnished—just the basics, enough to survive, but nothing more.

Now, the little table is covered with three laptops, their screens glowing faintly in the dim light. A small generator hums quietly beneath the table, wires snaking across the floor.

I glance at the screens, my breath catching when I see one of them displaying a live feed of the house. The image is grainy but unmistakable—the front porch, bathed in moonlight, completely still.

“What is all this?” I ask softly, though I already know. My gaze shifts back to Ren.

He doesn’t answer right away, too busy filling a metal pail with water from a jug and setting it over the fire to warm. I can see the tension in the set of his shoulders, the way his jaw clenches as he works.

“R-Ren?”

He finally looks at me, those ice-cold eyes sharp and unreadable. “It’s what I’ve been doing while you’ve all been trying to play house,” he says flatly. Then he grits his teeth. Sighs as he squeezes his eyes shut. “Keeping you safe.”

My gaze drops to the table again, to the screens and the papers scattered across the surface. It’s overwhelming, a chaotic mix of maps, notes, and photographs, and I realize with a sinking feeling that he’s not only been watching us—he’s been watchingeverything—this entire time.

Before I can form a response, my eyes catch on something else.

The bed in the corner.

It’s the same small cot that was here when I stayed in the cabin, but now it’s covered with a familiar blanket—the same one that Stone had gotten me, the one I’d been sleeping with back then. It’s probably bathed in my scent. I’d left it here when Finn came to get me, and now it looks like Ren has been using it.

The sight of it leaves me speechless.

That Ren might have been cuddling up to my scent every night since he’s been gone seems ludicrous.

He notices where my gaze has landed, his eyes narrowing slightly before he moves to the bed and discreetly pushes the blanket out of view.

“You, uh…you hungry?” Those sharp eyes are so focused, it feels like he’s seeing right through me.

I swallow hard as I shake my head, my thoughts spinning. He looks…different.

The stubble on his jaw is thick, his usual crew cut undefined with his curls taking over, and there are dark circles under his eyes that make it clear he hasn’t been sleeping. But even with the exhaustion etched into his face, he’s still impossibly handsome, his features sharp and striking in the firelight.

And yet, there’s a distance to him, a coldness that makes me feel more unsure around him than I did before.

“Why are you out here?” I ask finally, my voice quieter now.

He doesn’t answer right away, his focus shifting back to the pail of water over the fire. When he speaks, his voice is low, almost bitter.

“Because I have to be,” he says simply.

The words hang heavy in the air, and I don’t know how to respond.

Instead, I watch as he moves around the cabin, his tension palpable, his presence filling the small space in a way that makes it hard to breathe.

And for the first time, I realize just how much weight he’s been carrying.

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