Page 63 of Knot Unwanted: Part One

“What?” Ren growls.

Stone lifts a hand to stop the obvious slew of fire about to head his way. “I didn’t strip her down. She was like that when I found her. She was in a thin lacy thing that looked like lingerie. No panties. No bra. It was ripped and torn and half hanging off her body.” He swallows hard. “That’s how I saw the old scars.”

His voice drops to barely above a whisper. “Thin, precise lines across her lower back, and over her ass. They wrap around her hips, her upper thighs. Some were old. Others were newer, still pink.” He draws in a shuddering breath. “They were placed where clothing would hide them. Where no one would see unless…unless she presented like she did before me.”

Silence settles between us. I can only stare at Stone, unable to believe what he’s fucking saying.

“Like…like Finn’s scars?” Ren almost chokes.

Stone shakes his head immediately.

“Naw, dude. Those scars were from no accident.”

Ren makes a sound like he’s been punched, and I feel his rage through our bond—hot and sharp and deadly. Even he is angry for this mystery omega. That’s to say something. But despite that, we can’t get in over our heads here.

“What else?” I cross my arms over my chest, otherwise, I’m going to form fists like Ren.

“She wouldn’t tell me much at first,” Stone says. “As amatter of fact, she wouldn’t talk. Not conversationally, at least. Not until I started asking direct questions. Then she’d answer. It was just fragments. Something about a Reform Academy, but I can’t find any record of it. Every lead I’ve followed has gone nowhere. It’s like it doesn’t exist.” His frustration bleeds into his scent. “But the things she did say… They kept her there for six years.” He looks up, tortured gaze meeting mine then Ren’s and then mine. “I think…I think someone was making money off her pain.”

My stomach turns. Beside me, Ren has gone deathly still. There’s no fury on his face. No cold rage in his eyes. Suddenly, there’s nothing.

He staggers away, heading to the tree line where he leans against a yellow birch, breathing hard.

Since the accident, I’ve seen him have panic attacks. Times when his heart races and his blood pressure spikes, like what happened last night in the SUV. But this looks different.

“Each day, she’d trust me a little more,” Stone continues, gaze downcast again. “She’d eat what I brought her. Let me check her wounds. Yesterday, she even smiled.” The memory softens his voice before grief overtakes it again. “I thought…I thought I was doing the right thing. Giving her time to heal, to trust, before bringing her here. Before complicating everything.”

He looks up, eyes raw with guilt. “But every time I left, I could smell her fear spike. She’d try to hide it. She didn’t fully trust me yet, but… She thought I wouldn’t come back. That I’d abandon her out there.”

“And now she’s gone.” The words sound like ice coming from my lips. No alpha command and Stone winces. He meets my gaze, anyway.

“She’s ours,” he says finally, the words seeming to cost him. “Allof ours. I felt it the moment I scented her—that pull, that recognition. She’s our scent mat?—”

“No.” I cut him off, the single syllable cracking like a whipthrough the pre-dawn air. “Don’t you dare say what I think you’re about to say.”

Stone stiffens but holds his ground, jaw set. “You can’t deny what’s right in front of us, Jax. I know you don’t want to hear it, but?—”

“Scent matches are rare,” I snarl, taking a step toward him. “Once in a generation rare. The kind of thing that happens in fairy tales and romance novels. And you’re telling me that after we’ve found Finn, after we’ve bonded with him, after everything we’ve been through, suddenly there’s another one?”

“I know how it sounds?—”

“Do you?” My voice rises despite my attempts to control it. “Because it sounds like you’re saying I made a mistake. That when I chose Finn, when I marked him, when I bound our pack to him, I somehow got it wrong.”

From the tree line, Ren’s ragged voice carries. “Finn wasn’t a mistake.” His words are punctuated by heavy breaths, but there’s steel beneath the panic. “He’s ours. He’s always been ours.”

“Exactly,” I say, latching on to Ren’s words. “When I marked Finn, it wasn’t temporary. It wasn’t a trial run. I wassure. We were all sure.” I turn back to Stone, fury building in my chest. “And now you’re trying to tell me that somehow, impossibly, there’s another omega out there who’s ourscent match? When we’realready bonded?”

“I’m not saying Finn was a mistake,” Stone protests, his own voice rising to match mine. “I would never say that. But this is different?—”

“Differenthow?” I demand. “Different becauseyoufound her? Because you’ve been playing savior for three days? Because you’ve convinced yourself that your attraction to her means something more?”

Stone’s face darkens. “You haven’t scented her, Jax. You haven’t felt what I felt. If you’d just?—”

“If I’d just what, Stone?” I cut in. “Trust your judgment overmine? Over what I know in my bones to be true about our pack? About our omega?”

“This isn’t about trust!” Stone shouts, finally losing his composure. “This isn’t about judgment or leadership or who made what choice! This is about something that transcends all of that!”

“Nothing transcends pack bonds.” Ren stands straight, facing the trees. Whatever caused his panic attack must have eased. I watch him take a deep breath before turning to face us. “Nothing transcends the marks we chose to make, the commitments we chose to keep.” Then lower. “I should know.”

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