Page 62 of Knot Unwanted: Part One

“He said ‘she’,” Ren says for the third time, working through it like a puzzle. “Who the hell is ‘she’?”

I shake my head, my jaw clenching. After everything that happened in the car last night, after all the pain we dredged up, this feels like another crack forming in our already fragile foundation.

Movement at the tree line catches my attention. Stone emerges from the shadows, and I stop pacing. Fuck. He looks…destroyed. He’s still dressed in his suit from the office, meaning he spent the entire night outside. It’s torn and dirty, and leaves and twigs are caught in his hair. What the fuck happened? There are scratches on his face and hands, and he’s moving with the heavy steps of someone who’s been running all night.

“Stone?” My voice is hard, a bit of alpha command in there even though I’m trying my damnedest to remain cool. Even thoughI’ve always been trying my damnedest to remain cool for the last two and a half fucking years.

Stone approaches slowly, as if every step costs him. When he reaches the porch steps, he stops, looking up at us with haunted eyes.

“I fucked up,” he says simply, his voice rough. “I fucked up so badly.”

Ren pushes off the wall, moving closer. “What happened? Who were you looking for?”

Stone sinks onto the bottom step, dropping his head into his hands. “Her name is Hailey,” he says finally. “She’s…she’s an omega.”

What…in the fuck? Beside me, Ren goes still.

“What?” The word comes out as a growl.

“I found her three or so days ago,” Stone continues, words tumbling out now. “She was running from something—some kind of facility. She was hurt, scared. I’ve been keeping her in the cabin, trying to gain her trust, trying to figure out what to do.”

The words turn over in my head like a surreal nightmare, the kind where you’re awake but nothing makes sense.

Stone’s confession hangs in the air. My mind races through the past three days—Stone’s distracted behavior, the way he kept disappearing, those mysterious calls he’d take in private. All this time, while we were dealing with our own demons, while we were tiptoeing around Finn, he’d been harboring this secret.

Through our bond, I feel Ren’s emotions spike—anger, betrayal, and underneath it all, a bone-deep fear. We all know what having another omega around could mean, what it could do to Finn. Just the scent of another omega on one of us could send him into a spiral.

“Three days?” I repeat, struggling to process this. “You’ve had an omega hidden on our estate forthreedays?”

“You kept this from us?” Ren’s voice is deadly quiet. “From Finn?”

Stone flinches at Finn’s name. “I was trying to protect?—”

“Protect who?” Ren cuts him off. “Us? Finn? Or yourself?”

“I don’t know!” Stone’s head snaps up, eyes wild. “I don’t fucking know anymore. But she’s gone now. She ran, and I can’t find her, and she’s out there alone and scared and it’s my fault.”

The raw anguish in his voice makes something in my chest crack. Through our bond, I feel the depth of his distress—not just guilt or alpha instinct, but something deeper. Something that feels dangerously close to a mate bond beginning to form.

But that’s impossible. We already have an omega. And yes, things have been rough between us, but none of us would break our bond with Finn to form another. I’m sure of it.

I’m sure…right?

Fuck.

Have I lost hold on my pack so much that I wouldn’t know if one of us wanted to leave?

“Start from the beginning,” I say, forcing myself to stay calm even as my pulse thunders in my ears. “Tell us everything.”

Stone draws in a shuddering breath, his hands clasped so tightly, the cuts on his fingers go pale. When he speaks, his voice is raw, stripped of all pretense.

“I found her three days ago. She’d broken into the cabin—or basically let herself in. I never lock it. She was half-frozen, exhausted, and covered in mud and blood. When I opened the door…” He stops, swallowing hard. “I’ve never seen anyone so terrified. She fell to her knees before me. Complete submission. I think she wanted to run, but she was so tired, I doubt she could.”

The image forms in my mind: a frightened omega, cornered and desperate. My instincts surge protectively, even for someone I haven’t met. Beside me, Ren’s breathing has gone shallow, and I know he’s thinking of Finn—of finding him in similar circumstances, broken and afraid.

“She wouldn’t let me near her at first,” Stone continues. “Kept backing away. It was like finding a feral thing.” He paused, browsfurrowing as if the scene was playing right before his eyes once more. “But her scent…” His voice cracks. “God, her scent. It was like nothing I’ve ever experienced. Even through the fear and pain, there was something…familiar. Something that called to me. To all of us.”

He runs a hand through his disheveled hair, leaving the sweaty strands standing on end. “I managed to convince her to let me help. Got her cleaned up, treated her wounds. Some of them were…” His jaw clenches. “Some of them were old, Jax. And in places that wouldn’t be obvious if she hadn’t been partially naked.”

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