Page 74 of Knot Unwanted: Part One

Because they’ll ask questions. Because they’ll see the marks. Because they’ll report it and then they’ll find her and Finn and…

“Because I fucking said so,” I snarl instead. “Because I’m the one with experience here, remember? The one who’s dealt with…troubled omegas.” I stop, breathing hard. “Just trust me on this.Please.”

The ‘please’ costs me. Makes me feel weak. Pathetic. But it works.

“Two days,” Jax says finally. “We wait two days. Then we call Dr. Greene.”

I want to argue. Want to fight. But I can feel my control slipping, feel the darkness rising up to choke me. If I push harder, I’ll break. And when I break…

“Fine.” I turn away, heading for the stairs. “I’m getting blankets. She’ll need somewhere to sleep.”

“Ren.” Stone’s voice stops me. “Whatever this is…whatever you’re not telling us…we can help.”

For a moment—one weak, pathetic moment—I want to tell them. Want to confess everything. Want to let them see all my ugly truths and just…end this.

But I can’t. Because then they’d know. And knowing would put them in danger. Would put Finn in danger.

So I do what I’ve done for years. I lie.

“There’s nothing to tell.” My voice comes out dead. Empty. “I just want Finn safe.”

I don’t wait for a response. Can’t bear to see the doubt in their eyes. The growing suspicion. I head inside, taking the stairs two at a time, needing to put distance between us before I crack.

Focus on what you can control, I tell myself, pulling down blankets from the storage with shaking hands. Focus on protecting Finn. That’s all that matters.

Everything else—the guilt, the rage, the memories threatening to drown me—has to wait. Has to be buried. Locked away in that dark place where I keep all my secrets.

Because if they ever got out…

I grab another blanket, a soft blue fleece that smells like pack and home and everything I don’t deserve. Everything I’ll destroy if I’m not careful.

Never again, I promise silently, fiercely. They won’t touch what’s mine. Not this time.

Even if it means becoming the monster I’ve spent years trying to escape.

Even if it means losing everything.

Even if it means losing myself.

Chapter 23

Stone

The fourth stair from the bottom always creaks under my weight. I freeze, listening intently for any reaction from upstairs, but there’s only silence. The same heavy silence that’s been weighing on all of us for the past hour.

Silence from Finn’s nest shouldn’t feel so wrong. Shouldn’t make my skin crawl with unease. But after what happened the last time someone approached his space uninvited…

The memory floods back before I can stop it—Finn’s wild eyes that night, vacant and unseeing. The way he’d pressed himself into the corner of his nest, lips pulled back in a snarl that belonged to a feral animal. Not my mate. Not my Finn.

“Hey, sweetheart,” I’d whispered, reaching for him. “It’s just me.”

But he hadn’t known me. Fresh out of the coma, mind still trapped somewhere between consciousness and darkness, he’d seen a threat.

I’d barely registered the attack—too shocked by the empty look in his eyes to defend myself. His nails had torn strips from my chest, my arms, anywhere he could reach. And when I’d tried torestrain him, to keep him from hurting himself…he’d only fought harder.

He doesn’t remember any of it. The therapist said it’s normal, that trauma does strange things to the mind. But I remember. Remember holding him while he screamed and thrashed, while he begged someone—not me—to stop hurting him.

My shoulder twinges at the memory. The scar there is long healed, but sometimes I swear I can still feel Finn’s teeth.

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