Page 67 of Knot for Sale

Onyx gave a little snort. “Yeah, he’s royally narked. Mostly at the boss, though. Don’t worry, it’s probably good for his circulation to get that cold, dead heart pumping occasionally.”

It was Elijah’s turn to moan as though he’d just awoken to the mother of all hangovers. “Where are—” he began, only to cut himself off. “Oh. I remember now. What are we talking about? And is there food?”

“We’re talking about scent matches, and there will be shortly,” Onyx replied.

Elijah winced at the mention of the scent match. I didn’t blame him.

“Right,” he said. “About that...”

“Don’t bother,” Onyx cut in. “I understand why you kept quiet.”

Silence settled over the nest for an uncomfortable beat.

“Do you, though?” Elijah asked.

The shoulder I was still half-resting on shrugged, jostling me. “Pair of high-powered fashion models. Half-crazy rich bastard obsessed with bringing down a crime family. Not sure how the math really tallies on that one. And it doesn’t help that one of those high-powered fashion models happens to be genetically related to the same crime family.Complicated.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” I managed, trying not to think about whether I was going to have the strength to walk away from this pack after what had happened on the dock. After what had happened in this room, for that matter.

What was the right answer?

Argh, I couldn’t think. My brain felt like it was packed in cotton wool.

“Oh, my god,” Elijah groaned. “Do you smell that?Breakfast foods.” The last two words were uttered in a tone of awed reverence.

The smell reached me an instant later. My stomach rumbled again, louder than before. Onyx helped us both sit up properly, just in time for the door to open. Gabriel leaned in, pale-faced and frowning.

“Do you want to eat in here or at the table?” he asked.

Part of me wanted to never leave this room, but the idea of spilling jam on the sumptuous furs felt unthinkable. I met Elijah’s bleary gaze. “Table?” I suggested.

He nodded. “Probably for the best.”

We managed to get ourselves upright and waded through the piles of pillows to the door, following Gabriel to the nook that had been set up for eating. Curran was already there, removing silver cloches from heaping plates of food.

Elijah and I hung back, trying to read the older alpha’s mood.

He looked up, saw us hesitating, and sighed. “No need to look like that, you two. Eat some food, take a nice relaxing shower. I’m not angry at you, and I do understand where your heads were at. But wewillbe having a talk once everyone’s cleaned up and fed.”

I exchanged a look with Elijah, seeing the same misgivings written on his face that probably painted mine.

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