Page 97 of Knot for Sale

FORTY-FIVE

Elijah

IT TURNED OUT, THE UK legal system didn’t move any faster than the one in America. It was going to take ages for the courts to unpick what was turning out to be a sprawling conspiracy with international connections.

That should have been depressing. In a way, it was. But it had become considerably less depressing after Tommy and Cade Huntwell were caught at Heathrow Airport trying to flee the country. The pair had been remanded into pre-trial detention, where they would hopefully stay until a jury found them guilty and a judge sentenced them to prison for the rest of their miserable lives.

It didn’t mean we were one hundred percent safe, but it meant that we were a hell of a lot safer than we’d been in some time. The way I looked at it, if Clarabelle Allen hadn’t succumbed to any convenient ‘accidents’ yet, after sticking her nose so deep in the Huntwells’ business, we were probably okay behind our wall of security in Kensington Palace Gardens.

Mostly, I wanted two things. I wanted a solid proposal from Gabriel, and I wanted to get back to work. When it came to the first of those things, it was time to take action.

Gabriel had, understandably, been called away at frequent intervals over the past couple of months to deal with notonly legal matters, but also a billion-dollar company that did something nebulous in the finance sector.

He was here today, though—and so were the others.

“You know, my heat’s due in a few weeks,” I said, into the desultory conversation of the dinner table.

All three alphas went very silent. Emma did as well, although I’d warned her ahead of time that I planned on having this conversation tonight.

Onyx recovered first. “Oh? Got any plans, Rosebud?”

“That depends largely on whether I get any good offers,” I said airily. “If not, I suppose there’s still time to book a rent-a-pack like I always do.”

Onyx snorted, and Curran shot me a look that said I wasn’t as funny as I thought I was. A growl so low it was barely audible rumbled from Gabriel’s end of the table. It cut off abruptly when I met his blue gaze and raised an eyebrow at him.

Everyone else was looking at him, too.

He cleared his throat. “I should apologize. To both of you. It’s been unconscionable of me to let this situation drag on the way I have.”

“No kidding,” Curran said.

Emma shifted in her seat. “No, it’s my fault, too. I know you’ve been holding off because you weren’t sure how I’d react to a formal pack offer.”

“There’ve been a few other things going on,” I offered magnanimously. “But there will always be other things going on. That’s just the way life works. So, my heat. No offense, but I don’t intend to spend it locked in my borrowed bedroom with a knotting dildo.”

This time, I was pretty sure the growl came from Curran. “Damn straight you won’t,” he said.

Gabriel pushed his chair back and rose. “Quite right. Emma Hope. Elijah Bardot. Assuming you can look past our manyflaws, would you do us the honor of joining our pack? I offer both of you my name and my protection, freely and with hope for the future.”

“And his money,” Curran added helpfully. “He offers that, too.”

Gabriel shot him a fondly exasperated look. “Yes. And my money, obviously. I had hoped that would go without saying. Honestly, Curran, you can be such a philistine about etiquette.”

Curran shrugged, a smile playing around the edges of his lips. “You crawled out of the same gutter I did, Blondie. Can’t help it if you’re the one who got ideas above his station.”

“Whereas I crawled out of an entirely different gutter,” Onyx said. “But if you could both shut up for a minute, some of us would actually like to hear the omegas’ answer.”

I exchanged a look with Emma, who took a fortifying breath.

“I can’t live in London,” she said. “There are too many bad memories for me here. And... I still don’t know exactly what I want to do with my life. But I know I want to do something more than lounging around, being a rich man’s kept omega.”

“Ditto,” I said. “To the last part, I mean. I intend to go back to work. I’ve been away from New York too long as it is. My career is there.”

“I’ve never been to New York,” Onyx mused.

“Good place for billionaires,” Curran said, eyeing Gabriel.

“I suppose it is at that,” Gabriel agreed. He met Emma’s gaze intently. “You’re not the only one who sees too many ghosts in London. My parents left here years ago. They live in Portugal now. I have a property near Lisbon—”

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