Page 78 of Tied in Knots
“She isn’t ready.”
“Fuck off!” I roar. “You are being the biggest wazzock on the planet, right now.”
“No,” he says, throwing his pen down and standing up. He has had enough. I’ve pushed him, but there’s something he isn’t telling us, and I want to know what it is. “She doesn’t trust us. Until she does. No bite.”
He sits down again and picks up his pen.
Well, there it is. And it hurts. It shouldn’t after the way we hunted her and stole her, it’s no fucking wonder she doesn’t trust us.
“I see.” I have nothing else to say.
He gives me a grim look which expresses his pain over the matter. We did this all wrong at the wrong fucking time. If we’d reached her earlier, or later, after her heat, we could’ve done things the right way. It was a clusterfuck, and there is no other word to describe it.
“Is she okay? Her arm…”
“It’s hurting her, but Doc gave her some strong painkillers to help her sleep.”
“Are we going to tell her what we did?”
“No,” Derek says quickly. “Don’t tell her.”
“Why not? Won’t it make her feel safer knowing those wankers are off the streets?”
“I say we tell her,” Xander says. He is curled up in the corner of the small sofa, making an odd keening sound every now and again. It’s almost like he is pining for her. “Seb?”
He sighs as we all glare at him to make a decision.
“No,” Harvey says. “If we tell her that we had them arrested and then arranged for them to have an ‘accident’ on the way to prison, she won’t trust us even more.”
“Why?Wedidn’t kill them,” I grouse, but it’s semantics and I know it. I’m just being obtuse and a stubborn fuck. Two of my lesser admirable qualities.
“We stick to the plan,” Sebastian says. “They got arrested, we didn’t because we were protecting our omega. She has my bite, it’s enough for the courts. What happened after they drive out of sight is fuck all to do with us.”
“Jesus. Is this really how you do things?” Derek snaps, standing up and running his hand through his hair. “I thought you were good guys, but I’m starting to think leaving my sister with you is a bad idea.”
“Sit,” Sebastian says in that tone that no one, not even Xander dares to disobey.
Derek doesn’t either, and takes his seat again.
“We do what is necessary to protect those we love. Faith is one of them. She may not know it herself yet, but every one of us is completely in love with her. If you want to tear her away from us, you will have a fight on your hands that you will in no way win. Are we clear?”
My gaze goes from Seb to Derek.
“Clear,” he grits out.
I relax.
The tension had ratcheted up a few notches and it set the beast inside me on the warpath.
“We need to tread carefully,” Seb says.
“She needs to have her arse smacked,” I say wickedly, but rein it in, what with her brother sitting a few feet from me.
“I think her broken arm will suffice,” Seb says, giving me a look that speaks volumes. He is only saying that because of Derek. He wants to tan her hide as much as I do, but he won’t. He is the epitome of self-control when he wants to be. He is the calm before the storm.
Me.
I’m the storm.
