Page 46 of Knot Excused
“If I can’t leave, I’m going to fuck shit up,” I told Rook plainly, putting my hands on my hips. “I don’t care what it is. If you care about it, I’m going to fuck it up.”
He stepped closer to me.
There was a slick sheen of sweat on his cold face and the collar of his shirt was damp.
It could be fun to see him unravel.
“Do it,” he said. “I deserve it. Fuck up whatever shit you can. Then forgive me.”
“I have no intention of forgiving you,” I retorted.
“Let us take you to lunch,” Rook countered, bending down to put his knuckles on the table in front of me. “See what being a member of Skystone Pack means. Come back to your nest and see how we’re lining it.”
I was going to give Otis an even bigger bonus for being my secret omega suppressant dispenser, because even though I could smell his deep, earthy scent shot through with pure steel, I was able to resist my Omega instincts to move toward an Alpha, melt into that scent. And I’d had no urge whatsoever to obey him when he used his Alpha bark.
“Not interested,” I said. “I’m going back for Otis’ BLTs.”
Erain was still attached to my legs, and I tried to shake him off when I stood up, but he was holding me too tightly.
“Please forgive me.”
“You’re getting my sweats wet,” I said dismissively.
“Come to one of our campaign events. Come to a play with me. Or a symphony. Or an art show. There’s a competition coming up. Please come to it.”
“Nah.”
They insisted on accompanying me back to the cottage, each one mere inches away from me, like I was a celebrity with the world’s clingiest bodyguards.
“I am getting indications,” Otis said, “That the Spirit Guides recommend manual labor. There are certain weeds in this garden,” he said, as he pointed at a part of the yard that was more weed than grass.
And three of the most powerful Alphas bounded over to obey Otis’ Spirit Guides.
“Having any luck?” Mary asked with interest as she brought out her whittling.
I groaned. “No, Rook sent the Alpha I hired away. I think it’s going to be hard even to pay another Alpha to go against him.”
“Disgusting brute!” Otis said, bringing three towering BLTs to watch how the three Alphas were weeding the garden.
I thought furiously for a moment.
“Luckily, I have plenty of backups. Maybe Alphas dumb enough to go against him are too hard to find, but I think I know three Betas who could be bribed into taking a visit out here. On Rook, Erain, and Teddy’s dime, of course.”
CHAPTER24
Teddy
Is she starting to thaw?I asked myself as I pulled weeds out of Otis and Mary’s herb garden
We’re making some headway,I then lied to myself, to cover the absolute pants-shitting terror that nothing is working and Piper is not one bit closer to forgiving us.
Apparently if there’s one thing the Spirits want, it’s a lot of backbreaking manual labor. But that’s not the worst thing. The worst thing is that Piper seems to think she’s doing me a favor by always having Zoey and Chloe around.
After we work in the yard, we’re usually able to see Piper for a few minutes. Just a few minutes. But half the time recently she’s had Zoey and Chloe around.
It drives me fucking crazy.
And today she didn’t seem to give a fuck either, lounging on the front porch in a bikini with a glass of lemonade in her hand, and sunglasses on, her long hair cascading down her back.
