An Alpha I’d fallen for with no fate involved. I loved him just as much as I loved Rogue, or Ace, or Bunny…
I sobbed.
Ace’s fingers dug into my flesh, another growl shuddering through his body as if needing to find the invisible threat.
But Knox had bitten her to protect me.
He was gone.
She’d fled and taken him with her.
I choked through another surge of tears, curling into my god Alpha’s strong arms. Pain wracked my body, demanding I take more from him, demanding a heat I hadn’t asked for.
The betrayal of a vessel I didn’t want.
ROGUE
The gun sagged in my grip.
I was outside the front of the mansion, and Knox was limp, pressed up against the wall by Bella, but his eyes burned as they fixed on me.
A plea. His lips parted, as if he wanted to speak but couldn’t, and the faint tremor in his jaw sent a spike of dread through me.
I shoved back the terror, the adrenaline, the insanity of the night, and focused on the words Bella had spoken.
“You have her already. You don’t need him.”
She wanted me to back off. To let her steal Knox away so I could return to Thistle.
To the pack I’d already claimed.
She believed I would leave him behind.
A long, drawn-out silence held us all suspended, and finally, Rodrick’s weapon lowered as mine had. His eyes were wild, andI could see the madness of an Alpha who’d just felt the death of his pack mates. His only focus was my gun as I shifted the threat away from his Omega.
Still, Bella’s words echoed in my head.
“Doesn’t she need you right now…?”
But those words didn’t mean what she thought they did.
Iknewwhat Thistle needed.
That truth was etched into me like a laser behind my eyes. After I’d bonded her in the basement, she’d scrambled from my arms, chasing Knox down as he left, and I’d felt her fear when she hadn’t been able to stop him.
I’d felt the agony that had scored her in two when Knox’s teeth had met Bella’s flesh.
It wasn’t just me she needed, and it never had been.
And… for me, he had been a constant. A pivotal piece of my life for years. Something I wasn’t ready to let go of.
This was it.
I had one chance: save Knox, reach Ace—and pray he was protecting her—then get us all to safety. The basement was my territory—it was safe and sectioned from the rest of the mansion. And under no circumstances could I let Bella die, or I’d be faced with a pack of feral Alphas who had nothing left to lose.
Let them flee.
I took a breath, realising the risk I was about to take—for an Alpha who hated me.