“How about you earn it?” I asked with a fake smile. “Cook dinner tonight.”
He sneered. “Youare very cocky for a random Alpha interested in my mate.”
“Let me be clear again. Thistle is mine. You’re alive becauseyoubelong toher. That’s it.”
“Yet, I’m awake to save you so you can tag along with my pack.”
I grinned. “It’s very cute that you think the pack belongs to you.”
“I’m pack lead. You have no stake.”
I chuckled before I could stop myself. “How’s that working out for you?”
Ace cocked his head, looking at me more intently for a moment. Before he could open his mouth to reply—or ask the question—the door was ripped open.
“Bunny!”
Thistle shot across the room and flung her arms around his waist before either of us could stop her.
“I didn’t let them talk about revenge until you were up,” she said.
“It is, after all, the only reason you’re here,” I added.
Ace let out a breath and lay back on the bed. “Phone.”
“You’ve already got way more than you deserve, you filthy rat.” If he wasn’t going to help, she had no reason not to send him back to hell.
I scooped my arm around her waist and picked her up. She tried to crawl over my shoulder back to him, but I gave her ass a slap, then pressed the button I’d affixed to my necklace.
There was a sharp crackle, and Ace’s growl of pain followed me like a melody out of the room.
“Daddy!”Thistle let out a squeak of shock as she propped herself up over my shoulder by grabbing my hair. “What did you do…?”
“He’ll come,” I said, turning back just in time to see Ace recover from the jolt from the electric collar, “orhe’ll die from a heart arrhythmia.”
We sat down in the lounge area of the ballroom.
Ace had slunk in like the weasel he was, and had taken a seat on the far end of the couch. I noticed Thistle pick a spot rightbeside him, leaving just enough space so as not to touch, as if she wasn’t sure how far she could push her luck.
Rogue was seated on the other side of the couch, while I claimed the armchair, resting my feet on the ottoman.
“Right. Plans,” Rogue grunted.
“First, I’d like to know howyougot caught up in this mess.” Ace asked, glancing down at Thistle. “How did you get us out?”
“An Alpha came in while you were still paralyzed, tried to kill you, but I got him first. Wasn’t really planned… but I cut him into so many little strips that after we ran away, everyone thought he must have been you.”
I opened my mouth, then closed it.
She hadn’tplannedthe decoy body?
I rubbed my face, catching Rogue’s eye. He was just as stunned.
“When I was waiting for the antidote to work on you, I got the chains from your basement, and the mask was from that stupid statue in the old lounge… Then I found us a run-down warehouse in the city after the Brotherhood fell apart,” she said.
“You just… walked through the streets with a chained-up Alpha, and no one stopped you?”
“Oh, they did. A couple of people asked for pictures.”