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It hurt my soul to climb back into bed, even when she snuggled up next to me for cuddles—I think because Knox was still hugging Bunny absently.

“Can I, uh… have Bunny back?” she whispered after she’d snuggled into my arms properly. Her beautiful scent was tangled with the tang of iron and it was keeping me on high alert.

“Not unless you want him in a different colour,” Knox snorted.

He was right. From the bites I could see, blots of crimson blood were pooling in the sheets, and she seemed to have no interest at all in cleaning them up.

She let out a grumble, but to my utter shock, next thing I knew, she’d conked right out.

I was left awake with Knox in shocked silence.

We stared at each other for a long moment.

“I blame you,” Knox said at last with a shrug. “You’re the one who scent matched her.”

I nearly choked on my indignance. “You took me to thatstupidauction in the first place.”

“What, you’d rather I left you to rot at?—?”

“Yes!” I hissed. “Because now I have an Omega—and she’s fucking?—”

“Happy?”

“Sticky—Knox!” I spat. “She’s.Fucking. Sticky!”

TWENTY-EIGHT

THISTLE

My fingers gently brushed the tacky surface of the leather strap as I tugged it tight.

Ink and antique wood hung bitterly in the air as I secured the muzzle on Knox’s head. Then I crawled around him, looking up into caramel eyes fogged with thunderclouds that parted as he took me in.

Today was the day we were going to appear before the Ring as a pack. I’d showered the blood from all of Ace’s bites away when I woke. Rogue had left, though I didn’t know if he was being nice and giving us space, or if he thought Knox would shoot him dead if he tried to stay and watch.

I felt a bubble of pride in my chest that he was letting me help, even though I knew he hated it.

“Everything you dreamed of?” Knox asked as my eyes roamed the metal caging his face.

“Uh… huh.” I couldn’t take my gaze away. Something about it was way too sexy.

He put us in a chain, Bunny—honestly, this was only fair.

“You gonna be okay?” I prodded.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

I cocked my head. We both knew he was allergic to muzzles or anything that made him think of… well… “You uh… used to be Rogue’s?”

Neither of them talked about it much, though I was curious.

Knox narrowed his eyes, and I could see I was treading into dangerous territory.

Rogue was gentle with me, but I shared a bond with him, and I could feel a much more jagged side lurking in the shadows. I liked that—I didn’t think I could trust someone who was soft all the way through. Knox had one too, but his softer side was real deep. I saw it sometimes, a flicker of life that sparked in his eyes when he was looking at me.

Still, their history burned to the touch, and he was already changing the topic. “I’ll be counting, Doll. Each time one of your pets tries to humiliate me tonight, you’ll be banking punishment.”

Punishment?