Page 52 of Knot Shattered
Odette is gone.
The world feels like it’s cracking apart beneath my feet. Micha has been determined. His face is a mask, flat and unreadable, but I can see the rage simmering behind his eyes like storm clouds about to break. He’s shut himself down completely, locked away whatever he’s feeling. I don’t know if he’s trying to protect himself or all of us.
Ravik’s been in the gym for hours. Four punching bags destroyed, maybe five by now. He doesn’t speak either; he grunts and breathes like every strike he lands is a scream he can’t let out. His fists slamming into canvas and sand are rhythmic and violent. It’s how he processes pain: through motion, through force. But the rage he’s carrying isn’t leaving his body. It’s feeding on him, growing.
And Haze... Haze is the wild card. He vanished sometime after midnight. No note. No call. Just gone. He came back right before dawn, drenched in blood. Not his—at least, I don’t think so. His expression was empty. Hollow. He hasn’t said a word since. He’s like a ghost in his own skin, pacing the halls like he’s waiting for something to pull him back to life.
I’m trying to keep us together and focused, but Odette’s last words keep echoing in my head. She said one of the men who took her... was someone who’d had her before. Someone from her past. Someone who already hurt her once—and now he’s got her again.
It’s killing me.
Henry… God, Henry’s unraveling. I’ve never seen a man come apart like that. The moment he realized she was gone, it was like something inside him snapped. He collapsed to his knees and laced his hands behind his head. He keeps muttering Not again. His grief is raw, bottomless, the kind of pain thatmakes people do desperate, irreversible things. He’s not her blood, but the way he cares, he might as well be her father.
I keep thinking, if we were bonded, I’d know what she was feeling. I’d be able to sense her. I’d have something. But we hadn’t gotten that far. We were still learning each other, still circling the edges of something we all wanted but hadn’t reached yet. I haven’t even kissed her.
And that’s something I will fix. When, not if, we get her back, I’m not wasting another moment—no more waiting. No more pretending time is something we’re guaranteed.
I will bring her home. And I will tell her what having her as my omega means to me, with my words, with my hands, with everything I am.
But right now… I need to hold this broken family together even as we all fall apart.
Odette
unknown
time is irrelevant
Riven was still grinning, perched like a storm about to break open. “So,” she drawled, glancing between us with curious eyes. “When exactly are your terrifying alphas arriving?”
Fallon stretched her legs out like she was lounging poolside. “Soon,” she said, like that was a promise written in blood. “Give it a few hours, maybe less.”
Violet looked at her nails with theatrical boredom. “Depends on whether Voss or Dare decides to dismember someone first or wait until he’s done screaming.”
I leaned back against the cold bars, feeling the ache in my lower back from sleeping on the metal floor last night. “I think Haze will be the first through the door,” I murmured, a hint of a smile curling at my lips. “Probably shirtless. Maybe covered in blood.”
Fallon pointed a finger at me. “That. That right there is why I like you.”
Violet leaned forward, face serious but eyes gleaming. “Okay, bets. Who’s the first to kill someone?”
“Me,” Fallon said without hesitation.
Violet raised her brows. “Bold. But wrong. It’s clearly going to be Voss.”
“Technically,” I offered, “if one of us kills someone before they get here, we win.”
All three of us looked at each other.
Fallon raised her brows. “Do we need to sharpen something?”
Before I could answer, the door at the far end creaked open again, slower this time. Controlled. A different set of footsteps echoed in, measured, expensive. We all turned toward the sound, our bodies stilling instinctively.
A different man stepped through. He wore a dark suit, perfectly tailored, and a pinched expression like he’d walked into a mess he hadn’t been warned about. He stopped cold the second he caught sight of Fallon. His eyes widened, flicking from her to Violet to me.
“Oh, no,” he muttered, shutting his eyes with a visible wince. “No, no, no. Malik was right we are so unbelievably fucked.”
“Yup,” Fallon chirped, popping the ‘p’. “Hope you’ve got life insurance.”
The suited man glanced at the cages, the door, and the crumbling patience in his bones. “I am not paid enough for this shit,” he muttered, then turned on his heel and stormed out the way he came.
