Page 13 of Knot For Keeps

“She hit me with a lamp!” An excited voice exclaimed from the direction I had just fled. “I knew she was special, Gagey! Can we keep her?” Theo was cradling the back of his head, a look on his face that I could only describe as love-struck.

This was too much. My head was swimming and I felt nauseated again. I slumped, no longer fighting the arm around me. I was stuck, at least for the time being. Three alphas versus one omega? I didn’t like those odds.

Their combined scents were cloying at me, dark, leathery, pine and sweet at times. there was a chemical tinge to the smell as well; scent blockers. Clearly they were doing a terrible job because I could discern everyone’s scent, from Archer’s sweet sugary scent to the lemony pine smell of the alpha sitting next to my bed. Something in me was so drawn to them. Everything about them screamed safety to my instincts, though my logical mind screamed that I was an idiot who needed to escape or I would be chopped into itty bitty bits.

“She’s shaking? Why is she shaking Kane?” Theo whined. He was unhappy that I was distressed? I had just clocked him with a lamp. Had I entered topsy-turvy land? Forget being in retrograde, mercury had full on left the building in a fiery ball of doom.

“Come on, let’s sit down in the den. Theo, I need to check that head wound. Kane, keep an eye on her.” Gage looked me over. “If Kane lets you down, are you going to behave or try and run again?”

“No promises,” I growled, even though my little omega growl was pathetic compared to theirs and the corner of his mouth lifted. I must have looked deranged, but I was beyond caring at this point.

Gage’s grumpy, sarcastic Leo ass could get bent for all I cared.

“Okay, princess, you need to behave, I don’t want to make you,” he told me pointedly. I glowered at the nickname, but I wasn’t exactly in a position to complain.

“Let me go,” I hissed. We were just standing in the middle of the room, me held aloft by the brute. Gage nodded, looking over my head so I assumed some sort of silent communication was happening there. Kane dumped me unceremoniously on a sofa and I scrambled to sit up.

Leaving me with the grumpy barbarian standing over me Gage walked over to the fridge grabbing an ice pack and gesturing for Theo to sit down so he could check his head. Theo didn’t question him, plopping down on the sofa and looking up at his pack leader adoringly as he looked him over for any injuries.

“Well, you’ll live, but it’ll hurt like a bitch for a few days. There’s a cut on the back of your head, it’s not deep, but it’ll sting. There’s also a pretty impressive bump.”

“I don’t mind. I’ll wear my wounds with pride, Gagey. She’s got fire.” He smirked at me, and I shrank away. His eyes crinkled when he looked at me.

What on earth was happening? Did they drag me into this room so they could show off Theo’s injury? Kane was still standing over me keeping a very close eye on me. My skin prickled under all the attention.

After another moment of silence, I couldn’t contain myself. “Can someone tell me what the knotting hell is going on?”

Gage took a moment before looking away from Theo’s head to me. “I suppose you need a few answers, maybe then you’ll stop trying to murder my pack.” Gage sighed, walking over and sitting opposite to me. “You’re gonna stay here for a day or two, that’s it, and then we’ll return you home.”

“Why?” I asked, looking him dead in the eye. He was handsome, even I could admit that. That jawline was just as sharp in person as it had been on my tablet screen, and a part of me still wanted to bite it. Their entire psychotic pack were handsome, but serial killers could be handsome, I mean just look at Ted Bundy.

“What you heard the other night was confidential—we can’t risk you telling anyone.”

My brow furrowed. “Overheard?” Did he mean the mumbling on the video call before he decided to be a dick to me? I ran a hand through my hair, deep in thought. “You mean when I was on a video call with Arch? Is that why you kidnapped me?!” I asked, eyes wide. Of all the daft reasons to kidnap an omega…“What you heard was…delicate in nature and you don’t know the full story. Now, it’s not your fault. Archer is to blame for that, but at least for now, we need to make sure you don’t tell anyone what you overheard.”

Only I hadn’t heard anything. I debated whether I should tell him that. Did knowing this mystery information give me power, or put me in more danger?

“Okay…” I trailed off, not wanting to give them any more information.

“You’re going to stay here, just temporarily. We will stay out of your way and give you whatever you need to remain comfortable. In a day or two when we finish our job, we’ll let you go back home, and all this will be forgotten.”

“Just like that?” I asked cautiously. “I know your names, I’ve seen enough true crime to know it doesn’t usually go that way if the kidnapped party knows too many details. Usually, they end up chopped into itty bitty bits at the bottom of the river, or clogging up a drainpipe.”

Gage let out a bark of laughter with an expression of sheer disbelief. “Archer said you were a macabre one.”

I lifted my chin as I replied, “I like to think I’m realistic.”

“Worst case scenario kind of girl, eh?” Gage asked with a humourless laugh. “Look, we can be realistic, you know a lot about us, and could easily report us. We aren’t going to hurt you though and we are only doing the things we are doing to save someone we love. I’m sure you can appreciate that.” He didn’t look away from me as he spoke. “You know none of the finer details of our operation and Archer is so damn good at hiding our tracks that even if you did report us, it would be highly unlikely that any authorities would actually find us.”

I broke the intense eye contact to stare at my feet, taking a second to gather my thoughts, which was impossible to do while having an extreme staring contest with an exceptionally hot alpha.

“Why should I believe you? I had a friend kidnapped by a rogue pack recently, and it wasn’t pretty.”

“This isn’t what we wanted at all. Listen to your instincts. Do you really think we want to hurt you?”

I looked over at Kane, who still stood over me, glaring. Arms crossed, making his muscles bulge under his too small T-shirt. Between the sheer muscle mass and the buzz cut he radiated a dangerous energy. “Him, maybe,” I admitted.

“You just knocked our packmate out with a lamp,” Kane growled.

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