Page 47 of Knot Your Possession

A soft metallic screeching sound had us all pushing into the room. Wolf led the charge. He’d picked River up and was about to haul him away when I patted him on the arm. “It’s okay, Wolf. It just opened.”

“I’m fine, wild man,” River said, his eyes wide. Being a tall guy that was solidly built, I don’t think he was used to being suddenly yanked off his feet. Wolf put him down with a reluctant groan.

“Why is River freaking out?” Came Ryder’s yell from the connecting hallway that led to the ballroom.

“A giant alpha just picked him up like he was a barbie doll,” I called out while River rolled his eyes.

“I’m fine,” he yelled back to his twin. “Stay with our girls.”

“Our girls?” Damon growled.

River was unfazed, still staring at the device. “Yeah. Ours.”

Damon glared darkly at River, and I could scent lightning sparking hotly within the room. Wolf was already on edge. We didn’t need an alpha dominance clash to set him off right now.

“Uh, Damon,” I jumped in, as I swallowed hard and tried not to stammer. Damon had always intimidated me, but it had gotten worse recently. “By ours, I’m pretty sure he meant all of ours. Not Ryder and his, ours.”

River looked genuinely perplexed and raised his eyebrow at Damon. “Of course I did. For the same reason you guys flew here just because Ava missed a phone call this morning. If Lexie and Maia are important to Ava, then they’re important to us. Besides, I owe your pack for rescuing Ava and Cary from the Palace.”

Damon opened his mouth as if he was going to respond, but River cut him off, done with the conversation already. He turned back to me and asked, “Why are you so nervous around Damon, Nick?”

Freaking hell.River didn’t pull any punches when he was feeling protective. I could feel every eye in the room staring at me.

“That would be Damon’s fault,” Hunter said, stepping in to rescue me from answering as he pulled Damon into him and ruffled his hair. “He got a little growly while he was holding back from claiming Maia. Nick copped a full Damon hissy fit when he approached our table one morning to talk to Max. It’s fine now. We carry doggy biscuits so Nick can give them to Damon.”

I groaned. The biscuit thing had been a joke. Hunter had told me to say it to Damon as a safe word if he was getting growly, because it worked to distract dogs. But I would never live down blurting it out to Damon when he’d growled at me during the battle at the farm. Not while Hunter was around, anyway. I didn’t miss the subtle look River shot Wolf and the way Wolf shifted closer to me. Neither did Damon, as his eyes narrowed at us.

“Nick is also important to us,” Damon said, with a not-so-subtle warning. “But I apologize for being on edge. As Max said earlier, we only found out about Maia’s pregnancy hours ago. And now she’s back at the Palace. It’s riling our alphas.”

This morning had been a whirlwind, and my head was spinning a little. With three packs and so many alphas in the same space, there was sure to be drama. Along with a lot of dominance and pheromones. But with so many interconnections between our packs, we were going to have to figure out how to trust each other. Despite the truce we had come to this morning, River, Ryder, and Wolf were the new guys, and everyone was still sniffing them out. I figured if we were going to work smoothly together, someone would need to un-ruffle feathers for a while. And that person was probably me. I took a deep breath, but before I could say anything, Max piped up.

“Uh, I hate to interrupt the alpha dick measuring, but the strange and concerning communication device is open,” Max said with a grin. All the attention in the room abruptly spun back to him, and the lit-up device he was standing alongside.

Phew, saved by Max.I stepped between the alphas to stand next to him. Max had pulled the pieces open wider to reveal a monitor and a flip down keyboard on one side. He’d also somehow removed a back panel to reveal the inner workings of the device. Looking at it fried my brain.

Behind the locking mechanism there was a series of intricate, and interconnected, micro parts that were whirring with the faintest hum. They led to a smaller box that had a bar indicator on the front panel. The bar was steadily rising. The machine gave a faint buzz when it reached the top.Holy crap.

“Did the Network figure out how to both miniaturize and boost kinetic energy?” I asked Max. It was the only logical explanation for what was in front of me. It was so complex, yet seemed so stunningly simple at the same time.

“It sure looks that way. Which isn’t surprising, if their gramps’ was Frank Gascombe.”

“Why wouldn’t he have commercialized this technology?” River asked.

“He was in hiding for decades. Launching an invention that would revolutionize technology and power doesn’t exactly scream lying low. Especially when you’re supposed to be dead,” Sam said as he moved forward to look at the device more closely.

“But if Maven were planning the Crash, this tech could have saved a lot of people,” Hunter insisted.

“Gramps has been dead for years,” Sam said, sadness creeping into his voice. “He wasn’t one to sit out a fight, he was just fighting underground. If he’d known about the Crash, he would have done something. I’m sure of it.”

“Sorry,” Hunter said. “I didn’t mean to imply he wouldn’t. I’m just so frustrated that people are hurting out there.”

“We all are,” Damon said, as he patted the arm Hunter still had draped over his shoulder.

“Could your gramps have built a prototype of this, maybe on a larger scale? Possibly before he faked his death?” I blurted, thinking out loud.

It was Max, not Sam, that responded though. He knew how my mind worked, because his worked in a similar way. “Are you thinking about the device here, under the labs?”

I nodded, and Sam shrugged. “Anything is possible. I think we should go look at it now and find out.”

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