Page 139 of Rot In Knotty Pieces

We struggled for so long. In his stupid warehouses of agony and then on the cold, cruel streets.

Father is talking, but we are busy.

We’re trying to find a way to survive.

We have the knife Raven gave Rose. We have the skills Father gave us. The bonds. We have so much more than we used to have.

I picture the alphas, one by one.

Rolly, who smiled at me with so much awe.

Pix, who protected me, so fierce.

Blaze, who taught me so gently.

Rose, who loved us for so much longer than we ever knew.

King, who was my safest place.

And Sage, who is a mirror. Will he be okay on his own, without the pack?

Father comes close to us, and we look up, Raptor whispers in my ear and I find myself feeling braver than I have before. I want to fight.

I launch myself, punching him in the face. Screaming inside and out.

The mask shifts, and I see skin, I see human skin.

He’s not a monster, I remind myself viciously. He’s just a fucking man.

And men can be killed.

Pix

The bond is a taut, humming wire of pure, unadulterated panic. It’s not hard to track. It would be impossible to miss.

Merle and Dove are screaming along the bond.

Without hesitation, I chase that intensity, following it until I think I could scream with them. What is happening? How did he get her? How did it all go wrong? No, none of that matters, what matters is fixing it. Getting her back.

I woke up and searched the house. Everyone was out, and she was gone. It took me three scans of the house to find Sage. I don’t ever want to feel the way I felt in those moments. The floor had dropped out from under me. I was paralyzed. How could I live without her? Or him?

But Sage, his eyes full of hard, cold emotion, has called me, demanding my obedience. The bond snarling and vibrating with his helpless fury.

He stared at me, awake. He’d whispered an address. I just needed the one piece of information, and I knew where to go and what he was asking me to do.

My alpha trusts me to save her.

I’d kissed him hard and run. The others would wake up soon, the drug leaving their system now I’ve opened all the windows and doors. I don’t know how he drugged us, but I think it must have been an incense or a spray that circulated through the house.

Sage had planted himself in the bedroom when he knew what was happening so he could see who we needed to hunt. It’s ingenious and diabolical. While we were falling apart, he was planning the next move.

And he’d told me to go. Knowing that whoever was up first would find him and get this information and start the hunt.

My phone rings, and I press the button on the bike to answer the call.

“Pix?” Roseland growls through the speaker in my ear.

“Yeah?” I say quietly, revving my bike to go faster. “You okay?”