Page 94 of Rot In Knotty Pieces

Every nerve is exploding, every part of me is breaking, shattering, and being remade.

Kestrel and Raptor fade away, leaving me with our alphas. The bond is barely there for me, but I could feel it when they were with me. I know it's there.

I hold onto Sage’s arm as they lazily move in me. Rose kisses me, but his kisses are soft and gentle now.

“If you say sorry or apologise, I’m going to kick you in the balls,” I growl in warning.

“I don’t regret anything, and I should. I know I should, but I can’t.”

“I have no regrets,” Sage whispers. “This feels right.”

I’ll have regrets later. Right now, I have alphas. And that’s more than I’ve ever had.

Pix

The hotel staff couldn’t tell me where they all disappeared to, just that one night, everyone checked out together and was gone. I look out the window and try to calm the panic. It’s daylight; we’ve been driving all night, checking different places. We’re on our way back to the Sanderson home.

It’s the only place I can think of them going.

I instruct King where to park and get out of the car, rushing up the steps to the front door. I open it with my keys and a readiness to kill anything that might be causing them harm.

“MARK!”

There’s nothing, nothing, nothing, and then Mark appears silently from his bedroom. His deadly expression disappears before anyone else but me sees him.

“Pix? What’s wrong?” He yawns and scratches his bare chest, his eyes assessing everyone in his house.

I rush to him and pull him into a tight hug. “Where were you? Why weren’t you answering your phones?”

He frowns. “You weren’t answering our phone calls. We came home because we got a text saying it was all sorted. You used the codeword.”

I pull back, staring at him. “No, no, I didn’t.” I whirl, looking at Blaze, trying to convey my panic.

“I’ll check,” he says. “Easy, Daega, we’ve got this.”

“GET UP!” I shout.

Five dogs appear from Mark’s bedroom, standing, growling on the threshold but not crossing over.

Mitchel and Yvonne come out quickly, obeying my panicked demands.

“Pix, darling.”

“Why would you come back? Where’s Bonnie? Sariah?” I shout.

Vicious snarls and snaps at the air, the thick black fur bristling. The sheer size of the Rottweiler has Rolly hesitating.

“If she bites me, I’ll kill her,” he says coldly.

“She won’t, but if she tries, you’ll be dead before you can stop her,” I say absently, it’s the truth. The dogs are trained to kill.

“Don’t test that theory,” Rolly says cheerfully.

“Friends!” Mark says with a long, hard look at my alpha.

All five dogs instantly break off and stop growling.

“Release.”