Page 84 of Knot Your Pawn

“Are you okay?” The articles exposed all of us, it wasn’t just Mathew in those pictures.

“If anyone is mean to Mathew, I’ll just have to get rid of them.” The venom in her voice makes me shiver.

Yeah, that’s definitely not an empty threat.

It makes me so proud of my cute Omega, how protective she is of her pack members, how willing she is to protect them, what she’s willing to do for them.

I chuckle, kissing the top of her head. “I was wondering how you were doing.”

She looks up at me, surprised. “Oh. I’m fine. Now I know that Mathew is safe, I’m fine.”

I’m not entirely sure that I believe her, but this will have to do for now.

She leans her head against my shoulder, taking my hand between two of hers, slowly sliding her fingers along mine. “Everything has changed now. We knew this was going to happen. We didn’t know when or how, but we knew it was going to happen at some point.”

She lets out a tired chuckle. “It’s a bit hard for Mathew to hide his belly when he wears slim fit suits all the time, and he couldn’t just hide from the world for months on end. People were going to figure it out either way. The timing is just bad.”

I close my hand, catching hers, holding her. “The only time you have some control over things like this is if you reveal it yourself, but even that’s not a given. Even that can be done when you don’t want to, if you’re forced into a corner if you want some control over the discourse.” I lean my head against hers. “Luckily, we’ve all got each other and a great team to work with. So, I’m sure that things will work out.”

“And if it doesn’t, we’ll just have to make sure that it does.” She snuggles in closer. “But I think that things have been hard enough for one day. Sleep is important too.”

“That too.” I wrap my arm around her so she’s fully fitted against me, and then give her a soft kiss. “Let’s get some sleep first.”

I feel like the others are probably working until deep into the night, but they know where to find us.

So, I’m not leaving this little nest with my sweet Omega unless I have to. Not now.

It’s still dark outside. I have no idea what the time is, but there are strange footsteps outside the house and someone is trying to sneak into my room.

At my side, Vera seems to have woken up too, as I feel her hand go to the knives that she knows I keep hidden in here.

As quietly as possible, so that the intruder doesn’t notice it, I slide one of the knives to Vera’s hand as I take one of the others for myself.

The intruder is coming closer and closer to the closet, no other sounds but their breathing and their quiet footsteps.

I don’t notice any pheromones, but no intruder would be dumb enough to spread their pheromones around when they’re going to attack someone.

When the intruder seems to hesitate for a moment, Vera kicks open one of the doors of the closet and jumps out. I’m only a fraction of a second behind her, following her every step, making use of the difference in our heights to grab the intruder.

The intruder seems surprised by us, not even trying to defend themselves as we tackle them to the floor.

He lets out a surprised burst of air. “Fuck!”

Mathew!

What the fuck?!

I feel around, finding the switch for one of the lights in the room, and the low glow shows Mathew on his back on the floor, Vera sitting on his legs. Both of them are looking very confused.

“Why are you sneaking around?” Vera slides next to him, her fingers carefully moving over him. “Are you hurt?”

Mathew sits up, rubbing the back of his head and then his ass. “I might have a few bruises, but I don’t think there’s any real damage.”

“What were you doing?” I scoot over to them, feeling the back of his head and then methodically slide my hands down his back to make sure he’s really fine.

“I was trying to check on you two, but didn’t want to disturb you.” He smiles sheepishly. “Next time, I should probably just turn the lights on and disturb you...”

Vera pulls a face, her voice quiet. “Probably.”