Page 135 of Rest In Knotty Pieces

I grin at the memories. “No one knows. Just me and now you. If I disappear, if I die, then you have to keep this secret. You have to protect this secret; you are the only one I can trust.”

“What secret?”

I lick my lips, watching the door open. I tense and turn away, squeezing my eyes closed so I can’t see, just in case one of the others is here.

“That secret,” I whisper.

Pix’s sharp inhale tells me he’s seen it, too.

“Let’s go,” I say urgently, antsy now, just in case someone catches us here. Just in case one of my alters wakes up and starts asking questions, they can’t know.

He doesn’t speak.

Neither of us speak.

When he gets to the hotel, I slow long enough to feel his eyes on me, to wish for one horrible moment in my horrible life I could have something for myself.

Then I turn away, and I go back to the alphas I’ve left behind and the time that is rapidly running out.

He’s coming.

And we’re not ready.

Merle

Iopen my eyes to the world whizzing by and me riding a motorbike. What is this? Where am I? I’ve never ridden a bike before, so I grab the handles. I open my mouth and squeal. The bike wobbles dangerously, and I realise I’m about to die.

“FUCK!” Jay howls out of my mouth and takes control of the bike.

He stops it and gets off, yanking the helmet off our head and tossing it to the ground so hard it bounces off into the forest beside us.

“GOD FUCKING DAMNIT, RAVEN!” he shouts. “What the fuck were you up to now?”

Raven, wherever she is, has gone and doesn’t answer his summons.

My mind is white with fear, and my body is reacting badly. I can’t stop shaking. My breathing is coming in sharp gasps.

Where are my alphas?

Where am I?

I wrap my arms around myself, whimpering in sharp, desperate sounds now that the danger is done.

I whip my head around, but I don’t recognise anything. There’s thick forest with trees all around me and a concrete road. I turn and turn and turn, but everydirection I turn in looks like nowhere I have ever been. I don’t recognise it. Where are our alphas? Where is home?

Where am I?

A scream works its way up my chest and into my throat. There are no landmarks, nothing but trees and a road.

Oh, god. I’m lost. Lost in the woods. Again. Like before.

My breathing gets faster, more violent as I fight for air. Spots dance in my vision.

Just walk,Raptor says into our minds.Keep going the way she was riding.

I look up the road then back the other way, unsure which way to go. I see the bike and turn away from it, looking in the way we were heading. It looks exactly the same as the other direction.

I press my hands to my sternum, digging my nails in, trying to get the pain to stop the panic long enough to think.