Page 48 of Rest In Knotty Pieces

“You want to know about my family?” he asks.

I nod.

“Oh, there’s nothing really to tell. My family sees me as the second unwanted child, so they just pretended I didn’t exist.”

There is no inflection in his voice, no sadness or tremble. He says it exactly as it is, like its fact and it doesn’t bother him, but I can’t help but get the feeling that it bothers him. A lot.

I reach out and take his hand.

He looks at me like I just hung the moon.

“Come on, let’s leave the prancing prince to his dance. I want to go get something to eat.”

I frown at him because how can he still be hungry, but Rolly sweeps me up, dragging me through the house, back into the kitchen, where he starts pulling out pots and pans and then rapidly mixing up different ingredients. It’s such a chaotic mess that I can’t even begin to guess at what he’s making; I just sit there and watch.

But there is one tiny, niggling feeling that bothers me. Blaze is incredible with his sword, but for Rolly, slicing things is almost as skilled an art form. He moves the blade with such confidence and ease that it’s a blur.

I’m so fascinated watching him that the sound, when it comes, tears a small scream out of me. I throw myself face-first off the counter and dive into the pantry, sliding under the shelves.

Rolly crouches, his knife in his hand. “Stay right there. Nothing is going to get you,” he says in a voice that I have never heard him use before. He’s serious and deadly and dangerous, and I don’t for one second doubt he means it.

“Who is it?” I hear Sage hiss.

“I have no idea. I didn’t even know we had a fucking doorbell,” Rolly growls as he rushes off.

Then their voices move too far away.

The pantry opens.

“Ah, I see, I see. No, you’ve taken a wrong turn. You need to go back. This is private property, and only me and my alpha live here,” Rolly says confidently.

Aaron crouches down beside me, his alpha aura filling the air with the sharpest cut of roses. His fingers slide down, down, down and hang there. I stare at them, then reach out, just brushing them. He captures my hand, stands and pulls me out and behind him. I stand in the shadow of the massive alpha, and I tremble.

I’ve done this before. Somewhere else. We’ve stood like this. Why can’t I remember?

My breathing is a whisper, but my head is spinning, spinning. I’m going to fall. His hand is still closed over mine, holding me safe. Anchoring me to the world.

Pix slips into the pantry, his face illuminated for a second by sharp yellow light before he becomes just another gloomy shape in the dark.

He grabs our joined hands and pushes the knife I gave him back into my grip, then he quietly slips out of the space without saying a single word.

I feel better having the knife in my hands. Not that I know how to use it.

It’s something.

The door opens, and Sage looks in, checking in first with Aaron, then with me.

“All fixed. Just some random walker who got lost in the woods.”

I don’t believe that, and I don’t think he does either. As soon as Aaron lets me go, I tuck my shoulders, and sticking close to the wall, go back to my room and sit there, trying not to think about everything.

Sage comes in and sits on the floor beside me. He’s got no shoes on, blue jeans, and a shirt.

“I’m trying to think of a place that is better for you. Would you like to go to the city?”

I shake my head violently, almost gagging with the horror of that suggestion.

“Okay, no city. What about…I mean, we could all get in the car and drive. We could just follow the sun.”