Page 71 of Rest In Knotty Pieces

I have this flash of feeling, like I might have to kill him, and I don’t want to. Please don’t make me.

“And us?”

“We won’t run into each other again,” he says confidently. “I’ve asked for a transfer. I’ll be going a long way away.”

He’s lying. Why is he lying?

I stare at him. “They need you. You’re hurting our omegas.”

“They’ll survive and be better for it.”

“And her? What if what hurt her comes back?”

Roseland pauses and turns to face me. “He can’t. He’s dead.”

The relief of that statement has me sagging.

“Are you going to say goodbye?”

He stands up taller, inhaling and looking like a knight from a fairy tale. “No, I’m not going to say goodbye. It will only hurt everyone. You tell him…no, don’t tell Daega anything. He knows. Tell her to love that new life. To live it right to the edge. I’m just a bad dream.”

I grind my teeth and advance on him, grabbing his wrist, stopping him from leaving.

“And me?”

He looks surprised and searches my eyes. “We’re strangers. You’ll forget me soon enough.”

“Rose, don’t go.”

He smiles. “Thank you for saying so, but I have to go back, and you have to give those omegas a happy ending.”

He pulls free of me, turns, and disappears into the forest.

Sage appears beside me, his lips pressed in a straight line.

“We’ll see about that,” he mutters.

“You’re not going to let him go?”

“He doesn’t know it yet, but that alpha is wearing my leash. He can go only as far as I let him.”

If I had to bet against anyone, it would never be Sage. He’s always five steps ahead and playing a game no one even realises he’s playing.

I grin at him, and we turn back, finding a distraught Pix staring into the fire, pretending everything is fine. Sage picks him up, ignoring his protests, and pulls him into the tent, where Rolly rolls onto the omega and buries his nose in his hair.

“Daega,” Rolly purrs in his sleep. “You smell so pretty.”

The omega growls, but immediately silences himself when Merle whimpers.

I zip up the tent and wander the perimeter of our camp, listening and assessing the dangers. I don’t like this spot, we’re too high up and on a ridge. Tomorrow, we’re going down into the valley and heading in a different direction.

What Merle doesn’t know is that the Prince Pack and Meg and Desi have gone in different directions as a trap for whoever is hunting her.

Perhaps we should have let Roseland in on the fact that someone was coming after her. Would that have changed his mind? Yes. Would it have compromised his job? Yes. I don’t trust him yet, and I’m not sure how far his clemency stretches between his job and his devotion to his omegas.

The truth is I don’t want to test it.

The sun rises far too quickly, and without a word, the pack is up and breaking camp. I kick out the fire, watching the last of the smoke disappear.