Page 92 of Rest In Knotty Pieces

“I love cooking. Games. Camping and adventures. Though Raptor is the adrenaline junkie. She would have been over that waterfall so fast. She is fearless,” I murmur with a chuckle. “I am, well, a lover would be the best description.”

He rolls me onto my back and leans down, kissing me. I fall into it, arching into him and moaning. He pulls back.

“You kiss differently,” he says unhappily. “I thought maybe this was a game.”

Disappointment hits me, and I sit up, staring down at him. “Your cock isn’t the same size as Blaze’s but it’s still a cock. But remind me to point out the differences after I’ve fucked you both.”

Sage throws his head back and laughs. “Touché.”

I snarl at him and push up. The dawn light has illuminated the cave entrance. I find my shoes and pull them on before walking to the entrance and glaring out at the forest, listening for any signs of people.

“I need to speak to Raven,” Roseland whispers behind me.

I tense as he drags his fingers up under my shirt. If he’s trying to get Raven, he’s going about it the whole wrong way, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to tell him how to get her to rise out of me.

“Please.”

I shake my head. Raven doesn’t want to come out and up.

Raptor is closer to the surface.

And it’s not a good idea if she comes out to play. Not for any of us.

Sage

Kestrel is confident, charming, and exudes sex like it’s part of her makeup. She’s got this innate femininity and sex appeal that Merle didn’t have. Her voice is husky and low, and she’s often saying things with a teasing note and a lilting chuckle that has me confused as fuck.

In short, she is everything that Merle isn’t, and I hate it. I don’t understand how to act towards her or how to deal with this situation, and the feeling that I’m out of control is sending me spiraling.

I find her attractive. I like her. She still smells like my omega, if in a different combination of concentrations. But she’s not Merle. She’s a stranger.

She’s a stranger in the body of the omega I have feelings for. I want to throw my head back and roar or go kill everything that moves. There is nothing to fight. I don’t know how to fix it and for the first time in years, I feel helpless, and that is not a feeling I like.

This whole situation has thrown the pack dynamic into a wall and shattered it. Roseland seems to be the most accepting, but then my guess is he’s known for months or years. This has enraged just about everyone. Even I feel his betrayal like a sharp knife.

Pix is fuming, especially since the only personality he wants to talk to is Raptor, to which Kestrel said that’s a bad idea, and considering how quickly she killed two people, I have a tendency to agree. For now.

Blaze is fascinated with the idea of a male personality and keeps going to ask questions that I shut down with black looks and fury that I send along the bonds. I don’t want to know the answers. I want Merle back.

It’s my fault. She saw me kill that guy. Kill him? I cut his damn head off in front of her. What was I thinking? Did I traumatise her? Did I hurt her? How can I fix this?

My skin crawls, and I look up and find Kestrel watching me with a tiny smile. It widens as I glower until she bites her bottom lip and stands up, spinning in a circle, her hair fanning out around her. The orange tips in her hair make sense now; the amber of Merle’s eyes looks like happy gold on this version of my omega. She doesn’t slink and move with caution but dances her way across the world, leaping and skipping, shoulders back, head up.

I hurt Merle. I scared her.

Kestrel has to go.

I grind my teeth, determined to make it right somehow.

My brain keeps telling me that it’s Merle, but as soon as she speaks or just does something, I remember she’s not.

I hate this.

King grabs her wrist, and she spins into him, staring up into his face.

“You have beautiful eyes,” she says with a laugh.

King doesn’t like Kestrel. At all.