Page 105 of Believe it or Knot

How can we fix this? How can we make this better? It’s already been days. She’s been living with this pain for that long, and we no doubt made it worse by carting Hollis around the city to all the events we planned on taking Sorrel to.

She had to have seen that, and no doubt thinks she was that easily replaceable. That we just moved on. That the type of woman we actually wanted was thin and willowy, poised and polished.

We proved her right.

All of her fears and vulnerabilities, we fed into them.

I doubt she’ll ever forgive us. Especially with how she’s cut all ties with us. Not even keeping the loan I set up for her, which, for all intents and purposes, is a business deal. Even if business was the furthest thing from my mind when I presented her with the contract.

My eyes linger back on the bags and bags of gifts we bought her. Every single thing we purchased and sent to her house in Lake Kilrose is there. The stuff we bought her while in the city is still in our penthouse, behind the closed door of the room we prepared for her. None of us have been able to bring ourselves to go in there.

The only thing that’s missing is the stupid stuffed unicorn Rafe won for her at the fair.

I latch onto that, to that tiny piece of hope. Maybe that she didn’t return Clarence is a sign that she’s not really over us. Not completely cutting ties with us. Though if she refuses to ever speak to us again, I wouldn’t blame her.

We’re the assholes in this situation. The fuck ups.

She did nothing but trust us. And we broke that trust.

I’m a little worried that we might have broken her.

Crying her eyes out because some douchebag alphas broke her heart. Sadie’s words come back to me, making my own heart clench and throb.

We need to fix this. Now.

First step, let Liam and Rafe know what’s going on. As much as I want to fix this for all of us, their input is invaluable to the pack, and I know they’ll want to be a part of winning back our girl.

I send the recording to Rafe along with a brief text telling him who I received it from and then eye the shopping bags. All of it will go back to Sorrel, so that means all of it will need to be moved to our penthouse in the meantime.

I type out a quick email to my assistant, detailing what I need to happen and that I’ll be out of the office for the next few days. It might be longer, but he doesn’t need to know that. However long it takes to win Sorrel back is how long I’ll be gone.

My phone rings three minutes after I’ve sent the recording, just as I slip behind the wheel of my car. I pick up without checking the caller id, already knowing who it is. “We fucked up,” I say as soon as the call connects.

“We did,” Rafe says grimly. “Liam’s been shouting ‘I told you so’ at me while also trying to call her. It’s not even going to voicemail. She blocked us.”

“Have him try the Snack Shack,” I suggest, and Rafe passes that along to Liam, who is still shouting about how we should have listened to him. He’s not wrong, but I can feel how worked up he’s getting through our bond, his panic and worry over Sorrel ratcheting up with every shouted word.

It cuts off abruptly, and I hear the low murmur of my omega’s voice through the phone, smoothed out and polite as he talks to whoever picked up on the other line. Not Sorrel. He wouldn’t be using such a businesslike tone.

I doubt she’ll be back at the Shack so quickly.

Then again, it’s only been a few days, and she’s already repaid her loan to us and packed up every gift we’ve ever given her. Maybe she is already back at work, focused on moving forward, on forgetting us.

“Where are you?” Rafe asks, drawing me back to the present.

“Leaving my office now. Heading home. We need a plan to fix this.”

He lets out a beleaguered sigh. “Yeah, we fucking do.”

“I canceled all my meetings for the rest of the week. I think we should start by going back to Lake Kilrose. She must be home by now, right?”

“I don’t know. I should have put in that fucking security system when I had the chance.” His anger at himself for not doing that is clear in his tone and through our bond.

“You didn’t know this would happen. We thought she would be moving in with us in a matter of days. It didn’t make sense to go through the time or the effort, when she was going to be safe with us in our pack house.”

He grunts out a noise that I take to be agreement but doesn’t say anything else. Liam’s voice hits my ear instead. “Annie wouldn’t talk to me,” he says, sounding on the verge of tears. “She yelled at me and told me because of us, people have been ringing the Shack and spouting bullshit to whoever picks up. Threats, Gray. People have been threatening Sorrel because of us. We have to make sure she’s okay.”

I don’t disagree. My alpha is all but roaring at me to find our beta and bundle her away, protect her from anything and everything while we prove to her she should give us another chance, that we won’t fuck it up this time.

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