Page 35 of Believe it or Knot

My ears perk up at that. “Does she play any instruments?” She’s been playing coy with us, like she doesn’t really play the guitar we found in her living room. Like she doesn’t know Rafe and I traveled to Lake Kilrose looking for her.

I take it as a good sign. She’s not going to try to use us to launch her music career. I think Gray views it as a sign that she’s not entirely truthful, untrustworthy. But maybe Gage will be more willing to explain why she’s so resistant.

He grunts something I can’t make out, but then a giant truck with six tires as tall as my hip roars down the roads and squeals as it zooms into the driveway we’ve been watching, barely missing hitting the garage door. The three alphas with me tense, eyes focused on the truck as men pour from inside it. Six of them. All with the size and body weight that tells me they’re alphas. Which… Isn’t so bad for the men with me, but I’m an omega and I might be a liability if one of them uses an alpha bark on me.

I’m not sure if he can sense what I’m thinking, but Rafe leans over and murmurs in my ear, lacing his voice with his command. “You will not follow any orders given to you by anyone but me, Gray, or Gage.”

In the front passenger seat, I see Gage’s head whip toward us, dark eyes wide in surprise.

“Don’t abuse the privilege, el cabron,” Rafe says pleasantly enough, but I know a threat when I hear one. Gage must too, because he nods slowly, though the look on his face tells me he doesn’t trust this. Trust us.

It’s a weird feeling being on the other side of distrust. But I get it. He doesn’t know us and we’ve taken an interest in the girl he loves. If he wasn’t wary, I’d be more concerned.

Gage views it as his job to protect Sorrel. To monitor potential threats and to keep her from hurting, the same way it’s my alphas’ job to do that for me.

I’m so glad she has someone doing it for her, even if she doesn’t realize she does.

“Ready?” Gray asks, already popping open his door.

The rest of us do the same, climbing out of the car and crossing the street behind him. Well, I’m behind all of them, but Gray’s in the lead.

I watch as two of the alpha’s clock our approach. The other four are already halfway to the door, swaying and slurring their words, making it clear they’ve been drinking to the point of inebriation. They must have been day drinking cause it’s only just now five, and it takes a lot for an alpha to get drunk. Like a lot.

Me, on the other hand, I have one glass of champagne at an awards ceremony and I can’t see straight.

Omega genes.

The four nearer the house come to a stop, swing around to face us as Gray calls out, “Stephen Stillwell. Could we have a moment of your time?” As polite as can be for someone who is about to get his knuckles bloody.

The big alpha’s lip curls when he sees who’s approaching him, his muddy brown eyes flicking from Gray to Rafe to me to Gage, where they stop and widen just slightly, a sign of his fear. He should be afraid of all of us, not just the big growly alpha. But at least he has some sense. Especially since Gage is literally cracking his knuckles, twisting his neck and bouncing on his feet before he goes completely preternaturally still.

“Wagner,” Stillwell says, completely ignoring Grayson in a way that I know annoys my alpha. I can feel it. “Didn’t know you were back in town.”

Gage tilts his head in acknowledgment. “Yesterday. Heard you’ve been fucking with Sorrel.”

Stillwell scoffs as his pack moves up behind him. “Hardly. She owes us money. We’re just… collecting our dues.”

One of the other alphas laughs. “Yeah, she can pay up by coming all over my cock.” His pack mates laugh along with him.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Kevin. It doesn’t matter if she comes. Just that she lets you fuck her like a whore so you can fill her snatch with your cum.”

The biggest of the Stillwell pack says this, his belligerent gaze on Gage, like he’s daring him to say something, to do something. Apparently, they’ve weighed the four of us and found us wanting. Being an omega, I’m sure in their eyes I’m not even a smidgeon of a threat, and with me out of the equation, they’re sitting pretty with two on one.

I’m happy to let them think that.

It’ll just be more of a surprise when I break their noses right along with my alphas.

Gage makes a low warning noise, but Gray steps in front of him, hand reaching into the front of his suit jacket. The Stillwell pack tenses, likely thinking he’s pulling a gun, but that’s not Gray’s style. Instead, he pulls out a thick envelope and holds it out to the prime of the pack.

Stephen, the man who hurt Sorrel just yesterday, snorts and shakes his head. “You’ve got a lot of nerve coming into our town, thinking you can throw your weight around. You fucking can’t, pretty boy. Sorrel is ours to do with as we please. We own her.”

Gage growls, and I’m right there with him.

Technically, I want to make the same claim. That we own Sorrel, that she’s ours, that we can do anything we want to her. The difference is that anything we do to her will be to bring her pleasure, to make her safe, to take care of her. We would never consider treating her the way the Stillwell pack has.

Rafe scoffs. “You can’t just own a person, and I think you know that.”

“We can and we do.”

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