Page 38 of Believe it or Knot

“We’re going to press charges! My dad will arrest the fuck out of you.”

My prime alpha hums. “I don’t believe he will. We approached you calmly and without malice.” I snort at that because we definitely didn’t approach this pack of assholes without malice. “We simply wanted to discuss the terms of your loan with Sorrel Forbes. You attacked us. Not the other way around. We defended ourselves. Nothing more, nothing less.” I look around at the groaning men on the ground. We probably could have done without the broken bones and the unconsciousness. But what are you gonna do about it? “If you’d calmed down, we might have been able to avoid all this unpleasantness. I don’t enjoy violence, Stephen. I would have preferred avoiding beating the shit out of you. However, you forced my hand.”

God, he’s so sexy when he’s like this.

Gray holds out the envelope again. “I suggest you take the check and the contract, though if you don’t, the terms still stand. We hold Sorrel’s loan. Not you.”

Stephen’s lip pulls back in a snarl. “That’s fucking bullshit. You can’t just-”

“Oh, but I did,” Gray says, smoothing a hand down his suit jacket, and frowning at the speck of blood on the cuff.

Rafe chuckles, low and dirty, and my cock wakes up at the sound. “You’re delusional if you think you have any say in this, bastardo. You don’t. Stay away from Sorrel. End of story.”

Gage releases his choke hold and rounds the other alpha. He bends low, one thick hand wrapped around his neck, and squeezes. His lips brush the other man’s ear as he murmurs just loud enough for me to hear. “If you ever touch her again, I will fucking kill you, Stillwell. I warned you in high school, but you didn’t fucking learn. Sorrel is mine. Mine to love and protect, cherish and care for. You go against her, you go against me. I have no fucking problem putting your entire pack in the ground if it means she never has to deal with your abusive fucking ass ever again. Do I make myself clear?”

“Do we make ourselves clear?” I correct, because I’m right there with him. We all are. Or at least I hope we are. I can feel the approval radiating off of my alphas, so I have to think they’re in this with us.

“No one will find your bodies,” Rafe intones darkly. “We’ve made people disappear before.” It’s a struggle to keep my lips from twitching. We’ve never actually killed anyone. Never hired someone to kill someone for us. We tend to let the law and our money take care of our problems. But they don’t know that.

Gage grunts out something I can’t make out, then pulls his fist back and slams it into Stephen Stillwell’s temple hard enough to knock him out. Then he hits him again. And again.

Grayson lets it go on for a while, but then he tsks and reaches down to haul Gage to his feet. The blond alpha struggles briefly, but when Rafe slips in front of him and says calmly, “We have to go meet Sorrel. Get your shit together so our girl doesn’t see you like this,” he stops. His chest heaves with pent up rage as he gives a jerky nod.

One of the Stillwell alphas still conscious laughs. Gray twists his head to pin him with a look. “Something funny, asshole?”

He smirks. “You’re fucking funny.” He jerks his chin at Gage. “You think he’s going to share Sorrel Forbes with you? The dude is fucking obsessed. Damn near feral for her. Warned everyone away from her in high school, before he up and abandoned her.” I don’t view that as necessarily a bad thing. Well, the abandoning part is bad, but not the warning assholes away from her. I'd have done the same if I went to high school with her. “It’s only a matter of time before he’s whispering threats in your ears, too.”

Rafe grins. “The difference between your pack and us is that we’re not afraid of a challenge.”

Gage shrugs off Gray’s hands and swipes at the blood under his nose with the back of his hand. “And the crucial difference is that Sorrel actually likes them, Justin. If she wants to be with them… there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Hmm, not exactly a glowing recommendation, is it? But still it’s better than nothing. Gage is important to Sorrel, which means he has to be important to us. If we want to have Sorrel be a part of our pack, we’re going to have to convince Gage it’s a good idea, too.

Problem is, I’m pretty sure he’s dead set against it already.

Not that I blame him. Sometimes I don’t want to share Sorrel either.

But that’s the reality of pack life. You all belong together.

There’s a groan as Gage hits him, and then he arches a brow at Grayson. “We done here?”

My prime scans the prone bodies on the ground and then gives a tight nod. “Yes. We’re done.”

“Hooray!” I wave a fake flag in celebration. “Lets go pick up our girl!”

Gray frowns down at the speck of blood on his cuff again. “Let’s get cleaned up first. She doesn’t need to know we did this.”

Rafe and Gage make sounds of agreement while I just snort, practically skipping back to the car in excitement. “She’s gonna know,” I say, yanking open the front passenger door. “As soon as she hears they’ve been beat to a bloody pulp, she’ll know it was us.”

“Plausible deniability, sweetheart,” Gray says, climbing behind the wheel. “No one knows we’re here, and she doesn’t need to know either.”

“She’ll suspect,” Gage agrees. “But we won’t give her a reason to know, right?”

“Right,” I’m quick to say. I want Gage to like us. I want him to consider joining our pack.

Gray starts the engine and we take off, the adrenaline from the fight fading in the quiet hum of the engine. The silence is only broken when Gage admits, “If they come anywhere near her again, I’m going to kill them.”

“We’ll bring the shovels,” Rafe says cheerfully.

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