Page 12 of Knot All that Glitters: Part 1

Haven isn’t the only way to get revenge on Bell. We have other plans, other means of tearing him down. We don’t need to hurt her in order to hurt him.

But my pack wants this. They want to use Haven as a tool. They’ll do it with or without my input. The most I can do is stick with them, stick with her, and try to temper the damage. To her and to us.

“We’re going to regret this,” I say, meeting Hale’s eyes. “Some time down the road, we’re going to fucking wish we hadn’t done this.”

Hale scoffs. “Says you, brother.”

“Says the way I feel when I look at her,” I shoot back.

“How do you feel when you look at her?” Tic asks, shifting restlessly on his feet. I don’t bother to answer. They’ll understand soon enough.

The problem is, by then, it’ll probably be too late.

Chapter 5: Bitch, Why are you Lying to me?

My father leaves shortly after seven that evening. His dinner meetings are always later than I think a dinner meeting should be, but what do I care when it gets him out of the house until the wee hours of the morning?

I stand in the foyer and see him off, something he always expects of me, even though I have no clue why that is the case. It’s not as though anyone is here to see us play loving family with each other. Well, no one but the guards and the staff. But they know our relationship isn’t what it appears to be to the public. Not that they would ever tell anyone about it. My father has made every person who works for him sign an NDA. If any of them so much as uttered a word about what really goes on in this house, he’d yank them into court so fast, their heads would spin.

As soon as the door clicks behind him, I hurry upstairs and change into my pajamas before heading to the kitchen to make a cup of tea and grab a bag of chips. None of the staff bat an eyeat me bustling around. They know my routine on nights I don’t have to be the dutiful daughter to a monster.

Before I return upstairs, I poke my head into the security center tucked at the back of the house, where the guard on duty will hole up for the night shift, watching the cameras and making sure everything is as it should be.

“I’m heading up to bed,” I announce as I push open the door. Charles, an older beta with gray at his temples, spins in his chair to eye me.

He’s actually one of the kinder guards. He doesn’t get too up in my business, doesn’t watch my every move. So long as he knows I’m safe, he lets me do what I want. I feel a little bad that I’m about to sneak out on his watch.

“Settling in for a night of Alpha Love?”

I grin and shrug. “I’m a few days behind. You know I can only catch up on nights when my dad isn’t here.” That’s the truth. If my father knew I watched a trashy TV show about packs of alphas who go to a remote island with a bunch of omegas hoping to find true love, he’d probably remove the television from my bedroom and the one in the living room. But I’m lucky enough that no one on the staff has mentioned it to him.

Charles’ smile dims slightly at my admission, like the reality of my life makes him sad, even though he already knows how it is. “Well, have a good binge session. Let me know if you need anything, okay, Haven?”

I smile at him and nod. “I will. Thank you, Chuck.”

He beams at me like he always does when I use a nickname with him, and spins back toward the monitors, where the cameras watch nearly every corner of our house. I say nearly, because there’s a blind spot in the backyard, right near the fence, where an overgrown tree blocks the camera.

The blind spot also just happens to be on the side of my house that my bedroom is on. Which makes it relatively easy for me to slip out.

Once I’m in my room, I dump the tea down the sink in my bathroom and then position the empty cup on my bedside table, before returning to the bathroom and fishing the special makeup bag Florence gave me for my birthday two years ago out from its hiding space on the top shelf of the linen closet.

By the time Ren sends a text letting me know she’s on her way, I’ve styled my hair in big loose waves, my gray eyes are popping thanks to cat eye liner and smoky shadow, and my lips are painted a vibrant red. If I take a little extra time to make myself into someone who in no way resembles Haven Bell, no one but me will know. And Florence, probably.

That I might see the Calloway Pack tonight, that Creed so blandly stated that they want to court me, has my stomach tied up in knots of anxiety and excitement.

I want them to see the girl I am underneath all the binds my father has placed on me. The one that isn’t afraid to be daring and sexy, and an omega. I wish I could let my scent out, but the most I can do is not use a descenter spray. The suppressants I’m forced to take every morning still stifle it, makes it nothing more than a faint acidic tang with a spicy kick.

Maybe that’s a good thing. Most of the packs I met while at AOA didn’t particularly like my pineapple and chili scent. Many of them straight up told me it was too sharp. Not sweet like the other omegas, or floral like Florence’s hibiscus and citrus.

If the Calloway pack caught wind of my scent, they might change their minds about courting me.

Don’t you want them to change their minds, Haven? Remember that moment of panic when Creed said that’s what they wanted, that fear of your father finding out, and shutting you away for good?

I smother the more reasonable side of me, theresponsibleHaven that my father has curated. There is no place for her tonight. Tonight I am the fun loving Haven, the one that Florence cultivated in the academy. The one that no one recognizes as Haven Bell, Senator Frederick Bell’s daughter.

After two years of sneaking out, I have it down to a science. Slipping out my window, over the roof and down a drainpipe. I know it’s totally cliche, but it’s the simplest way for me to get out. My sneakers don’t make a noise as I dart across the wide expanse of the backyard, keeping in the shadow of the large tree and then up to the fence. A jump, a grunt as I pull myself up and then I’m landing on the other side. The bag on my back bouncing with the impact.

Ren is just pulling up in her beater of a car as I arrive at our normal rendezvous point.

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