Page 58 of Knot Mine

Knowing the reason for my agitation, Blake had opted to sit in the cabin with me, waiting for news while we pretended to be watching football reruns on the TV. Evans had been napping on the sofa since our conversation in the kitchen, the alcohol and painkillers finally claiming him and forcing him to actually rest. Hunter was sitting around the fire pit with Caz, Sage and another omega I don’t know, looking like he was half asleep.

“Where is he?” I ask, as Millie sashays into the room as if her brother going missing is no big deal. “Has there been any update yet?”

“Will you chill out babe? I’m sure Shiloh has just gone off having a bit of a tantrum because none of the attention is on him.” She perches on the arm of the sofa, a bottle of champagne in her hand. She snorts, the sound impatient and unimpressed. “Or maybe he just needed a bit of space. My brother can be a fussy creature like that.”

I hated that he felt like he needed to leave, that I had chased him away. My alpha instincts hated that he wasn’t where I could see him and know that he was safe.

“He’s not fussy, he’s introverted. There’s a difference.” I grumble, scratching at the back of my neck before tugging on my hair.

It’s clearly the wrong thing to say as she stares at me with suspicion written all over her face. “You don’t even know him.”

She leans in, smelling like alcohol and something bitter. Was she angry? Is that what I was picking up in her scent? Glancing away, I sigh. She was right, I didn’t know him—not when it came to things like knowing his favorite color, how he liked his coffee or what temperature he liked the thermostat set at. No, I didn’t know him like that.

But I was conscious of him on a deeper level.

I knew what noises he made when he was desperate for my touch, what his lips tasted like, how he’d been strong for so long. Too long. I knew his hopes and dreams. That he felt crushed under his sister.

“Why do you care so much?” Her words are sloppy, and I know that she’s volatile when she’s like this.

Her face scrunches up into a frown, and for a moment, I can see him in her features. But it’s all wrong. The shape of her mouth. The color of her eyes. The little lines that wrinkle on her forehead. All wrong.

“Are you suddenly best friends now?”

She laughs, and it sounds almost cruel. Is the thought of us being friends so out of the realm of normal? With a tilt of my head, I think about it and realize she’s right.

Shiloh Vos would never be friends with the Zale Blackwood everyone else in this room knew. But the one who’d been afraid of the dark, and had spent an afternoon critiquing corporate responsibility? The one who’d shared a glimpse of the responsibility hanging around his neck? Shiloh had liked him. Liked him enough to share a drunken kiss that had morphed into something much bigger. That version of Zale could be more than best friends with Shiloh, easily.

But Millie didn’t need to hear that. Not now, and not like this.

“Look Mills, hun, we’re just worried about your little brother, that’s all.” Sadie chimes, offering a sickly-sweet smile as she places a hand over Millie’s, giving it a comforting squeeze.

“Will you stop saying little brother? There’s only six minutes in it.” I grunt, rolling my eyes, knowing that my frustrations were making things awkward, but I didn't know how to tone it down. “And he has a name.”

How had I not noticed how everyone talked about Shiloh? Like he was an accessory? A spare part, that wasn’t even worth addressing correctly?Fuck.Never again.

“I think maybe you need to lay off the beer and have some water, babe.” She makes a droll expression, placing extra emphasis on the word ‘babe’, giving it sharp edges as it tumbles from her mouth.

I’d stopped drinking hours ago and even then, I’d been limiting myself, so I’d only actually had three beers at most. Leaning back into the couch cushions, I try to force myself to look relaxed. I wasn’t a big drinker, did she even know that? The whiskey incident and the night we’d met we’re my exceptions. Was she that unobservant or did she just not care?

Her phone rings and she jumps up to answer. “It’s my parents.”

She goes out onto the patio to take it and we all watch as she walks back-and-forth talking animatedly.

“What’s really going on here?” Sadie asks as she leans in, her faux sweetness gone. Her gaze is calculating as she looks from me, to Blake and over at Evans, who’s awake now. “Don’t tell me you had a taste of the slutty beta? Isn’t that beneath you?”

It’s always struck me as odd that someone pretty, can spew such vile things. Leaning in so that our faces are only inches apart, I growl, “You need to watch your mouth.”

She rears back like I’ve slapped her. “You can’t talk to me like that.”

Nudging Evans, she’s indignant, her eyes blazing with fury. “Did you hear him? Did you hear how he’s talking to me?”

Shrugging her off, he pushes himself up into a sitting position with a wince. “Give it a rest, Sadie.”

“Fuck.” She chuckles angrily, getting to her feet. Standing in front of the TV, still only wearing her tiny bikini, she places her hands on her hips. “Did you all take turns of his sloppy hole? Was he that good? All stretched out and loose?”

Blake sighs, looking past her and pretending to watch the TV. “Shut your fucking mouth before one of us shuts it for you.”

He wasn’t the kind of alpha to get all shouty and aggressive when he was angry, no, his wrath was quieter. He reminded me of a pot, slowly simmering away until it eventually exploded.

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