Page 59 of Knot Unwanted: Part Two

As we climb into our SUV, Stone turns to me in the back seat. “You okay?” he asks quietly.

I nod, but my hands are trembling slightly. Not from fear, though there’s plenty of that, but from adrenaline. “I’m okay. I will be. When we get her back.”

“We will,” Stone promises. His gaze meets mine, then Jax’s. “We will.”

Chapter 13

Finn

The road feels long. Every mile put behind us feels no closer to where we need to be. I keep my eyes on the road even though I’m not even the one driving.

In the side mirror, I spot the Ashgraves following closely behind.

We’re going to end this.

“Finn,” Jax says, eyes flicking from the road to me. “You stick close to Stone. No heroics. I know you can handle yourself, but these Ashgraves…”

“I don’t trust them,” I finish for him.

He nods. “They’re not like us. They don’t have the same…boundaries.”

“I noticed,” I say dryly.

As we race down the road, I can’t stop thinking about Hailey. Is she alright? Has Ren caught up with her yet? She’s so different from me. Gentle where I’m abrasive, kind where I’m suspicious. How she somehow saw past all my defenses, all my walls, and loved me anyway, I’ll never know.

I need her back.

“Jax,” I say suddenly, “did you mean what you said back there? About Heath not leaving alive?”

His eyes meet mine in the mirror again, something cold and resolute in his gaze. “Yes.”

We’ve never talked about murder before. It wasn’t something I’d have thought any of us capable of. But now…

I stare out the windscreen, my teeth clenching.

“Good.”

Stone gives me a curious look, but I don’t elaborate. I don’t have to. Thinking about Hailey in the hands of people who would hurt her,useher, I feel something dangerous rising within me. Something that has nothing to do with societal expectations and everything to do with the bone-deep need to protect my mate.

Maybe this is what it means to be an omega. Not the passive, gentle creature society says I should be, but this—this fierce, burning need to safeguard what’s mine.

“They’re calling,” Stone says as his phone lights up. He answers, putting it on speaker.

“Change of plans,” Riordan’s voice comes through. “We have intel that Heath is moving. She’s evacuating the facility as we speak.”

Jax curses under his breath. “How do you know?”

“We have our sources,” Riordan replies vaguely. “She’s heading to a secondary location. Private airstrip about twenty miles east of the facility.”

“She’s running,” Stone says.

“Clever bitch,” Declan’s voice chimes in from the background.

Jax’s hands tighten on the steering wheel. “If she gets on a plane…”

“We’ll lose her,” I finish, my heart sinking.

“Not necessarily,” Stone says, pulling out his laptop. “Ren has apps here that might track her movements if we can get a lock on her phone or vehicle.”

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