Page 19 of Chain Me Knot

“Have you...” I swallow hard, afraid to hope but needing to know. “Have you heard from Leah?”

Mira's expression falls, shadows crossing her features. “No. I've been putting our advertisement inThe Daily Heraldas we planned, but...” She shakes her head, fingers tightening around Adrian's. “Nothing yet. I’ll keep putting in that ad and waiting for her as long as it takes, but now you're here...” Hope lights her features, taking some of our shared pain away. “You need to focus on getting better and then we’ll find her together. There isn’t a reality where we won’t be together again.”

I wish that were possible, but I don’t trust the curveballs life throws. I wish I could strip away the years we both suffered, back to a day where we were young. Before our designations sentenced us. Before alphas. “I hope she hasn’t suffered.”

Silence hangs heavily between us, Mira's eyes glistening in the muted hospital light. Past and present collide, reminders of all we've lost, all we've endured, fracturing any illusion of safety. Mira leans closer to Adrian, the simple gesture making my stomach twist. The ease between them reminds me of bonds I've never trusted, bonds I never asked for, carved into my skin by alphas with cruel intentions.

She must sense the direction of my thoughts because her gaze softens, cautious but determined, as though bracing herself for a reaction I’m unlikely to welcome.

“Emma…we need our alphas. And you've been claimed by one of your scent-matches. Being away from them...” She hesitates, choosing her words carefully. “It could be dangerous for you.”

“More dangerous than chains? More dangerous than that basement?” Nothing could make me risk facing that kind of nightmare again. I’d rather die than endure anything like it.

Mira's expression turns serious as she weighs me up. “When Dr. Chen clears you, I'll help you understand everything Haven kept from us. There's so much we didn't know.”

“Can you reverse a bond?” I cut in, desperate for the only information that matters. Right now, I don’t care about scent-matched bonds overriding partial bonds, no matter how bad the latter are. I don’t wantanybond. I just want to be free.

The claiming bites around my neck throb as if knowing I'm plotting their destruction. I reach out and clutch her hand. “In the basement I didn’t have access to anything sharp, but I’m in a hospital. Is there an operation where they can remove the skin? I don’t care how painful it is, I just want them gone.”

Before she can answer, a crash echoes from the corridor. Shouting voices follow—sharp, overlapping, frantic—mingled with the staccato of running feet pounding against the floor. My heart rate spikes, a wild, erratic thudding that drowns out everything else. Adrian moves with inhuman speed, one large hand wrapping around my bicep helping me out of the bed as he sweeps Mira to his side with an arm around her waist. His massive arm bands around me as he clutches the IV pole and he crushes me to his other side.

“Get in the bathroom,” he growls, shoving us through the door. The sound rumbles from his chest, pure alpha command, and my body betrays me instantly. I shrink back against the cold tile wall, trying to make myself smaller. Shadows bleed over the white tile and absorb the light from the fluorescent shine from above.

They’re coming for me. They’re going to take me back to the basement. They’re going to show me what a good omega should be like. I’ll never see the light of day again.

Can't breathe.

Can't think.

Adrian's protective stance becomes Matthew's looming shadow. The antiseptic hospital smell turns to mold and fear and old blood.

“No, no, no,” I whimper, my voice barely audible, a broken plea swallowed by the rising tide of panic. My knees buckle, and I slide down the wall, the tiles scraping against my back as I collapse into a heap. My fingers claw at the claiming bites that throb beneath my skin. My nails dig in harder, desperate to tear them out, but all I find is my own skin, hot and slick with fresh blood.

Somewhere far away, Mira’s voice cuts through the haze. Soft, insistent, a lifeline I can’t grasp. “Emma, look at me. You’re here. You’re safe.”

I want to answer her, to claw my way back, but her voice drowns beneath blood rushing in my ears. I’m lost in the space between basement memories and bathroom tiles, between past terror and present fear. The world narrows to the sound of my own harsh breathing, to the phantom feel of the chain around my ankle, rough hands reaching for me, the stench of my alphas’ arousal and growled commands my body can’t disobey to slick so they can fuck.

A wounded, terrified sound rebounds off the bathroom tiles. High-pitched. Raw. Relentless. The shrill cry amplifies the chaos in my mind, spiraling endlessly until I realize it’s coming from me. I’m the one making that noise, but even knowing so, I can’t stop. I can’t force my mouth closed; the sound just keeps tearing out of me, rising higher and higher and higher.

Then, suddenly, there are arms around me, encircling me like a shield. I'm cradled against a broad chest, a steady heartbeat drowning out the chaos in my head. A deep purr vibrates around me, the sound so pure and perfect it resonates through my bones and wraps around my soul. My cries die away as I lose myself in that beautiful sound. I melt into the vibrations that sync with my heartbeat.

Large hands stroke my back in slow, soothing circles, and the red haze in my mind dissipates. I jam my nose against warm skin, inhaling deeply. A scent envelops me as perfectly as the purr. Delicious smoky whiskey and leather, a rich, intoxicating blend that’s more dry leather than smoke.

I don't know how long I stay like that, wrapped in warmth and that impossible scent. Time loses meaning, marked only by steady heartbeats and gentle touches,but somehow, I manage to lift the weight of my eyelids and blink reality back into focus.

I'm still in the bathroom but it’s not Mira’s gentle reassurance or Adrian’s grave presence that seizes me. It’s the burning heat in the chocolate-brown eyes staring down at me. Those eyes, deep and molten, lock onto mine with an intensity that commands my full attention. There’s no growl in them, no threat, just a fierce, unspoken vow that pins me in place and makes my breath catch for an entirely different reason.

Asher.

I’ve been breathinghisscent. Been anchored byhisheartbeat. Have taken comfort inhisarms.

“Are you better now, Emma?” he asks, his voice rough with concern, with something deeper that makes me want to curl into him and never leave… and fuck, I don’t want to feel like this.

“Stay away from me!” I scramble away on the cold tiles, putting distance between us before I can give in to the urge to flatten myself against his chest and beg him to make that purr again. Because I can't want this. Can't need this. Can't let another alpha have this much power over me. No matter how much his claiming bite burns to complete this one-sided bond.

Chapter Eight

Emma

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