Page 135 of Knot All is Crystal
I’m flying up the stairs, Gage close behind me, as I pray to whoever will listen that my Omega is okay.
I can hear the Beta’s gasping, panting breaths as he tries to keep up with me. I slam into the door to Kieran’s office, but it’s locked. My keys are heavy in my pocket as I fumble to get them out and unlock the door.
We pile in but stop short just inside the doorway at the sight in front of us.
Blood is splattered around the office. On the floor, the walls, the furniture. A trembling Crystal is bathed in it as she stands, gasping for breath, over a nearly unrecognizable Kieran Cobb. There’s a small, blunt dagger in her hand.
His letter opener.
Kieran’s body is riddled with small, shallow puncture wounds, and his face is busted and battered. A heavy paperweight, covered in blood, lies discarded on the floor beside his caved-in head.
As I step towards Crystal, she spins, and I hardly recognize her.
Her features have always been sharp and angular, but now they look foreign, twisted in agony and fury. Her hair hangs limp, blood clinging to the purple and blue strands and dripping onto her bare shoulders.
She’s completely naked.
Beneath the blood, which I can’t tell if it’s hers or his, I can see the beginning of bruises and some swelling. Her right arm hangs limply beside her, clutching the letter opener.
Her unseeing eyes look through me, and when I take a step towards her, she snarls and lunges, blade aimed directly at me.
“Crystal,” I bark, but it doesn’t have much weight behind it because of the suppressant drugs that are still in my system. “It’s me. Puck. Your Alpha.”
I get no response from her, only a growl.
In the back of my mind, something tickles with familiarity.
“Gage, no sudden movements,” I tell the Beta behind me. Not that I have to worry. He’s been frozen since he laid eyes on her. “I don’t think Crystal is home right now.”
“No fucking kidding,” he hisses. “What the hell happened here?”
I survey the room as I slowly reach for my phone. “What happened here is that we need Lupine and the Hawks here now, and to call Mav and Manny.”
I place the necessary calls, and despite Harvey and Wyatt yelling at me that we can’t possibly pull off a full takeover without the trafficking ring under control, they agree that extraction has to happen now.
Unfortunately, Crystal’s actions have forced our hands, and now we’re out of time. We have to hope we’ve got enough in place to transfer power to the Hawks.
Gage pushes his phone back into his pocket and updates me on his call. “Manny and Maverick are already here. They followed us.”
“Trey will need to let them in,” I mutter, trying to figure out how the fuck we’re going to manage this without more casualties. Especially since it appears that I have a homicidal Omega on my hands.
“Move slowly,” I say to Gage without looking away from Crystal. “And leave the room. Find Trey. Tell him I need him, and Queenie needs him, and to follow you. Don’t come busting up here, and don’t tell him what’s happening.”
I hope Trey’s affection for Crystal will be enough to get him to listen to a stranger he saw led to the interrogation room.
Thankfully, Gage doesn’t backtalk, and once he leaves, I take another tentative step towards Crystal.
I think I know what happened.
When I researched the blight bond, some reports suggested that the bond had the potential to cause the Omega to fracture from the person. A protective measure meant to hide the conscious mind from trauma until things are safe again.
In most Omegas, it happens in the form of a drop. But blighted Omegas don’t have the luxury of that protection. The pheromone poison caused by the forced bond rips the conscious mind from the Omega instincts.
Something must have triggered her Omega. I don’t think threats against her would be enough.
When Gage returns with Trey, Crystal stares down the two Betas, panting.
“What the fuck happened?” Trey yelps, taking a few steps out of the room. “Is Kieran dead?”
