Page 158 of Knot All is Crystal
“That’s the doctor you work with, right?” Maverick asks her quietly. “His sister is missing?”
“He never said anything, but I haven’t seen him much.” She scrubs her hands down her face. “This has to stop. We have to do something.”
“We are. Pack Lupine is.” Maverick’s voice is firm as he kisses our Omega. “We’ll call them and see how we can help.”
“There!” Trina says, sitting back and wiping the tattoo, oblivious to what happened between Mav and our Omega. “Done.”
She hands me a mirror, and I turn my head side to side to see my new art. It’s red around the edges, but the white ink she used for the imprints will look so good once it heals. “I love it,” I tell her before turning to my partners. “Do you two like it?”
Both of them shake off the newscast’s melancholy and turn to admire my new ink.
“Obsessed is a better work for it,” Maverick says, hopping up and running to me. He captures my lips with his in a way that is so casual and normal that it makes my stomach flip.
Crystal slides up beside me and places a gentle kiss on my collarbone. “Agreed. They’re perfect.”
“It’s your turn,” I tell her, grabbing her shoulders and spinning her around.
“My turn? Why?”
“I have a mural to finish.”
* * *
Three hours later,I finish shading a final snake while Crystal chews on cherry candy. She’s wearing an eye mask, saying she didn’t want to see it until I was totally done. Maverick saw the design and kissed me before leaving, saying this was my moment with Crystal and he’d see us at home.
I set down the tattoo gun.
“Before you look,” I tell her quietly, “I want to tell you a story.” I take my gloves off and grasp her hands.
“There was once a woman who was beautiful and kind. She had no ill intentions and was loved by many. But a man became obsessed with her and wanted her for himself. He took her and tried to break her.”
She clutches my hand tightly, her knuckles turning white.
“There are a few ways the story goes from here, so I’ll tell you the one I like the most. The woman dragged herself to her friend, hurting and worried she’d never be whole again, and begged for help. So her friend transformed her, giving her the power to protect herself from the men who would hurt her.”
I reach forward and slip her blindfold off, not taking my eyes off of her as she looks down at her leg. “Medusa was misunderstood, you know? Poseidon coveted her, and some will say the Goddess Athena cursed her to be hideous and to turn men to stone so she’d always be lonely, blaming her for Poseidon’s actions, but I like to think Athena was looking out for her. You see, Medusa was a servant of Athena, so when she lay before Athena in so much pain, full of fear of what had been done to her, Athena gave Medusa a way to protect herself.
“She made Medusa feared. Powerful. Deadly. Poseidon didn’t break her. Sure, she came out of their encounter different, changed, but she was still perfect.”
Crystal’s quiet tears have become heavy sobs as she hovers her fingers over the beautiful and fierce face I’ve tattooed on her thigh. New snakes have joined the ones I’ve done over the past four years, and a few flowers were added to tie it all together into a portrait of a powerful Gorgon.
“Two years ago, I drew this face. I didn’t know why, but I couldn’t get Medusa’s story out of my head while I tattooed you. I knew one day, when you were ready to turn whatever hurt you to stone, I’d give her to you.”
Crystal slips off the table and climbs onto my lap, burying her face in my chest. Her hot, wet tears soak into my shirt as I stroke her back. I can’t say how long she cries for, only that I hold her through all of it.
Eventually, the tears dry up, and she sits back, looking at her thigh. “She’s beautiful,” she whispers, lightly touching the tattoo wrap that covers it. “I can’t believe you’ve planned this for so long.”
She climbs to her feet and weaves her fingers through mine. I bend down to kiss her on the side of the head. “I’m glad you like it.”
“I love it, and I love you,” she says as she presses a kiss against my lips. “Now, how much do I owe you?”
SIXTY-ONE
Maverick’s houseis crowded with this many Alphas in it. All four from Pack Lupine, plus the three from my pack, make seven Alphas in a single dining room.
“We do have a lead,” says Sebastian. He’s taken Atlas’s disappearance hard since he was the one who was supposed to get him out. He chews on the edge of his thumbnail. “There’s been movement outside an abandoned building in the warehouse district. Intel says it was used for medical manufacturing before it shut down.”
“Why do you think that’s the place?” I ask. Since I saw that newscast about Dr. Knight’s sister three days ago, I have thrown everything into helping Pack Lupine. It’s not been easy to get them to trust that I can handle it, but eventually, all of them agreed that there is a benefit to having an Omega on their team. I am underestimated by most people who encounter me.
