Page 74 of Knot All is Crystal
I nod, finally succeeding in climbing out of my pants. I prop myself up in the nest with my leg on display to all three men.
Maverick runs his finger down the snakes and flowers that decorate my thigh. “It’s gorgeous,” he whispers. “You do good work, Gagey boy.”
“She’s come to see me every three months for four years to get a piece done. I could never figure out why, but I knew the timing was intentional.”
“It was. Do you guys know what happens when you bite an Omega who isn’t in heat?”
Emmanuel sucks on his teeth. “It fades during the heat, if not reinforced, right?”
“It does, but until then, it’s still a real bond as long as it’s reciprocated.” I take a deep breath, pull my hair off my neck, and turn around. “And when it’s not reciprocated, it’s called a blighted bond.”
Growls fill the air, shocking me. Neither Maverick nor Emmanuel seems like the type to growl, but I guess their protective Alpha instincts went wild.
“It’s like a wound,” Maverick says quietly. “It looks like it never healed.”
“It doesn’t. It aches, but I’ve gotten used to it now after all this time.” I drop my hair and turn back around, shocked at how pale Gage looks as he stares at me.
“Every three months. Omegas go into heat roughly every three months. You’ve been bitten every three months for four years and come to see me right after.” He slaps his hand over his face and darts out of the room.
We can hear his retching in the quiet he leaves behind.
Emmanuel gently gathers me in his arms and wraps me up tightly against his chest. There is a slight quiver in his limbs, and I realize he’s holding me for him as much as he is for me.
A stuttering, broken purr rolls from my chest in an attempt to soothe my Alpha. He smiles against my hair, and I can feel his body relax.
Gage comes stumbling back into the nest, his face ruddy and eyes watery. “I’m so sorry, I… Crystal, why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you tell me you were in trouble? I would’ve done something.”
“That’s the problem. No one can do anything, Gage. Going to see you helped me take my body back in a small way every time it happened. I will forever be grateful to you for that. I went off suppressants the first time he bit me, opting to go through heats without a pack rather than wear it on my body any longer.”
The memory of that first heat rises to the surface. I thrashed in the nest, on my own, for days, trying to get relief with toys. Screaming and wailing, begging for help in an empty room.
I bite back tears. “But he didn’t care, of course. As soon as he noticed it faded, he bit me again.”
“Who’s he, Crystal?” Emmanuel’s voice is low and dark in a way I never expected from him.
“Kieran Cobb,” Maverick answers for me. “Right? That makes sense based on what you’ve told me.”
“Who’s Kieran Cobb?” Gage asks, subtly scooting closer to me before resting his hand on my ankle. That’s when I realize they’re all touching me because Maverick’s hand is still on my thigh.
“Kieran Cobb owns Prism, the nightclub downtown. But he is also the leader of the Conglomerate.” I grab my sequined cherry pillow and start picking at the shiny disks. “He’s a drug lord and a trafficker. And my brother-in-law got into debt with him and then died. They were going to collect from my sister, who was pregnant with my niece, and I couldn’t let that happen. She was grieving. When we lost our parents, Eve took me in and put her life on hold for me. She scrimped and saved to send me to the Omega Academy, and we still had to take out loans. But it wasn’t as much as it could’ve been. She’s always done everything for me. I couldn’t let her lose her husband and then immediately have the memories she held of him destroyed. I couldn’t have her or Hannah put at risk.”
Tears fall down my cheeks as I avoid eye contact with the men around me. If I don’t keep going and get distracted by their expressions, I may never tell them the whole story.
“So I took on his debt. I was told I just needed to work for Kieran for a bit, and then it’d be paid off, and I’d be free to go on my way.” I scoff bitterly. “Of course, it wasn’t that easy. I had been there a week or so, working as a cocktail waitress, when I got called into Kieran’s office. He said he had some very important clients coming and needed me to take care of them.”
I swallow down the bile that rises at the memory.
Clammy hands groping me, tugging my hair, running their noses down my neck.
Kieran, bursting through the door, barking until they left me alone, and carrying me to his office.
“It was a setup, of course. Serve these Alphas and nearly get taken advantage of, and then Kieran sweeps in and saves the day. He bit me as soon as he got me alone, claiming it was the only way he knew how to protect me while I worked for him.” I look up, and I’m trapped in Maverick’s gaze. “I think he always intended to trap me with him from the first moment he saw me. Because every time I asked when the debt would be paid off, he would threaten my family. And then he got me my job at the Design Clinic to spy on Walter because I had an advanced degree.”
“Dr. Talbot works for the Conglomerate?” Emmanuel asks from behind me.
“He’s in debt to Kieran, too. He’s their on-call doctor when ‘negotiations’ get out of hand.” I pull a red sequin from the front of the pillow and roll it between my fingers. “Anyways, long and depressing story short, Kieran will never let me go. He…”
I almost tell them what happened with the foreign Alphas, about the fizz and the collar.
