Page 77 of Knot All is Crystal
“Where’s Crystal?” I try to keep my voice level, but aggression bleeds into it.
He closes the door some, leaving it open only a crack. “Who are you?”
“Crystal!” I bellow before shoving hard against the cracked door. The man hits the wall, shouting and swearing.
Crystal slides into the room in just her underwear, her face red and swollen like she’s been crying.
“What did you do to her?” I snarl, heaving the other man up by his shirt. “Crystal, get behind me.”
“Puck!” she shouts. “Put him down!” She rushes me, pulling on my arms. “Stop, he didn’t do anything!”
The man narrows his eyes at me, his face otherwise blank. Does he not realize the danger he is in under my hands? “Puck, huh?” he spits.
As soon as the words are out of his mouth, two more sets of feet slide into the entryway. One is a red-haired younger man with tattoos, and the other is –
“The Alpha from Prism?” I say, immediately dropping the man I had pinned to the wall. “Crystal, we talked about this.”
“Yeah, so did we,” the DJ Alpha from the club snarls at me. “And she’s worth whatever bullshit your boss will try to put us through.”
“Us?” I look at the three men, all quite different in appearance, before rubbing my face. “Did you form a fucking pack, Queenie?”
Why does the thought of that make my stomach hurt?
The man I had pinned against the wall slides between us, a growl much bigger than his slight frame filling the air. Alpha, then. “It’s none of your fucking business what my Omega does.”
“It’ll be my business when I’m the one sent to collect you for Kieran,” I tell him, stepping closer into his space. “It’ll be my business when I’m the one carving you up.”
“You could just not,” the DJ says. “Like, you could just forget you ever saw us here.”
My head fucking hurts.
I turn to Queenie, trying to talk some sense into her. “Look, I know, these are your Alphas, and you’re lonely. But this won’t be forever.”
“He’s a Beta.” She points to the tattooed man.
“Huh?”
“This isn’t just about me being lonely or drawn to my Alphas. He’s a Beta.” Something stirs in me at the words.
So she’d accept a Beta into her pack?
Interesting.
“Regardless of designation, if Kieran finds out, they’re dead, Queenie. You know that.”
Crystal steps towards me, and it’s a battle to keep my eyes off her legs, to keep my mind from running back to how she looked with them spread. “Why don’t you help me escape, Puck? Hell, let’s get out together.” She reaches towards me and then drops her hands as if she thinks better of it. When she speaks again, her voice is quieter for only me to hear. “I know that this enforcer persona is not you.”
“You know we can’t do that, Queenie.” I can’t keep the despair out of my voice.
We’re getting dangerously close to the things I came here to tell her. But seeing her with these men reminds me that I can’t.
There is no safety for Crystal Manson.
A King will always hunt his Queen.
Even if the Queen begs for freedom, she’s shackled by her crown.
“You know that’s not how this story ends, Crystal,” I tell her gently, reaching out for her hands. She slides hers into mine, and I squeeze them. “Do you think this is truly the life I want for you? But Kieran will never let you go. Not now, not ever.”
