Page 33 of Tied in Knots
He turns to face me, his eyes feral and unfocused. Every cell in my omega body winces and wants me to run, but I force myself to inch further forward.
“How do you know your stepdad didn’t send him?” he snarls angrily, but I don’t think the rage is directed at me.
I shake my head. “He wouldn’t do Pete’s bidding. He hates him as much as I do. I was running to him yesterday, but he was…unavailable. He obviously tracked me down.”
“Can’t risk it,” he clips out and turns back to Derek, ready to beat on him some more, even though Benjamin still has his fist bunched in the back of his t-shirt.
“Xander,” I say and take another step forward.
“Faith,” Harvey’s quiet, steady voice cuts over what I was going to say in warning.
I glance at him and shake my head before I edge in right next to Xander. I know in my bones that he wouldn’t hurt me. Not even when he is like this.
I reach out and place my hand over his heart.
Benjamin’s hand comes down softly over my wrist to pull me away, but I shake him off.
“I know here,” I say to Xander, tapping him lightly on the chest. “He isn’t here to cause me harm.”
Xander stares at my hand. I force myself not to pull it away. When I first touched him, I felt his racing heart. In the last few seconds, he has calmed down. I doubt it is my words, so he is reacting to my touch. I figured him for being wired slightly differently upstairs. He wanted to be near me, whereas the other three kept their distance. I don’t know how it works yet, not even in the slightest, but it’s clear that my touch affects him.
He reaches out, his hand hovering over mine. Benjamin’s hand hovers over his. It’s a waiting game to see what he will do. He must be a bit unpredictable if the other alphas wait to take their cues from him.
Xander’s hand drops onto mine and he grips my fingers, tightly, but not crunching them.
“Are you sure?” he asks, raising his lovely green eyes to meet mine.
I nod. “I’m sure.”
He takes a step back and Benjamin lets him go. I take him to the side, lacing our fingers together that are still resting over his gently beating heart.
Benjamin hauls Derek up and over his shoulder, stalking away into a downstairs room with Sebastian and Harvey following.
I look up at Xander. “Do we follow?”
“You should go back to rest,” he replies, turning towards me and curling my hair behind my ear.
I shake my head. “I think I need to speak to Derek. Find out what the fuck is going on.”
“He’ll be out for a while.”
I giggle, surprising him. “Fancy yourself as Mike Tyson?” I ask.
He snorts. “I know how hard I hit. Trust me. He won’t be coming around anytime soon. Sorry.”
I shrug. “I guess he could’ve tried a bit harder to explain what he was doing here.”
“He trespassed. That’s not okay.” A frown clouds his features.
“I know. I’ll tell him.”
“Are you staying, Faith?” he asks me after a pause.
“I think so,” I reply hesitantly. “Apart from the way you brought me here, I haven’t felt in danger or scared since. You’ve treated me well…”
He interrupts me. “We care about you.”
“I get the feeling that you do, but this is still not what I had in mind when I met a pack I wanted to be with.” I say it carefully because I’m not sure how he will react to my words. I don’t mean them as an insult or to be mean in any way, it’s just a fact. My head is spinning and really, I kind of want to see the beta to make sure that they’re telling me the truth about that. Not that I’m going to ask to see him. Pretty sure that wouldn’t go down very well, but catching sight of him, maybe even speaking to him would be a good indicator that things are on the up and up.
