Page 59 of Knot your Princess
A soft smirk plays on his lips. “Five minutes.” He holds his hand up, waggling his five fingers.
He’s so fucking cute, but I want to punch him because I know he’s hiding something, and I’m not happy that I have to sit around waiting for him to talk to me while he goes and talks to my dad. I guess that tells me everything I need to know about my feelings for the cheeky triplet.
ChapterThirty-Nine
Atlas
Knocking on Quinn’s open office door, I wait until he looks up. “Atlas, what is it?”
“Why am I still here?” I get straight to the point. Time is wasting.
He grunts. “Not that I need to tell you anything, but I have a feeling about you. The IPP isn’t all that’s going on here. I’m an old geezer, Atlas. I’ve seen and done everything. I know a smitten man when I see one, and to be frank, Sophia could do worse than you.”
“Ouch.”
“It’s a fucking compliment,. Plus, keep your enemies closer.” His ingratiating smile does nothing to quell the sudden nerves that have popped up at this conversation. But it needed to be had. I had to force it, or forever be stuck in limbo. Seeing what I’ve observed between Sophia and Cain, not to mention the third one who showed up here earlier, things are progressing in the way of a multiple mating, and if she gets to have those two fuckers, she gets to have me as well.
I frown. “What does that even mean? Who says I’m your enemy?” It’s a face. He knows what my business is.
“I’m not a fool. You planned to get close to Sugar in order to infiltrate my pack. There is nothing here for you in the way of crimes to be discovered, so you might as well focus your energies on Sugar. Her mother and I have big plans for our daughter. Plans which are complicated, and she will need a strong man in her life to lean on. Ormen,” he growls softly. “Is that it?”
“So you give me your blessing to be with Sophia? What else do you plan to do with me? I’m no longer being watched like a hawk, so does that mean I’m free to go?”
Quinn finally puts his pen down and sits back in his chair to regard me closely. “Is that what you want? Where would you go? The IPP have probably cut you off by now. You are packless, and without family, except the family you have here. I’ve known about you a long time, Atlas. Cain is like a son to me. If you can be a brother to him, you have a place here.”
“Well, fuck, when you put it like that,” I remark dryly. “What about Sophia? You didn’t answer me.”
He shrugs.
“Does Sophia know who I am?” My quiet tone is cautious, and I’m a little bit nervous. If she doesn’t, that means I have to tell her, and I’m not sure I can handle seeing her face fill with disgust and aimed in my direction.
He shakes his head. “I haven’t told her. I don’t know if Cain has.”
Probably not, or she wouldn’t have given me the time of day, never mind, agreed to talk with me.
“I’ll tell her,” I mutter, knowing this is what he expects.
He nods but doesn’t say anything else.
“Your dad would’ve been proud of you,” Quinn says eventually. “He picked you up off the side of the road and gave you a home, and I know he loved you before he died.”
It hits me in the heart like a bolt out of the blue. My relationship with my dad was complicated at best. Probably because I wasn’t really his. Who knows for sure? When he died, I felt relief rather than grief. Relief I could stop putting on a happy face and pretending that everything was okay, when I knew he disagreed with my career choice, and almost every decision I made before then.
“About that…how come you never told Cain about me?”
He sighs. “Cain joined our pack ten years ago. He was angry, lost and alone, recovering from a traumatic, abusive childhood, but not very well. When I found out about you, I couldn’t tell him. I didn’t want him to go over and over and torture himself withwhyyou ended up better off than him, well, as it were.”
“Like he’s doing now.”
“Exactly. I wanted to give him a home and place in our pack. I wanted him to try to move on and be the alpha I knew he could be with a bit of guidance.”
“I get it.” It actually hurts me to know how bad Cain had it. Yeah, my childhood wasn’t perfect, but Dad never once raised his hand to me. Just that bitter disappointment day in and day out.
“Do you have a mole in the IPP?” It’s a valid question. This guy seems to knoweverythingabout everything.
He smirks, which is all the confirmation I need for that. The thing is, while this could destroy him in so many ways, I’m now faced with the peculiar feeling of not giving a crap. I want to get to know Cain, and maybe also that Trent version, not to mention Sophia.
“Do you want to be part of this pack, Atlas?”
