Page 38 of Ruin Me Knot
Gabriel’s groan is agonized, his cock twitching in her mouth as he fights his own release. "Fuck, fuck…Leah…Omega…"
She drinks down everything he can give her and when he’s spent, she releases his cock with a sigh. Ronan and Gabriel guide her until she’s stretched out over the length of my body.
Her knee hits my hard cock, and I hiss. "Careful!"
Gabriel chuckles. "Feeling a bit sensitive, brother?"
She melts into me, her body pliant and heavy. Her cheek presses into the hollow of my throat, her breath soft against my collarbone as she sleeps. Her curves settle against me, her legs tangled with mine, her fingers curling loosely over my chest like she’s claiming purchase in her exhaustion.
I didn’t find my release and he knows it, but nothing can make me regret a little bit of discomfort in the wake of our Omega’s satiation. "You know I am, but I’m happy to give her what she needs. Besides, I’m the one with her sleeping over the top of me. I have hours of holding her all to myself now."
That should put a fucking stop to his razing. Gabriel’s longing gaze slides over her form as he runs a hand over his face and I’m immediately contrite. He’s only trying to put some levity into this situation. All too soon, reality presses in on all of us. "I’m afraid her suffering is going to intensify with the next wave of her heat. She was damn near insatiable. It took the three of us this time."
"She’s going to want our knots at some stage. It’s the only way to ease her heat. The only way she’ll not be in pain," I say, then pause. "Any more than she already is."
Ronan’s hands linger on her waist before he stands up. "I’ll prepare the toys we have. If she can’t accept our knots, then we’ll try for the next best thing."
I hate how she’s so terrified, she can’t accept the most basic of our help, but I understand how trauma works. It isn’t logical. It’s a stubborn, senseless beast. It doesn’t bend for logic or soften for kindness. I’ve witnessed victims flinch from shadows, scrape at their own skin to be rid of memories, hoard food in preparation for the days they think they’ll starve.
That’s part of the reason we became mercenaries after our marine careers. We wanted to protect people who couldn't protect themselves. There are cruelbastards in this world who shouldn’t have oxygen to breathe, and sometimes it takes bigger monsters to stop them.
Gabriel kneels and guides a strand of hair off her face, "Her scent’s still wrong. Whatever Hardwick dosed her with, it’s not done fighting her system."
"She’s resting at least. We might as well use the time to our advantage to work out where Hardwick is bailed up," Gabriel says.
"Bring what you’ve found in here. I, for one, don’t want to go into a room our Omega isn’t in, and since she’s sleeping so well on you, Jax, I say we leave her where she’s most comfortable," Ronan says.
"You got it, brother." Gabriel heads for the office while I monitor Leah’s sleep. Her skin is flushed a healthy pink, but her cheeks are far too hollow and the bruises under her eyes far too dark. I spread my palm over her back. Even asleep she needs to get used to touch that doesn’t harm. She needs every bit of contact we can give. Touch-starved doesn’t begin to describe her state.
Ronan tucks a throw rug over Leah before he sits on the opposite couch, careful of his still hard cock.
Gabriel spreads prints and schematics of the old industrial rail network over the coffee table.
"I broke through the city's firewalls and got the latest schematics."
I prop my head on a pillow without disturbing Leah, so I can see the prints and scan the diagrams, following his finger as he traces branching tunnels and old maintenance corridors. My mind sifts through the requirements. Space for a lab. Multiple escape routes. Access to power without drawing attention.
“Rule out anything under the river or caved in. Hardwick needs power and water for bio work. Plus waste disposal for whatever she’s cooking up.”
Gabriel circles two points on the map. "This building has a service yard with a secondary substation. This one still has an active power junction and access to the old Kingsford sewer line. There was a spike in the water usage there six weeks ago. I pulled the city’s meter logs. Found a surge, then nothing."
"If there wasn’t an accident draining water, that could be her,” Ronan says. "Have you found any suspicious supply runs, Gabe?"
Gabriel thumbs through a pile of manifests before folding the sheet in half and highlighting lines. "There are two flagged supply runs to non-residential drop sites. Labeled as cleaning products, but the quantities are way off. Plus, there’s a freight receipt for medical grade cylinders and filters."
Ronan marks the locations with his pen. "That’s six possibles so far. We have to narrow them down before we move. I’m not relying on anyone but ourselves to end this."
"I’ll pull energy logs, private freight manifests, and traffic cam feeds around these sites." Gabriel rests against the base of the couch where he sits on the floor. “Cross-reference everything tonight.”
I nod, tension in my jaw. "Let’s break this up and hit all the city databases tonight. We don’t move until we cut this list into two distinct possibilities."
"And what do we do if she’s not at any of them?” Gabe asks.
Ronan glances at Leah, protective anger simmering in his eyes. "Then we keep hunting. Hardwick’s got to be somewhere. Wherever she’s hiding, we’ll find her. And when we do, there’ll be nothing left for the authorities to sift through."
Chapter Seventeen
Leah
