By knotting her.
Well, damn.
Rage and Ash growl at Rowan’s words, banging against the doors to their stables again.
“Shut up!” Rowan snaps, whirling around to face them. “I could only pick one of you.”
“So you pickedhim?” Ash snarls.
“Can you fucking blame me?” Rowan yells back, his hands balling into fists by his sides. “Seriously. Look at yourself right now. I had to pick the one of you least likely to make things worse for us all. The goal here is to help Mirabelle survive this insane heat she’s been put through against her will.”
Ash opens his mouth like he’s going to protest again, the vein in his temple throbbing visibly.
“I don’t want to hear it!” Rowan snaps, surprisingly authoritative for a beta kid. Especially towards a pissed off alpha. His shoulders deflate, and he scrubs a hand down his face. “For what it’s worth, according to the doc, Mirabelle asked for all of us to help her through her heat. I even asked my dad for all three of you, but he insisted I could only bring one of you to make sure I can keep things under control.”
“I assume by all of us, that includes you, right?” I ask Rowan,nodding down to his hand where Mirabelle’s slick scent is the most concentrated.
I know the answer to the question, but now that the energy has toned down ever so slightly, I think it’s a good thing to recap to Ash and Rage, since they seem a little more willing to listen, after hearing Mirabelle wanted us all.
“Yeah,” Rowan shrugs. “This is fucked. Trust me, I know how fucked it is. I’ve—I’ve seen her?—“
Rowan shakes his head, taking a shaky breath to collect himself.
“I know Mirabelle would never want to pick favorites. Which is why we can’t let this be her picking favorites. This is me being the bad guy and picking the person who works in this fucked-up situation we’re in, okay?”
He cuts his gaze to Ash, who, despite his glares, has kept his mouth shut.
“When we get Mirabelle out of this fucked up heat—and we will, we have to—I can’t have you holding grudges against Mirabelle.” Rowan cuts his gaze to Rage, whose chest is heaving as he paces back and forth in front of his stable door. “That goes for you too, big guy.”
Rage is so lost that he doesn’t show any sign that he’s heard Rowan.
Hopefully, when this is all over and we get to spend time with Mirabelle again, we’ll all find some sort of equilibrium again.
Mirabelle is the glue holding our ragtag group of insane people with far too many issues together.
And it’s my job to save her.
Rowan hauls open the stable door, gesturing for me to get inside the transport cage.
I meet Ash’s gaze as we leave.
“You better not let her fucking die or I swear to God, I will rip your spine from your throat and fuck you up the ass with it,” Ash growls.
“Creative,” I huff, before giving him a serious nod. “She won’t die. I’ll make sure of it.”
I have no clue what condition she’ll be in, but I choose to believe my own words.
I remain crouched in the transport cage as Rowan drives me to a part of the farm I haven’t been to before. He maneuvers the ATV through rows of trailers before stopping in front of the one I assume is his.
“Don’t take offense to this,” Rowan says, stopping in front of the cage door, his gaze darting all over the place. He looks like he’s about to pass out from how much he’s hyperventilating. “But please don’t cause trouble. I—I don’t want to use it, but I have the remote on standby in case?—“
“Hey, breathe, kid,” I say, interrupting him.
His gaze cuts to me, his eyes widening.
I offer him a reassuring nod when he inhales a shaky breath.
“I know what I’m here for. Not gonna cause trouble. I just want to make sure Mirabelle’s okay.”
