Page 27 of Knot All Is Ruined: Part 1

Just when I didn’t think I could be more surprised by this conversation than I already was, the man I thought I knew best just blew my mind.

“When did she become ours?” Victor demanded, shooting to his feet. “I don’t remember laying claim to her. Wait, did we lay claim to her?” He backtracked, looking at all of us.

Since none of us seemed to have an answer for that question, we just turned to look at Petru hoping he would. Evidently, there was something that all of us missed if he was out here making those kinds of announcements.

Petru just growled and ran his hands through his hair again making it stand up on end. He looked as frazzled and frustrated as we all felt. “Seriously, you guys can’t truly be sitting there and telling me we didn’t pick her after spending the past few days at her bedside. Sorin, I saw the way you reacted to her when we discovered what she was. Hell, Cris almost didn’t let the Med Center staff take her from him. Obviously, all of us are feeling rather attached to her, even if you don’t want to admit it.”

I burst out laughing at this, her words running through my mind. “Yeah, even if I believed for a moment that you were right, there is no fucking way that woman is going to stick around. She’s properly ready to tell all of us to fuck right off for being male and Alphas. The moment Beth asked her about kids and heats, she flipped and started going on this rant about how she’s not a fucking breeder and everyone can fuck off. If you tell her she can go back, that will be her first priority.”

Both Cris and Petru looked at me disapprovingly, like it was my fault that she felt this way. Victor, who was still standing, his hands flexing in agitation, just glared at Sorin like he was waiting for the so-called boss to tell us his take on things. Ignoring my two lovers, I kept my attention on Sorin as well. It didn’t matter what the rest of us thought, if he told us we were keeping her, then that’s what we were damn well doing. No one went against Sorin’s orders. It was the one thing all of us were trained to do—never second guess your commanding officer.

“I think we take it one step at a time. We offer Dani—”

“Danella,” I cut in. “She made it incredibly clear that only her friends could call her Dani, which we are not.”

Sorin held my gaze for a moment, letting me know with that look he didn’t appreciate getting interrupted. Our leader was a fair man, but the one thing he hated most was to be interrupted. Usually Victor was the one to make that mistake though it seemed today was my day to fuck all the shit up.

“We offer Danella the proposal about her friends and see where that leads us. If she’s willing to agree and make it happen, then we’ll deal with what comes next at that point. Even with the position I’m in, I’m not sure I can acquire an Omega outright and not send her through basic training,” Sorin warned. “If that’s what happens, even fast-tracked with us all helping, it will take three to four weeks before they’ll let her go on a mission.”

That was the rub of it all for me. We couldn’t just take Danella at her word. She’d need to prove to us that the information she shared was accurate. In order to do that, she’d have to be granted mission status that required basic training just like any other soldier. How the fuck are we going to survive that long here on base? It had been years since we’d had a whole month to spend inactive. Of course, I’m sure there is plenty we could do in that time. I’d been in sore need of updating some of my equipment to the relevant information.

“You’re the one doing the talking, right?” Victor asked Sorin. “Because there’s no fucking way I’m going to be able to make any of it sound enticing. Hell, Toma got kicked out of the fucking room, and he’s the most charming out of us all.”

I growled out a fuck you and flipped the man. He just smiled and took his seat, blowing me a kiss that turned into him returning the middle finger. Victor was an asshole ninety percent of the time—but he was our asshole.

Sorin rolled his eyes at our antics, then shoved his hand into his pockets, telling me he was no longer worried about our reaction. “Of course, I’ll be the one to talk to her. Fuck, right now I think the only person who might be able to talk to her without causing more problems for us is Cris. She didn’t seem to be quite as hostile to him before.”

“Not sure that will apply anymore since I’m the one who fucking drugged her,” Cris pointed out. “She might hold a grudge against that as well.”

“All the more reason to leave it to me. I know how to talk to her, and I have all the information on getting her friends out of here. It won’t be easy, seeing as we need to get them closer to the Northern border for their people to grab them. However, as I said, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Sorin admitted.

A thought crossed my mind that I hadn’t quite considered before. “What happens if Lucian wants her back and comes looking for her? We know he wasn’t there at the Outpost, so he’s supposedly still out there. It could come to bite us in the ass,” I warned.

Sorin just nodded briefly then spoke. “The man would have to view her as more than property to come after her, and we know no Northerner could ever manage to pull that off. That’s one of the last things I’m worried about now that I know she’s not trying to get back to him. I’d been slightly afraid she might think the devil she knew would be better than the devil she didn’t. If all of us are in agreement, then I’ll talk to her about our plans when Beth feels she’s up to it.”

We all gave our consent just as the bell signaling dinner chimed down the hall. Now it was going to be a waiting game to see if this fiery little Omega was going to be reasonable or not.

Chapter fifteen

Two more days passed, and I made good on my promise to Bethany. I let her do what she needed to help me get better, and I was blown away by their medical advancement. I’d always believed that Oscad was on top of its game when it came to advancements. While that was true for industry and economics, I’d say the Southerners of Asturg were far beyond what Oscad could provide. The medications and treatments they had took an injury as severe as mine and cut the recovery time in half.

I no longer had a fractured skull, bruised brain, or concussion. I still struggled with headaches, and bright lights shining directly in my eyes hurt like hell, but overall, I was feeling human again. Bethany had forced me out of my room today and made me join the other recovering soldiers for lunch. They’d given me clothes to wear, black tactical pants along with a black T-shirt, and simple slip-on shoes—also black. It seemed to be the only color worn outside the Med Center staff. Why this seemed to be the color of choice I have not a fucking clue.

Walking through the buffet line, I filled my plate with all the delicious-smelling food. Oddly enough, I went for all the fresh veggies and things I’d been without the past three years. Having fluffy bread with butter along with a salad made my mouth water. What I couldn’t get over was the abundance of strawberries. They were my favorite fruit, and I swear, I could eat an entire plate full of them—or maybe I already had and learned the hard way I’d make myself sick doing it. Now I only took a few and saved them for the end of my meal. There was also plenty of meat, but when you have grass for animals to graze on, it made all the difference in the world.

Humming with delight, I mixed all my salad ingredients together before stabbing my fork into the mass of food. Just as I shoved the bite into my mouth, someone sat across from me. I’d picked a table in the corner out of the way so I didn’t have to share the table with anyone. There were plenty of other places for them to sit. Why the hell did they need to pick me?

“Hello, Danella, it’s nice to see you up and about looking far better than the last time we met,” the massive bald man said.

Hearing his voice, I stopped chewing and looked up at him full-on instead of the quick glance I’d done when he sat. Seeing those deep brown eyes once more and the invigorating scent of wintergreen and eucalyptus connected the dots—Sorin, his name was Sorin. I swallowed and grabbed my water to give myself another moment before responding. He just watched me with relaxed interest, waiting for me to say something.

What the hell did he expect me to say? Thanks for kidnapping me as I was running for my life? You should have let me die back there, so I didn’t have to continue living this life. Maybe I should just sit here and not answer at all, what would he do then?

Choosing to take that course of action, I took another fork full of food and continued to eat. There was a glimmer of humor in his gaze that told me he seemed to be amused by my choice. Still not saying anything, he just rested his elbow on the table and plopped his chin on his hand. Was he just going to watch me eat? It would seem that he was because I didn’t stop eating to ask and he just continued to wait me out. Once my plate was empty and all my water was gone, he took my tray and slid it over leaving nothing for me to use as a buffer.

“Now that you’ve gotten to eat, I’d like to discuss your future, as well as your friends’, here in South Asturg. I’m well aware of how things work up north, and I hope the short time you’ve been here you can see that we’re incredibly different. No breeder houses, no food shortage, and we try to treat every one of every designation equally as we can,” Sorin pointed out.

Even though I could tell he wasn’t trying to corner me or threaten me outright, I knew that this conversation wasn’t going to be about my needs or those of Violet or Tori. It was clear he wanted something, and I was the one he expected to get it from. The question was… would I be willing to give it?