Page 34 of Rot In Knotty Pieces

“Kestrel!” I snarl.

I grab her hair and shake her violently. She’s like a doll in my arms, unresisting.

“Do you want to see your omega die?”

“It would be better if we did die,” she whispers.

I toss her into the centre of the chamber. She hits the ground and rolls. I stalk after her, tossing my hand in the air and snarling when Raptor tries to intervene.

“Not us, you selfish bitch. Him.”

A tensing of her eyes is all I see before she explodes up, rage in every line of her body. Her hair crackles with electricity, and she grips my throat tight.

“What do you mean?” she hisses.

“You’re both going into heat, and we’re all being hunted. Father is coming. Did you think your little punishment was going to satisfy him? He wants them, and he’s not going to stop until he has them back. You don’t get to quit because you feel shitty. The rest of us aren’t quitting. We’re all here. You chose to take the pain. Now get up, and keep fighting so we can keep them alive.”

Kestrel flinches hard.

I grin at her. “Jay and I are the only ones who know where to find what we stole. He’s going to tear that information from our flesh. But now he’s got the perfect weapon to ruin us.”

Kestrel’s eyes turn bleak. “Our pack.”

“Yes,” I hiss at her, stepping back into her space, mocking her with a smile that I know will push her into the predatory side of her nature. “Our pack. All of them about to fall into a double heat, defenseless, vulnerable, without the knowledge that we have. You are the protector. So fucking do your damn job and protect them.”

She screams and shoves me. I hit the wall hard, falling to my knees in the dark, laughing because she’s back, and it doesn’t matter how much of an ass I have to be, I will be what we need to be.

“You got us caught,” Kestrel hisses. “You took us there.”

I stare at her, feeling the unease ripple through the chamber, the violence. She’s not wrong, but it wasn’t intentional; I didn’t know. But I am the one who will shoulder the blame and self hate. That’s my job.

“Yes, I did.”

“You did this to us! You hurt us!” Kestrel howls.

The chamber shakes, the foundations trembling, and out of the corner of my eye, I see glowing eyes and the flicker of flames in the dark.

Who is that?

“Yes, we got hurt. But we’re alive. We survived. I did that, too!”

“I HATE YOU!” she screams and drops to her knees, howling.

I stare at her. “That’s okay. Hate me. But get off your damn ass and save our pack.”

The chamber falls silent. Jay and Dove watch me but don’t speak. Merle hugs herself and stares at the wall. Raptor stares at Kestrel.

“Sort your shit out. We don’t deserve them, but for some reason, they want us, the least you can do is fight for them. After all, it’s you who brought Father down on us.”

She roars and charges me, but I turn and let it fade away, blinking back into the world where I find my fingers are almost numb. I sit back on my butt and wrap my arms around my knees. The birds call and the sun flickers and dances through the canopy. It’s really pretty out here.

We were meant to be travelling further, but I guess those plans are derailed.

I smell them before they reach me and force myself not to react.

Rose and Sage sit down on either side of me. Sage stares at me, I can feel it, but Rose doesn’t say anything.

“Aaron has been telling us about what you have done.”