Page 73 of Rot In Knotty Pieces

“The one where they found us out.”

Sage is quiet for so long I think maybe he’s left; instead, I find him standing in the shadows looking dangerous. His arms are tense and his legs spread. A warning runs up my spine, but this is my Sage. He won’t hurt me.

“Why are you thinking about that?”

“What happened to you after?” I say slowly. “It’s been driving me crazy for years.” I try to say it nonchalantly, but there’s a thread of hurt in my voice I can’t hide.

Several complicated expressions chase themselves across Sage’s face, but he settles on disbelief.

“I was ordered to go to that party, and I was there under duress. I was thinking about causing a massive disturbance when I saw you. None of them mattered. You were wearing the black tux with the white shirt opened almost to your navel and no tie, it was so risqué. It was the first time I’d seen you in months. You were irresistible.”

“I remember what happened.” With a growl, I rake my fingers through my hair. “I remember how you kissed me, and how everything was consensual, and how badly I wanted you. I want to know where the fuck you disappeared to when I came looking for you.”

Sage steps into the moonlight that’s coming through the kitchen window. The light illuminates his face. All that intensity, the feelings neither of us have been able to hide from. “No, you didn’t come-”

“I was there for hours. I searched for you. They told me you’d left. That you went home with an omega. I didn’t believe them. They had their goons dump me off the estate, beaten half to death, it took weeks to recover.”

Sage spins and punches the cupboard, putting his fist through the wood.

“Fuck off, Sage. I’m going to have to pay for that!” Rolly snarls. “Stop breaking shit that isn’t yours.”

“You came for me?” Sage spits hoarsely. “You were really there? Don’t fucking lie to me, Rose!” He lunges and grabs my jumper, yanking us together so we’re touching almost everywhere.

I stare at the alpha, the fury that was holding me back melts away, leaving me staring at him, completely lost.

“You think I didn’t recognise the feel between the two of us? That pull? We’re scent matches. Fuck, Sage, we all are,” I say, glancing around the room, taking in Rolly and King, Pix, Blaze, Sage, and finally Merle. “We are all scent matches. That scent that hits me inside and makes me feel relaxed, the one that says you are my people, that scent that is one that feels like home. We are scent matches. I knew it the minute I met you, but that night, I was going to make you mine.”

Sage groans, his eyes glittering.

“Of course, I felt it. I knew it. It was…you left, I saw you leave,” Sage whispers, grabbing my face and turning my head to face him. “You didn’t leave? Really?”

“No, I didn’t leave.”

“They took me to the training ground. It was the night I finally broke free completely and stopped even pretending to do their bidding. They couldn’t break me, they tried so hard. There were so many people. The house burned so prettily, and I stood in the smoke and swore I’d make you mine, even if it meant I kept you in chains.”

I laugh softly. “No chains required.”

Sage inhales sharply and then kisses me. It’s an awkward kiss because I don’t close my eyes and neither does he. We are too full of emotion. Too raw.

He didn’t leave.

He thought I did.

If our parents weren’t dead, I would kill them again. I pick up the mugs of soup to have something to do with my hands.

He pulls back, his eyes flicking down, amused by my subtle mental step back. I stare at him, my confession burning on my lips.

“I stabbed the alpha you kissed in the car outside the airport.”

Sage’s grin spreads slowly but with such delight it’s impossible to ignore. He takes the mugs out of my hands, passing them to a whining Rolly. Blaze coaxes Merle into drinking, while King talks quietly with Pix.

It’s so domesticated.

Except.

Sage throws me up against the kitchen sink, leaning me backwards over it.

“Did you kill someone because he touched me?” he whispers in ravenous desire.