Page 96 of Rot In Knotty Pieces

All five dogs get off me and line up.

“You can’t take them all!” Mitchel growls.

“How can I choose? They are all so pretty. Aren’t you, my darlings? Who wants to go hunt the naughty Sari with me? Do you want to give her kisses? Yes? Aww, of course, you do,” he says in a baby voice to them.

They stare at him in rapture, frantically wagging tails of joy.

Mitchel growls, but it’s foiled by the amused smile. “How can anyone take you seriously when you baby those damn dogs like that?”

Mark blows his parents a kiss.

“Come on, babies, let’s go hunt down that naughty kitty cat.”

I’m scrambling to my feet among the chorus of happy howls.

“Mark!” I protest. “You be careful. You don’t know what he’s like-”

“I can handle myself, thank you very much. Plus, my pack won’t let anything happen.” He indicates the dogs, and to be fair, they are a hell of a lot more impressive than my alphas, NOT that I would ever tell them that.

He walks out the door, all five dogs at his heels.

“Interesting,” Blaze says thoughtfully.

I wipe the drool from my face. Mitchel throws me the sanitizing wipes, and I clean my face, neck, and hands thoroughly.

“Daega?”

I turn to glare at Blaze.

“Are you a cat person?” he asks softly.

“I’m not a dog person or a cat person,” I snap.

Yvonne smiles softly. A look I’ve come to understand means maternal caring. “No, Pix is our strange little oddball. He’s a bird person.”

They all turn to look at me in shocked pleasure.

“Birds?” King asks with a smile. “That is just so perfect. Because, you know, we kind of already have a couple.”

I roll my eyes. “You are all so funny.”

“He’s a bird person,” Rolly says in delight. “Well, now, it all makes sense.”

King glances around. “I want to head back soon.”

Her image fills my mind, blooming into it, bringing a wave of anxiety with it. There’s this heaviness on my chest and a voice in my head whispering to get back, get back right now.

The front door opens, and Bonnie rushes in, scanning my alphas until she spots me. She rushes over and pulls me into a hug.

“You dumb shit. I was worried.”

“You’re the ones who disappeared.”

Except, they didn’t. Or we didn’t. What does all this mean? How did it all happen? I don’t know how he managed to infiltrate our connections. It’s been cemented from years of familiarity. We know each other; how we talk in person, on the phone, in texts. We trust each other.

Maybe that’s the problem.

“We can’t trust anything right now,” I say quietly. I don’t really expect anyone to pay attention to me, but everyone does.