Page 124 of Trick Knot Treat

I’m so stunned I can’t speak, I can barely function. Felix is suddenly in front of us, shoving us back into the house.

“The Sols have already accepted my choice of alphas. Unlike some people in this town, my family doesn’t regard status as more important than emotional well-being. Zaire was cleared of any wrongdoing and is a bloody hero, and if Khione has an alpha waiting for her, then that is a discussion we will be having as a pack and has nothing to do with you.”

He glowers at them and steps forward; they stumble off Clint’s porch, falling back in shock, but then I’ve never heard someone speak in such cuttingly polite words designed to crush a person’s soul before.

“Get. Lost.” Felix growls in pure menace.

“You’re crazy.”

“Yes,” he hisses. “And I’m a Sol.”

He pulls out his phone, staring at them, intently.

“Mum, we need to talk.”

They turn and leave, stomping across the yard, looking back over their shoulders with red faces and sharp scents.

Spectre barks at them.

Felix pats his head. “Good boy.”

The dog aroos at him, then turns and walks into the house where Zaire and Khione are staring at us.

They looked shell-shocked.

“I didn’t think people knew about…” Zaire’s face tightens.

“No one thinks that but them,” I growl. “Don’t listen to my mother; she is awful.”

All of our gazes turn to Khione. She glances down at her hands.

Her words come back. She promised. She made a promise.

“You said that we could trust you,” Clint says harshly.

She looks up, her eyes swimming with tears. My heart lurches, and I feel sick.

“You can.”

“I’m not going to ask. I want to enjoy the last few days that we have left,” I say after a brief, tense pause.

She runs across the room and hugs me tightly. I hold her, wondering what it is that’s waiting for her.

“I’m going to find a way out of it,” she says softly. “I’m going to come back.”

That’s enough for me.

Clint, Felix, and Zaire look at me, and gradually, all of us fall into a silent agreement not to ask the details.

I lift her chin and lean down and kiss her softly. It’s all the words I can’t say. Everything I want to tell her.

She wraps her arms around me and pulls herself up so she’s pressed against my front.

“I can’t imagine spending eternity anywhere but here,” she whispers.

And that is as good a love declaration as I need.

No matter what happens, we will figure it out. I’m about to tell her how I feel when my phone rings. I pull it out and answer it.