Page 137 of Rest In Knotty Pieces

“Its going to be all right, Merle.”

I sniffle and bury my face in his shirt, inhaling his scent, one that now means safety to me.

A few minutes later, I hear a car, and Sage starts walking. It stops, the doors open wide, and they pour out. All of them, except Roseland, who just watches with a shuttered expression.

I get a strange flip of my stomach, like he’s watching because he’s waiting. What is he waiting for? What does he know?

But then Rolly is there, touching, purring, and I forget everything but that sound and his scent. King takes his place, kissing me, and I forget everything but my alpha. Blaze even comes up and touches my chin, tilting my face up and staring into my eyes.

“I was worried,” he admits.

I curl into Blaze’s arms, feeling the rightness of it steal the last of the unease that has been pressing on me.

“Come on, let’s go home.”

I let out a happy whine. I’m safe, with my alphas.

They found me.

I don’t know what Raven was up to out there, but we are back where we belong.

Blaze

Merle has been present for the last twenty-four hours, almost catatonic with stress, but she’s responding faster to us, relaxing quicker. I think we are having a positive impact on her. Clearly, giving her safety and a home has made her feel more relaxed. Her collection of silver items is around her. Merle has been leaning into our purrs, whining if we go out of sight. She trusts us now.

And yet…

There is something not quite right with everything, with the way she disappeared. Raven drugged us. Then she changed the password on the door lock and trapped us in our own bunker. The cars were a mess, but luckily, Rolly has some experience puttering around with them and was able to use parts of all three cars to get one to work, or we never would have found Merle.

How did she know how to do all that? Why did she go to such extreme lengths, and why is it that we haven’t met her yet? What is going on with that personality? She’s clearly one of the more skilled alters.

Does she hate us? Is she a more malevolent version of Merle?

I hear the door chime and stalk upstairs, ready to murder whoever is on the other side. I’m getting sick of all the visitors out here. For a place that’s in the middle of nowhere, it’s getting awfully busy, and I don’t like it. Not even at all. I take a moment to compose myself before I wrench open the door.

The person standing there is the last person in this world that I expect to see. My mouth opens as I struggle to think, to say something intelligent. I can’t because I just never thought this would ever be an option. I didn’t even dare fantasize about it.

“Daega?” I whisper, feeling the ache that I have been hiding bloom to life.

“Hey, I, uh…I came back-”

He looks amazing; his dark hair is mussed, his skin is glowing with health, his gaze is wary, but his long, lanky length is here. His scent hits me, and I’m lost. I stop thinking and just let my instincts take over.

I don’t let him get another word in; instead, dragging him up against my chest and kissing him like our lives depend on it. He’s part of the balance, the delicate ecosystem, that we have been building here, and we needed him.

I needed him.

God, I fucking want him. So bad. I’m bordering on a rut, the stress, the worry. Losing him, losing Merle. I clutch at him, holding his neck, stroking down his back. He’s real; he’s here. I yank his top off and then mine, needing to be skin to skin.

He tastes like raspberry jam and forbidden things.

“Stay?” I whisper into his mouth, barely pulling away enough to even say that.

“Stay?”

“Stay forever. Need you. Please.”

All of my holding it together over him being gone, over my compulsive behaviors, the lack of sleep, all of it urges me to the edge of insanity. I can’t let him go. I’ll have to tie him up, keep him hidden. Wait until he loves me.