Page 72 of Rest In Knotty Pieces

Merle looks around expectantly, and guilt stabs at me. I glance at Blaze, but he frowns and presses his lips together. No one wants to be the one to tell her about Roseland.

I walk over to her and gesture for her to get on my back. She climbs up without a word of protest, but I can feel the tension in her.

“He left last night. He has a job and a life, and he couldn’t avoid it forever.”

I hesitate, hating the way her fingernails sink into my skin, and she goes tense.

“He said to say goodbye to you both.”

Pix growls, the sound deep and full of pain. “Don’t lie for him. He did not say goodbye.”

“He said you’d know what he’d say.”

Pix makes a sound of pure agony and plunges down the side of the ridge. The others follow him, and I try to ignore the hot tears that drip onto the back of my neck and the guilt that stabs because of them.

Maybe I will go back and kill this moron just because.

Every step we take is a step away from him, and every single one of us feels it. He fit in with us, not perfectly, but if he wasn’t holding back, it would have been a perfect fit.

The whole day passes like a thick cloud has landed heavily on us and is weighing us all down. Pix doesn’t disappear like he normally does; he sits listlessly. Merle has withdrawn deep into herself.

Rolly watches them, his jaw flexing, his temper barely concealed. Blaze is a silent wall of some kind of energy that is making me all kinds of nervous, while Sage is ignoring the whole situation and just getting on with our plans.

It’s just…these are not the plans I’m good at. I’m more of a dead body kinda plan guy. A swing and chop. A scream and slice. I’m not sure what to do to lift the mood or bring them all back.

I corner Sage against a tree.

“What do we do?”

“We let them feel it.”

“But they are upset!” I say in a low voice, emphasizing the word upset.

“Yes, they will be.”

I stare at him like he’s stupid. “We need to fix it.”

“There’s nothing we can do. It’s just one of those things-”

“Give me a body, I’ll string it up, Pix will go stabby, and we can go back to normal.”

Sage blinks, and a smile blooms across his damn sensual lips. “What about her? We’re pretending we aren’t homicidal maniacs, remember.”

I huff.

I’d forgotten that. I mean, I shouldn’t have, but everything’s all muddled with my instincts screaming at me to fix the thing that is upsetting our omegas. Fix it, kill it, repair it, destroy it.

I rub my temples and glower at him.

“Why are you so calm?”

“Because this is just a reprieve. Let him run. Give him his freedom, it will taste all the better when he’s kneeling at my feet, begging my forgiveness.”

I stare at the alpha. “You are so dark.”

Sage startles out of his fantasy and laughs. “I have plans for Aaron Roseland, and they are all very delicious.”

I am tempted to ask for more detail, but then I catch sight of Pix standing up. He goes into the forest.