Knot Playing Fair: Book Two (PAPERBACK, LGBT)

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Zalen
*
THE TERRIBLE, TWISTED logic of Luca’s words struck me like a blow, and I knew with irrational certainty that his guess about Emiel’s whereabouts was right on target. Of course Emiel would go back to the underground cage fights to punish himself.

“Okay, yes, I can see him making that decision,” I said. Christ, I was so tired. I wasn’t sure I had it in me to immediately race after this latest crisis. My body longed to collapse after five straight days in the heat nest with no sleep, watching over the omegas. And yet, there was nothing else to do but go after him. “Right. We just need to find out where the fights are being held, then Byron and I will go bring him back.”

“I’m going with you,” Mia said.

“I should go, too,” Luca added immediately, even though he looked like he wanted nothing more than to sink through the tile floor and disappear into the void.

“No,” I told them. “You absolutely are not. Neither of you are getting within a goddamned mile of a gang-run fighting ring after last time.”

There was a frantic light behind Mia’s eyes. “You don’t understand, Zalen! I was all ready to ask Emiel to help with my heat, since you and Byron would have already been exhausted by helping Luca if we’d both been on our normal schedules!”

“I talked her out of it,” Luca muttered.

“But I still need to tell him that!” Mia insisted. “He didn’t do anything wrong. I was the one who blew past his boundaries!”

I didn’t really want to say this next part aloud, but she deserved to know. “Mia, he almost lost control and mated you.”

That stopped her cold. I heard Luca’s sharp intake of breath.

I shook my head. “This whole thing is my fault, not either of yours. As far as I can tell, Emiel has no sexual history at all. He never got a chance to learn how to control his urges growing up. Even with dampeners, this was too much for him to handle. It was a terrible decision to ask him to take you down to see your husband. I should have insisted Byron do it.”

“He did control his urges, though,” Mia said stubbornly. “Maybe he thought about biting me in the heat of the moment, but he didn’t actually do it! He wouldn’t have.”

“And you should tell him that as soon as we get him home,” I replied, not giving ground on the matter. “But right now, you both need to eat and drink something, get cleaned up, and rest for a day or so. Mia, you should probably contact Nat and let him know you’re all right. He seemed pretty worried about you when I texted him on Friday morning.”

She groaned and pressed the heels of her hands to her eye sockets. “I still can’t believe he showed up at your door to check on me.” A moment later, she let her hands drop. “Ugh, and then there’s the restaurant to deal with. I’ll have to borrow someone’s phone. Mine was in my pocket when I left work on Thursday, but it’ll be stone dead by now.”

“No, I put it on the charger in your room,” I said. “I hope that wasn’t overstepping, but I figured you’d want it fully charged when your heat broke.”

“Oh,” she said blankly. “Um, thanks for that. I’d ask if you’re always on top of things to this degree, but I think I already know the answer to that question.”

She couldn’t be more wrong about me, but it was a flattering mistake, at least.

“I still feel like I should be there when you pick up Emiel,” she continued. “I can’t believe I acted like that with him. God, everything is such a mess right now.”

I still didn’t know exactly what had brought her to the door of the nest in tears last Thursday night, but I got the feeling she was talking about more than Emiel. Even so, Emiel was the part I needed to focus on, because that was the part I could control.

“Do you really want Luca getting anywhere near the fights?” I asked, not above a bit of manipulation. “Because if you try to go there, he will, too.”

Mia looked devastated at that. Luca’s scent spiked with anger.

“Don’t use me like some kind of a chess piece, Zalen,” he said tightly—all hints of the omega who’d briefly let us hold him and pamper him gone without a trace.

“Your old gang is after you, Luca,” I told him, not pulling any punches. “If you think I’m going to sign off on you walking back into the middle of that snake pit, you still don’t know me at all.”

At the mention of his old gang, Luca paled. Mia made a soft, hurt sound that pierced right into my scarred and battered alpha heart.

“Byron and I will bring Emiel back,” I went on, hoping like hell that the promise wouldn’t end up being a lie. “When we do, maybe he’ll be in a place to listen when you talk to him, Mia.”

Mia nodded reluctantly. An instant later, her expression crumpled.

“Why does everything have to be so screwed up all the damned time?” she asked plaintively. “Why can’t life just be simple?”

Luca reached a hand toward her, the movement tentative, and Mia let him draw her into an embrace. I had nothing to say in response, because I had absolutely no good answer to that tearful, despairing question.

* * *

Byron growled like an irritated grizzly bear roused prematurely from hibernation when I woke him with a loud knock on his bedroom door. The door whipped open a few moments later, revealing a bare chest, bloodshot eyes, and blond hair sticking up in every direction.

Byron scowled at my sudden appearance in his doorway, his gaze raking me up and down. “Goddamn it, Zalen. Why the fuck aren’t you sleeping right now?”

The urge to bark at him stirred in my chest, despite how unhelpful that would be. I couldn’t help an answering growl, though—and I saw a hint of surprise flicker behind Byron’s expression.

“Because Emiel ran off to the cage fights four days ago, and there’s been no sign of him since. You and I need to track him down so we can drag him back here,” I said.

“What?” Byron asked, giving his head a small shake as though he was trying to clear it. “How the fuck can you possibly know that?”

“Because I know him,” I shot back, aware that it was a blatant lie. “He’s not answering calls or texts, and he hasn’t checked in at the Hope Project. Where else would he be when he’s trying to punish himself?”

Byron’s scowl deepened. “I don’t know, Z. A bar? A brothel? Any of the other thousands of places someone can go when they don’t want to be found? Jesus Christ. He’s a grown-ass man. If he wants to fuck off somewhere and sulk for four days, then let him.”

I pinned his gray gaze with mine, putting every bit of alpha power that I possessed behind it. “No,” I said simply. “We don’t abandon pack when they’re struggling, Byron.”

The other alpha blinked and flinched back a hairsbreadth.

“He won’t thank you for it,” Byron said mulishly. “You can’t save everyone, Zalen. Thought you of all people would’ve figured that out by now.”

The echo of a long-ago phone call whispered through my memory, every word burned into my mind like a brand.

Mr. Price? This is Detective Callahan with the NYPD. I regret to inform you that your bondmate and a young beta male identified as her brother have been killed in an apparent drive-by shooting…

My eyes burned as I held Byron’s gaze, unblinking. “I’m not doing it because I want him to thank me. Now put on a goddamned shirt and get moving. You’ll be able to track down the current location where they’re holding the fights a lot faster than I will.”

Byron continued to stare me down for long seconds before he finally glanced away, ceding the unspoken challenge.

“Fine,” he muttered. “Just don’t expect me to throw a butterfly net over the asshole when he tells you to go fuck yourself.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I said between gritted teeth, as he turned and disappeared into the darkened recesses of his bedroom.