Page 91 of Psycho Alphas: Part Two

He raised his eyebrows, going a little ashen. “No.”

“You were chewed up and spat out by Knox.” I turned back to the Misfits. “He doesn’t evenfitin most doorways.”

Callum choked out a laugh, but Rogue looked tense. “Nah, Kitten. Not my place.”

I was about to leave when I turned back to Vance, something nagging at me. “What happened to him?”

“Who?” Vance asked.

“The one Knox stayed with at night?”

“Oh.” Vance grinned. “Saved,” he said. “No way I’d be here without—” He cut off as my eyes snapped to him. He shifted with guilt for a moment, then he shrugged. “Knox is a good person. That’s what you need to know.”

TWENTY-FOUR

KNOX

I glanced at Ace as he sat down in an armchair in the ballroom.

Rogue had gone to fetch Thistle.

I stayed, bracing myself as I took the couch. I wasn’t looking forward to hearing whatever idiocy Ace was about to lay out, but we had plans to make.

Going to Bella’s party was a dangerous suggestion—we should be stayingawayfrom her, not walking right into a fucking party she was hosting for the entirety of the Ring. The ride back had been tense. Ace had refused to explain himself, smug as ever. All I knew was that he wanted us going exactly where weshouldn’tbe going.

Before we’d left the mansion, he’d raided a safe behind a painting, shoving whatever he found into his pocket before I could see. Then he’d led us to her old rooms. Thistle’s scent still clung faintly to the air, though the nest itself was gone. The place had been stripped bare.

Ace lost his composure when he saw it. He demanded to know where her things were. When security said they’d been burned by Roman, he’d looked ready to tear the walls down.

“You were more pissed about her nest than I imagined you’d be,” I observed. He shot me a sour look from the armchair. “Maybe you care more than you let on.”

“I want her balanced and out of my hair so I can get on with?—”

“What?” I cut him off, genuinely curious. What was it Ace was looking forward to at the end of all this?

He gave me a sour smile. “Anything that isn’t this nightmare.”

So that meant he knew he couldn’t getaroundThistle, somehow.

Progress?

Perhaps.

Rogue and Thistle entered the room. Thistle looked content, so I assumed it went well with the Misfits—I’d sensed her nerves when I’d left her. But they were good people, and I wanted her to have friends outside of this dysfunctional pack.

Rogue took a seat on the opposite side of the couch from me, and she looked between us—all sitting as far from one another as we could get. Her eyes narrowed, then she decided to take the rug in the middle, crossing her legs and hugging Bunny.

“Right,” Rogue said, a flash of my own disappointment reflected in his eyes as he dragged his gaze from her. “Party.”

“Party?” Thistle asked, perking up.

“We can’t go,” I said. It would be offering us up on a silver platter.

“Bella’s hosting it for the Ring, right?” Ace said. “Everyone we need to worry about, thanks toyourlittle fuck-up”—his gaze cut to me—“will be there. Perfect place for a statement.”

Awhat?

“Whatstatement, exactly?” Rogue asked, already offering the idea far more credence than he should.