Page 64 of Knot To Be
“Yes. Take a walk.”
Releasing Vero’s hand, I walk toward a jasmine bush. I take deep breaths of the blooms, clearing my sinuses of alpha scents. I stand still as a statue, reining in the waves of emotions I’m feeling. I need the promise of a treat after this to get through it, because I’m about to tear open some barely healed wounds. Wiping away the wet shit that’s leaking from my eyes, yet let the raw emotions remain.
If they want to see the truth in my words it’ll have to radiate from the soul.
I hope it gives them fucking nightmares.
Chapter Fifteen
VERONA
I watchas Rosa makes her way to a seat that’ll give her a good vantage point as well as clean smelling air that won’t fuck her up. It reminds me Pablo will be feeling much the same way at home, and it’s also why his stepbrothers can’t seem to stop fucking him.
New designations often find themselves ridden by their hormones. Alphas have to learn to control their ruts and dominating personalities, while omegas are hit with all of these overwhelming instincts. Right now, Rosa is finding she never really was able to curb those tendencies because her father stunted her with the blockers.
It’s probably one of the reasons she has never felt like an omega. There was no reason to want a nest, when most days she felt like a beta without those urges. Renzo Accetta made sure he could control his daughter by stripping her of some of the more troublesome omega traits.
God, he’s such an asshole.
Rosa crosses her legs gingerly, her body so stiff, I can tell she’s in pain for some reason. I bite my lip as I sit as far away as possible from her, waiting for her to shut everything down.
Except…it never comes.
“Imagine,” she says carefully, her fingers curled around the seat of her chair to keep herself from fleeing. “That you’ve been on every blocker possible since a little while after you found your designation without your knowledge, and today is the day your body decided to finish purging them from your system when you’re surrounded by alphas. To say that I’m not feeling my best is an understatement.
“Most days, I don’t know who I am anymore. You may have heard that I’m Renzo Accetta’s good little daughter, and also his hitwoman. He has used Verona to keep me in check since she joined my family when we were fourteen, and before that he kept my loyalty as a way to get me to do whatever he wanted.
“Piece by piece, I’ve lost myself, and I’d really like to get the time to figure it out before he finally kills me. Or, he gives me to his men. I’d prefer something quicker if there’s an option for that.”
“Rosa,” I hiss, shaking my head. I ignore the pulling of my stitches as I shift in my seat, watching her closely. The doctor said it may take another two weeks for the skin to fully heal, and even then I’ll want to take things easy.
I don’t think my current lifestyle knows what “easy” is.
She simply shrugs in apology, showing me she’s showing her cards.
“What do you mean by giving you to his men? Surely you’re not saying what I think you are,” Easton says, wincing when Silas pinches him.
“There’s video if you feel you need to see his guards, my uncles, and cousins raping me,” Rosa says in a dead voice. “It’s not as if you'd be the only one who has watched it.”
Rosa’s eyes move over to where Nico’s sitting and I watch as he stiffens. I know he meant well, but it doesn’t keep me from resenting him for it. My omega despises being seen as weak, so this is really difficult for her to handle.
“A video. No, fuck,” Easton hisses, his skin appearing a little green. “That’s not necessary.”
“If you ever decide to become a lawyer, I’d hire you in a second,” Lyle muses. “Easton has been a police dispatcher for years, and no one else has ever been able to make him that shade of green. Are you all done with your questions? Or do you need more details, Carter?”
“I’m not innocent,” Rosa says quickly. “I’m pretty sure my soul is as black as it possibly can be. In case that’ll sway you either way.”
“None of our souls are clean,” Carter grumbles. “We all have body counts of the variety that are dead.”
“Mine were all at the behest of my father,” she adds.
“Doesn’t matter. I’m not going to fucking judge you for shit your family made you do. Things have been quiet in Savannah recently, and I wanted to be sure we all wanted to help you. This isn’t a petty thing, Rosalia. If your father is willing to do to you things you’d do to your worst enemy, then he needs to be put down.”
“The entire family is like that,” I chime in. “The ones who are related by marriage are sadistic as well. I might be the only one who isn’t like them.”
“You were always too good for our family,” Rosa says wistfully. “He kept you to manipulate me after I killed your mother.”
Everyone in the circle flinches, and Rosa meets their eyes, one by one.
