Page 44 of Knot a Bad Idea

He hurt her.

He hurt my Omega.

Both Hunter and Donovan pause, with Hunter looking at me with raised eyebrows, while Donovan frowns deeply.

They never see me growl like this.

“It’s not what I said to her, it’s what I said to Steven. She happened to hear it,” Donovan explains. “It was not intentional.”

And that’s when I remember…

“Isthatwhy he clapped me on the shoulder and said there were other women after I was done with ourplaything?”

Holy fuck.

If Donovan called her that…

I advance on him, moving past Hunter and shoving Donovan with my full strength. He stumbles back, then catches himself.

I don’t get violent, ever.

“Liam.Liam.” Hunter pulls me back as Donovan squares up to me, fury etched into his face.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” he snarls. “Of course, I didn’t call her a plaything. Act like anadult.”

I snap. I lose it, adrenaline pumping through my veins as I verbally explode.

“Act like anadult? Does anadultpush away the one person that makes them happy?” I yell. Donovan scoffs and leaves the kitchen, and I follow. “Does a grown adult, a wholethirty-year-old man,refuse to acknowledge what’s best for him and his packmates? Is that what a pack leader does?”

He continues into the foyer, his back to me, and I follow.

“You’re not a pack leader, Donovan. You’re a coward.”

He stops.

I sense Hunter behind me and hear a lowoh shitcome from him.

I crossed a line. A huge one.

I’ve always respected Donovan and his decisions for us. I’ve trusted him since high school, and I would take a fucking bullet for him.

But I won’t let him take April from us.

When he turns back to me, his scent is dark and bitter. A coldness is behind his eyes, the anger from before replaced with icy indifference.

“She’s not good for the pack,” he says. “And that’s final.”

“Like hell it is,” Hunter snarls from behind me. “You stupid fucking?—”

“Is that what you said to her?” I demand, interrupting him. “Is that what youtoldher? That she wasn’t good for us?”

Donovan nods slowly. “She’s not,” he says matter-of-factly. “She’s a temporary distraction at best.”

I freeze. Time slows and my ears ring.

There is so much anger in me, horror, and betrayal in me that I can’t process it all at once. I’m back in my parent’s house, ten years old, and listening to their poisonous words.

“You’re not good for us, Liam. You make it very difficult to be your parents.”