White Knight Read Online Free Page A

fault them for being overzealous. Hell, they might be the only reason he didn’t end up kidnapped and held prisoner as a baby-making machine.
    Except no one could be certain what the two hybrids wanted now. It had been exactly thirty-two days since the last attack, and no one could come up with a good reason for kidnapping Shay. The fact that she was their half-sister didn’t explain the risk they’d taken in attacking Cornerstone directly.
    “I’ll get you back, love,” he said to a potted yellow rose bush. The conservatory was Bishop’s hobby, and he kept a variety of roses alive year-round to honor their late mother. Roses had been Andrea McQueen’s favorite flower.
    Deliberately heavy footsteps outside the half-closed door announced the new arrival before he had a chance to knock. His elder brother, Bishop, stepped inside, filling the small room with an air of stability and strength that only the Alpha could exude. Their father had done the same thing, and no one could say that Bishop was not his father’s son.
    He closed the door, which set Knight on alert. He hadn’t spoken to Bishop since their brief phone call a few hours ago, and despite the neutral expression, Bishop’s eyes were shining with pride. The pride of an uncle-to-be.
    Pride Knight hoped to feel himself one day. All he felt right now was numb. And dark.
    “I thought talking to the plants was my job,” Bishop said.
    “You talk to your plants?”
    “Sometimes.”
    “Promise me if they ever answer you, you’ll go see Dr. Mike immediately.”
    “Smartass.”
    Knight shrugged one shoulder. “You’re the one who talks to plants on the regular.”
    “Yeah, well, whenever I talk to Jillian she tries to give me advice. I love her, but sometimes I just want to vent, you know? Advice-free zone.”
    The visit came into perfect focus for Knight. And he wasn’t biting. “So should I leave you with your roses so you can vent or chat, or do whatever you need to do?”
    Bishop plunked himself down in one of the two armchairs in the room. “I’m not kicking you out.”
    “You came to check up on me.” Off Bishop’s surprised eyebrow-arch, Knight added, “I know you well enough to read between the lines. I’m fine.”
    “Sit down.”
    The hard, don’t-ignore-me voice of the Alpha put Knight’s ass in the other armchair.
    Bishop leaned forward, elbows braced on his knees, his expression daring Knight to move or speak. “For weeks all any of us got out of you was ‘I’m fine’ and you weren’t. I don’t want to hear you say that ever again, do you understand?” The entire speech came out with all of the inflection of an essay recitation, but even when he was quiet, Bishop was firm. Like their father, he didn’t have to yell to get his point across.
    “I understand.” Knight didn’t like it, but he got it. The order was born from fear, and Knight didn’t want to be the source of fear for his brothers ever again. Not like before.
    Twenty-four hours out of his mind from a forced shift, unable to tell friend from foe, had been more terrifying for his family than for Knight. He didn’t remember much from that time. Only the rage and hunger. And Shay. Even when he couldn’t hear her, he’d felt her close by. She’d pulled him out of the darkness.
    He never got the chance to tell her that he’d brought some of that darkness back with him.
    Bishop leaned back in his chair, relaxing a bit, an expectant look on his face. “And?”
    Knight grunted. The trouble with their relationship was a lack of interpersonal communication skills. Knight never had a problem talking things out with Rook. Bishop had always been different. Seven years older, he’d often come across more as a second parent than a big brother—not only to Knight, but to Rook as well, who’d only been an infant when their mother was killed. Knight vaguely remembered her. Sometimes he was positive he only recalled seeing her in photos.
    He would do everything in his power