My thoughts were jumbled, swirling around like leaves caught in a whirlpool. One moment, I was on the cold floor of a van, and the next, I felt myself being lifted. Arms, solid and sure, cradled me like I were fragile, and my eyes flickered open. For a brief second, I could have sworn it was Luke carrying me. The idea washed over me like a warm wave, filling me with an inexplicable sense of comfort. But then reality sank its teeth into me. Why would Luke be here? That didn't make sense. Nothing made sense. I was eased into the backseat of a car, still disoriented but becoming increasingly aware that I wasn't where I was supposed to be. The upholstery felt different beneath me—softer, more accommodating like it were trying to lull me into a false sense of security. "Luke?" The word escaped my lips as a whisper, almost a plea, as I leaned against the person beside me. Again, the sensation of familiarity washed over me. It felt like Luke, but I knew deep down that it wasn't. "You me
I lay there, shivering in that ice-cold room for an eternity. Each passing minute drew the heat from my bones, until my entire being was reduced to a trembling mass of frigid flesh. The chilling atmosphere seeped into my soul, rendering everything else into a frozen haze. Then the door creaked open, its groan sounding like a symphony in my sensory-deprived state. My first instinct was to recoil, anticipating the return of Adam, Luke's father. But then I felt it—heat. Arms enveloped me, arms radiating warmth like a campfire in winter. For a moment, I was too overwhelmed to even care who it was. Those arms felt like a lifeline, pulling me out of an abyss of despair. As the heat soaked into me, my senses started to awaken, and I became vaguely aware that these arms were slender, and feminine. My eyes adjusted, and I turned to see Kyla lying behind me on the bed, her face stained with tears. The sight of her brought a sense of piercing clarity, like a blaze cutting through fog. I sat u
We stormed back into the house, our collective anger a living, breathing entity. I felt it seep into the walls, heard it echo in the slam of the door behind us. Luke was a step ahead of me; he balled his fist and smashed it into the wall with a guttural roar. Plaster cracked. He turned, his eyes ablaze, and took out his fury on a table next, sending it crashing to the floor. Another swing of his fist found another wall.Inside, a war raged. I was grappling with an urge so strong it felt like a primal force, elemental in its ferocity. I wanted Adam's life; I wanted to see the light extinguish in his eyes, wanted to hear the ragged, futile gasps for breath as I choked the last remnants of life from him. I'd never considered myself a murderer, but what I felt now—this visceral need for retribution—had me questioning every moral code I'd ever followed.I glanced at Luke, who was taking deep, shuddering breaths, trying to rein in his emotions. He was at a precipice, and I knew that his fat
Lying in the fetal position in that icy room, shivering uncontrollably, I felt as if my very core were being hollowed out by the cold. Every muscle in my body was clenched in a futile attempt to generate warmth. The air felt like sharp needles against my skin. Each breath I took was a struggle, as if I were inhaling shards of glass. My thoughts were scattered, frozen fragments in a desolate landscape.And then, something changed. Deep within, an unfamiliar sensation emerged—a glimmer of warmth that defied the frigid atmosphere around me. It was not the dual source of comforting heat I'd come to associate with Clay and Luke, but it was unmistakable warmth, a radiant glow replacing the chilling void. My muscles relaxed a fraction, my clenched jaw softened, and my racing heart eased its frenetic pace.As I wondered about the source of this newfound warmth, my mark began to tingle. A soft, electric buzz that pulsed rhythmically, like a gentle heartbeat under my skin. I knew that tingle; t
Blinking my eyes open felt like pulling weights from my eyelids. A harsh light bore down on me, searing its brightness into my retinas. My head was a swirling cauldron of fog and confusion, every thought struggling to solidify. The smell that invaded my nostrils was overwhelmingly sterile, like an army of cleaning supplies had waged war in the room.The fog in my brain slowly began to lift, and awareness trickled in. I was in a room, a hospital room, to be precise. The beeping of machines was a staccato rhythm that mimicked my disorienting heartbeats. As my vision began to adjust to the light, I noticed that the room was far from empty.Luke and Clay were there, huddled together, asleep on a couch. Their brows were furrowed, even in slumber. Trevor and Kyla were curled up in an armchair, looking like they'd been through an emotional wringer. All of them were deeply asleep, an exhaustion that looked like it had been days in the making.Except for one person.Moro was sitting at the foo
The instant the sensation washed over me, a gut-wrenching blend of urgency and distress, I knew its origin. It was that loathsome potion my father would use, a concoction designed to pull at the fibers of the bond between two individuals.I had felt it before, always as a tool of manipulation, and the familiarity sickened me. But woven into that was something else—a constant caress over the mate mark, sending ripples across the bond like urgent Morse code. It was like Lexi was sending me an emotional telegram, urging me that she was alright and that we needed to come to her.Next to me, Clay picked up on the agitation but couldn't place it. He began pacing around the room, his movements erratic, muttering "Oh shit, oh shit," under his breath like a mantra of doom. It was the first time he'd felt the pull of such a potion, a volatile cocktail that jerked at our instincts and summoned us toward its origin.I felt it, too, a newfound fortification in the bond, almost like invisible threa
Deep in the brightly lit hospital room, I sat alone with my thoughts, my emotional state as chaotic as a hurricane. There was a split-second moment when my teeth clenched around my father's throat. The point of no return. An abyss that seemed to stretch for eternity yet collapsed in the blink of an eye. The surge of his life force waned, flickered out, and extinguished. In that second, I felt the weight of a life ending under my hands. Adam may have been a monster, but he was still my father, and I had just ended his existence.A flood of conflicting emotions consumed me. Elation battled with repulsion. Satisfaction waged war against a deep, unsettling anxiety. Yes, I hated the man for what he had done—to me, Lexi, and countless others. But to kill him? To see the light leave his eyes, knowing that I was the one who had extinguished it? A new abyss seemed to open within me, a dark void questioning the kind of man I had become.I despised myself in that moment. I despised the fact t
My jaw clenched as I stood near the door of the hospital room, watching Lexi and Luke. Oh, how I wished I'd flushed that coke when I had the chance now. But at the time, it had seemed like a good idea to hold onto it. I hadn't foreseen it spiraling into this—all-consuming fire that Luke was desperately feeding, just to stay afloat. The irony wasn't lost on me. I'd been down this road, had been that guy. Nearly overdosing, ending up in a hospital just like this one. I wanted to shake Luke, and scream at him to see where this path led. But my words would be debris in the tornado of his emotions. Luke was in a place where logic was a foreign language, and his suffering was the only dialect he understood. When Lexi had finally woken up, and Luke abruptly walked out, I knew exactly where he was headed. To numb himself. To escape the agonizing reality that he'd taken a life, his father's life, no less. Every step he took down that path, he took a part of us along with him. A part of me w