Pulling out slowly, I grab a rag from the table to wipe us both down. Myles stays silent, forehead against the wood. As if he’s being tortured by his thoughts.
Good. He needs to think more, act less.
I press a kiss to his shoulder, the skin already angry where I bit him. I know he gets just as much satisfaction as I do from seeing my marks.
Stepping back, I lower my voice. “She's not going back in that cell and that’s final. She’soursnow and we need to worktogether. I’ll help you repair things, but it’ll only work if you’re a good boy for me.”
If she goes down, it’ll ruin us all. I don’t know howshe got her claws in so deep, but I have to hold this group together and—like it or not—she’s fused herself to us in a way that would shred us if we ever lost her.
Myles turns his head, eyes dark and heavy. But he’s smart enough to stay quiet. He might love to push boundaries, but he can tell when to stop.
My jaw clenches, that pressure in my chest still there.
I turn to leave but stop in the doorway. “She’ll sleep with us… butyouhave to earn it before she steps foot in your bedroom again.”
Chapter 31
Ivy
The building is quiet. But the air has been charged with tension all week.
No voices. No distant pounding of boots or grumbling arguments. Nothing to distract me from the creeping feeling of a past that won’t let me go. Only the hollow hush. As if the whole place is holding its breath, waiting for me to make a decision I know I’ve already made.
I’ve stuck closer to Zane and Phoenix the past few days. Finally coming out of Zane’s room since Phoenix made it clear he still has my back.
But Myles has started avoiding me again. He briefly came into the kitchen while Zane and I were cooking lunch. His expression was pained, and he left looking worse.
I don’t know how to repair things between us, only that I want to.
Zane left me to clean up while he went to talk to him, but I couldn’t help but creep closer to eavesdrop.
Myles’s voice was strained when he spoke. ‘You think I don’t know that?’
‘I think you do. But I also think you don’t know how to stop.’Zane’s voice followed.‘You're a wildfire, Myles. You want to warmher… but you burn everything you touch.’
Myles’s reply was too low for me to make out, but his remorse was clear. It made me want to comfort him.
Instead I retreated upstairs, scared of getting caught listening to their private conversation.
I’ve been sitting by the window in Zane’s room for about half an hour now. He left for another hunt and won’t be back until tomorrow.
My forehead rests against the cold glass, streaked with dust and old rain. But I can still see him.
Myles.
Out in the concrete loading dock, shirtless and furious, swinging a crowbar like he wants the world to shatter beneath him.
He's ripping apart an old metal filing cabinet, swinging a crowbar in brutal arcs, muscles flexing with each violent motion. Veins bulge along his forearms, tattoos stretching over sweat-slick muscles.
A drawer screams as he wrenches it free and flings it across the concrete. He looks like a chaotic motion of raw energy. Violent. Beautiful.
And yet… I can’t stop watching.
Can’t stop wanting him.
Not in the gentle way I want Zane, with his quiet steadiness and soft patience. Not even in the way Phoenix pushes and tests me, as if he’s waiting to see if I’ll break or burn.
No. This is different. This is darker.
