The worst part? The thoughts I hated most, the ones I thought I’d outgrown, started surfacing.She’s going to reject you. You’re not enough. She’s too much for you. Too important. And you? You’re just noise in her world. Another rich playboy looking for some fun, and you found it. Ready to be left and discarded to go back to your real life.
By the time Alic came to get Maso and me, I was already drowning in my spiral. My emotions had boiled over, and I was ready to fight. To confront her. To make herseeme.Acceptme.
Because, fuck it, she was my mate. She had to feel it too.
Then that fucking psycho demon opened his mouth. His confident words about what I was doing wrong, how I wasfailingher, had pissed me off, but deep down, I knew he was right. He understood her rhythm, and I felt like a child being scolded for not knowing how to hold something fragile.
She was a ball of fire. If you held on too tight, you would get burned, but if you let her loose, the wind would take her and leave you in the dust. She needed someone with just the right touch, and I thought I was just the man to do it.
Then he called himself her boyfriend, and something inside of me fractured.
Everything I’d been holding back, all the logic, the maturity, the rational self-talk, it crumbled into dust. I was standing in the wreckage with nothing but my pride and empty hands.
Not wanting to go around killing everyone, I settled for doing some work. I desperately tried to focus, to not think about it all. I called Kara, finalized deals, and scheduled meetings—anything tonot feel—but nothing helped.
Then I heard a soft moan, barely audible, but it cracked through my shield like lightning. At first, I wrote it off as a dream, my desire to be buried deep inside of her coming to haunt me, but then I heard it again.
I got up, skeptical, shaky, really wanting to prove to myself that this was a hallucination. I walked through the apartment in silence, passing Maso, who was knocked out and snoring on the couch. Alic was pacing the hallway outside, probably giving himself a good pep talk full of self-loathing and guilt. He was good at that kind of thing.
I didn’t look for Rasmus because if I saw him again, I’d kill him. No warnings. Just pure, calculated violence for the sake of soothing my pain.
Then I saw her door. The unconnected bond was tugging me forward, but the darkness inside of my soul was holding me back.
Then it happened again, that whisper of a moan floating to my ear, and I snapped.
No longer settled with searching, I began to hunt.
Every muscle pulled tight, I stalked the sound until I found the moonlight pouring in from the balcony, and then I saw her, my mate, on her knees, with Van.
Her lips were wrapped around him like she couldn’t get enough. Her ass shifted, and her nails dug into his skin, pulling him closer even though he showed no inclination to leave even a breath of space between them. His hand was fisted in her hair, his head up as he moaned into the night sky like he’d just gotten everything he ever wanted.
And I fucking broke into a million pieces.
Every dark thought I’d tried to bury came surging back. Maybe I was just a passing thrill. A toy she planned to wind up when she was bored. Maybe this was her answer to my mark.I don’t choose you.
My jaw clenched until I thought my teeth would crack. My fists curled so hard I lost circulation.
She knew what she was doing. She was showing me that they fit in her world… andI didn’t.
My blood turned to ice. Fury slid into my veins, slow and deliberate. I watched her like a predator tracking prey, stalking her every movement, every sound, waiting for my moment.
I wasn’t going to walk away. I wasn’t going to lick my wounds.
No.
I was going to prove to her that I was the only one who could truly handle her fire. She was mine.
The moment he had her in his arms, kissing her like they were the only two people in the world, I pushed the balcony door open.
“So, this is where you come when you want a good time.” My voice stayed smooth, even, almost too calm.
She jolted, spinning around like she’d been caught with her hand in something sweet and sinful. His head snapped up, and those burning eyes met mine, full of fire and something even more dangerous, achallenge.
I smiled, teeth bared in something that wasn't quite friendly. A warning. A promise. To my surprise, he didn’t flinch or loosenhis grip on her. If anything, he pulled her in tighter, staking a silent claim of his own, but I wasn’t here for him. Not really. She was the one in my crosshairs. That wicked, infuriating, addictive woman who had no idea what she did to me.
The urge to reach for her, just hold her, and whisper something soft and stupid like “I missed you” hit me with the force of a tidal wave, but I shut it down. Instead, my pain rose up, and I let my anger bleed out through the cracks in my walls.
“Now, Van…” I let my gaze slide to her and caught the way her eyes locked on my bare chest. Her tongue darted out, wetting her lips. Good. Let her look. Let her want. It would make it easier to break her.
