Sharp, cut, unapologetically male abs.
Did I mention the abs?
Where James was all lean lines and lethality, Caden looked like he bench-pressed boulders for fun. Manly. Scarred. Feral. Muscles for days.
Fuck.
Not ogling the guy whomutilatedmy arm would, under normal circumstances, rank pretty high on any rational person’s priority list.
But that list didn’t account for Caden’s unfiltered sexual energy.
The hell was wrong with me?
IlovedJames. Even if we were broken up—even if we’d imploded in the most spectacular fashion—he was still in my heart. The boy who saw me when no one else did.
Still, that didn’t stop the heat crawling up my neck as Caden laughed at something Christopher said, dark eyes glinting undermessy black hair, his body on full display like he didn’t have a single thing to hide. Of course, he didn’t. He knew exactly what he looked like—and so did everyone else.
A group of female Offensives nearby had definitely noticed. One of them actuallysighed.
Okay.Time to leave.
I turned sharply on my heel, desperate for a distraction.
Christopher—tall, broad-shouldered, with a shock of sandy hair and a grin like he didn’t takeanythingseriously—caught my eye from across the field and waved like we hadn’t just survived a near-death mission yesterday, when raiding yet another Radical camp, looking for the Amplifier.
I raised a hand back, hesitantly, trying to cool the fire crawling down my spine.
Then bolted inside so fast it probably looked like I was being chased by a herd of feral goats bleating philosophical questions at me.
The next days, weeks even, I buried myself in the work.
Anything to forget the full-body meltdown I’d had the moment the darkest of men revealed approximatelytwo hundredabs and a torso that should be classified as a biological hazard.
Every so often, Caden would send me on missions to the Human World—to fetch tech or gather intel. I brought back iPhones rigged with tracking software, GPS devices, and walked him through the wild circus of social media—showing how humans had willingly given up their privacy for convenience.
All in the hope we would find something that could explain how in a hundred years, humans would turn LiaPrisms into our death sentence.
The rest of our time was spent hunting for the Amplifier.
Evenings were the highlight of my day: dinner at the family table, surrounded by loud Offensives who had somehow become my people. I laughed until my stomach hurt—every single time.
And after those energy-filled days, I’d wind down in Caden’s library, a book in one hand and a glass of Scotch in the other. It was quickly becoming my favorite part of our routine.
Even when his shirt stayed on.
We had started talking for hours on end, sharing some very personal stuff, and I was loving every second of it. I tried to remind myself of the conversation between Caden and Sean I had overheard—where I was merely seen as a future incubator—but his actions contradicted that at every turn, and I knew in my bones, he and I were becoming genuine friends.
Another two months flew by in the blink of an eye. I wouldn’t have believed it, had someone told me this back in Switzerland, but for the first time in a long time, I was…happy.
So happy, I felt strong enough to wallow in self-pity for one hour a day, thinking about James. I missed him. Every single day. I missed someone looking at me like I was everything. I missed being pulled into strong arms that made the world feel quiet. I missed the comfort of someone knowing me inside out, even when we were fighting about something stupid.
I missed being held. Being seen.
And I hated him, for not contacting me even once, infivefucking months.
I was the one who was angry with him, for good reason, so how was I still the pathetic one, waiting to hear from him?
Asshole.
