They filed out, redhead waggling his eyebrows at me while green-eyes looked conflicted. The door clicked shut, and suddenly the room felt too small.
“Go,” Knox said flatly, not even looking at me. “Last night was just a one-night thing. Nothing more.”
“Are you serious right now?” I stepped closer, anger building. “You broke into my apartment. You were hurt. You said the attack was your fault. I deserve answers!”
His jaw tightened. “There are dangerous creatures in the woods. If you’re smart, you’ll stay away, or you’ll be next.”
“What does that even mean?” I threw my hands up. “What are you? What’s this pack bullshit?”
But he was done playing nice. His gray eyes went cold, cruel, nothing remaining of the man who’d held me with such desperate tenderness.
“It means,” he said slowly, each word designed to cut, “you were just a warm hole, Lina. Easy access. Should have seen how pathetically easy it was to break into your place. Maybe invest in better locks.”
The silence was fucking loud. I didn’t know what to say, what to do. How tofeel.
“Now fucking go,” he continued, voice arctic, “before I call security.”
“What?” The word came out as barely a whisper. I was fighting tears, refusing to let them fall. Not here. Not in front of him. “A warm hole?”
He stepped closer, and for one moment I thought I saw pain flash in his eyes. But then it was gone, replaced by cruel indifference.
“I, Matthias Reed, reject you, Lina Winters, as my mate.” The words felt ritualistic, important in a way I didn’t understand. Like some kind of formal way to tell me to fuck off. “Don’t be fucking clingy. It was just one fuck. Get over it.”
The words hit harder than any physical blow. My chest cracked open, pain radiating from my heart outward. This wasn’t the man who’d made love to me with desperate hunger. This was a stranger wearing his face, saying words designed to destroy.
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. The room spun as humiliation and hurt crashed over me in waves.
“I see,” I managed, voice steady despite everything breaking inside me. “Got it. I’ll get over it.”
I turned and walked to the door with as much dignity as I could salvage. My hand shook as I reached for the handle, but I forced myself to move normally. Don’t run. Don’t let him see how much he’d broken.
The three men were indeed waiting in the hallway. They all avoided my eyes, looking deeply uncomfortable. The green-eyed one actually stepped back as I passed, and I heard him whisper urgently, “Knox, what did you-”
But I was already moving, walking faster now, then jogging, then flat-out running for the stairs. I couldn’t wait for the elevator. Couldn’t risk anyone seeing me fall apart.
I made it to the stairwell before my legs gave out. I collapsed on the cold concrete, his words echoing in my head. Just a warm hole. Easy access. One fuck. The formal-sounding rejection that felt like more than just cruel words.
“Just a warm hole,” I whispered to the empty stairwell, tears finally falling. “That’s all I was.”
The worst part was that I’d felt the connection, even if I’d tried to convince myself this had been just a one-night stand, a deep part of me wantedmore. That electricity between us hadn’t been one-sided. Whatever we’d shared had been real, and he’d thrown it away with words designed to hurt. My body still ached from him, still bore his marks, and he’d reduced it all to nothing.
I sat there on the stairs, trying to piece together my shattered dignity, when I heard footsteps above. Panic shot through me. I couldn’t face him again. Couldn’t face any of them.
I forced myself to my feet and stumbled down the remaining stairs, burst through the exit into blazing sunlight that felt wrong for how dark everything had become.
But I couldn’t outrun the feeling that I’d just lost far more than a one-night stand. Couldn’t shake the sense that “Matthias Reed” rejecting me as his mate meant more than just cruel words from a cruel man.
I just didn’t understand what.
11
— • —
Knox
I ran through familiar forest paths toward Moonfall Lake, pushing myself until my lungs burned and my legs screamed for mercy. But no amount of physical pain could drown out the look on Lina’s face when I called her a warm hole. The way she’d flinched, as if I’d actually struck her. The way her voice had gone flat and dead when she’d repeated my words back to me.
Good. Better she hates me than ends up dead because of me.
