Yet, I opened my mouth to say, “Yes, Asher. I trust you.”
And, idiot that I was, I meant it.
The moment I uttered that yes, I felt myself falling off a cliff, plummeting into the unknown. How hard would I hit the ground?
Asher’s expression shifted, becoming darkly intense.
“Let me show you how beautiful it is when the world burns.” His hand lifted, fingers scooping up the fiery sphere from my palm. He opened his mouth and pushed the flames between his teeth. When he clamped his lips together, my pulse raced. He knew what he was doing, but watching a person literally swallow fire was insane. Seconds later, he popped the now doused orb out of his mouth and showed it to me.
"It didn't burn me as long as I kept moving it.” I stared at my palm, still tingling with phantom heat. “How is that possible?”
“It takes the right fuel, and the prop can’t be made of anything synthetic. The rest is skill.” Asher pushed the ball into his pocket then held out his hand to me. When he began pulling me towards the center of the ring, my pulse quickened, his statement a few moments ago ringing in my ears.
Let me show you how beautiful it is when the world burns.
Right after my arrival, he’d nearly taken my life.
But now? He was making me feel more alive than ever.
If someone asked me to describe what was happening to me in this moment—as Asher’s hand gripped mine and I tried to keep up with his long strides—I’d be tongue-tied. How do you put into words this alchemy between skin and flame and hearts and souls?
47
ASHER
I guided Lucy toward the raised platform, her slight hand fitting perfectly within mine. Each step we took sparked a new electrical current through my veins.
The look in her eyes when she'd held that flame… Christ, it mirrored my own soul so perfectly that it almost frightened me. That reverence for fire, that razor’s edge where fascination bled into worship—I'd never seen it in another person before. Not even my brothers understood it the way she seemed to, instinctively, without explanation. The realization that fragile, delicate Lucy could see what I saw made guilt slice at my conscience. If I hadn’t burned her mattress and scared the shit out of her, would we have had this moment sooner? The fact that I’d nearly killed a kindred spirit would haunt me. I glanced back, seeing how her cheeks were flushed with pink, and her pale skin seemed to glow under the blinding spotlights above.
I wanted to show her everything I knew about dancing with destruction.
No, more than that, I wanted to dance with her through the destruction.
"Come on," I urged, my voice sounding strange to my own ears; softer than I intended, almost gentle. I couldn't remember the last time I'd spoken to anyone like that.
Never, I realized.
I couldn’t remember anything before the memory of finding my mom overdosed. No sweet words from a sober, loving mother or encouraging talks with a father. Fuck, I didn’t even know who my father was.
I had no kindness given to guide me, so I didn’t give it back. After age six, when my memories begin, I was already in the system being shuffled around to different foster houses. Every foster home I landed in seemed to develop the same problem: unexplained fires that nobody could trace back to me, but everyone somehow knew I'd started. I truly don’t know why playing with flames became my M.O., but because of it, I eventually found my real home—dumped into the group Alpha orphanage where I’d found my pack brothers… and my trusty lighter. It wasn’t my first lighter, nor even my seventh or eighth, but it was the one that found me at a time in my life when darkness was winning.
Slowly, I led Lucy up the three metal steps to the stage. My awareness of her heightened with every second, as if someone had cranked up the dial on all my senses. The scent of her was fucking intoxicating. I knew my Alpha pheromones were broadcasting my desire for her, but it wasn’t something I could stop. Biology was an asshole like that. The air around us thickened with tobacco and gasoline notes from my skin, mixed with her oh-so-sweet Omega chemistry. Lucy was fresh lemonade on a scorching day—bright, tangy, incredibly refreshing. Our unique smells twined together, creating something mouthwatering that made my muscles tense with the effort not to pull her against my body and mark her.Did shefeel this as strongly? This magnetic force desperate to see us irrevocably bound?
I brought us to a stop near the stunt props. The other three performers were out of sight, tired of waiting for my return I supposed. But our tour practice could wait. Lucy couldn’t. I needed to show her more. I needed to be sure I hadn’t imagined that telltale glint in her eyes that said,burn the world down for me, Asher.
"You're the first person I've ever met who gets it," I said, watching her face for reaction.
She swallowed audibly, fluttering her lashes; her forest green irises searched my face.
“I don’t know—” she hesitated, then stood a little taller, drawing herself up to continue— “I don’t know if I really understand, but I want to. When I held it, the fire felt—” she stopped again, struggling for words.
"Like it's alive," I finished for her. "Like it wants to coexist with you, but only on its own terms. It can’t be controlled, not really."
Lucy nodded, a small smile forming on her lips. I couldn't stop staring at the curve of her mouth, wondering what it would taste like.Would she be as sweet as her scent suggested? Or would there be heat there too, a hidden flame waiting to consume me?
Fuck, I wasn't supposed to want her like this. The entire plan was to drive her away, to make her life so miserable that she'd beg to leave, letting us off the hook and keeping the Eros contract in place. But everything had shifted the moment she'd held that fire in her palm without flinching. The second I saw understanding flicker across her face; I’d found something I didn’t know was missing. Normal people would say it’s unhinged to obsess over fire. For me, sleeping with flames sounded like safety. Maybe that’s why I’d burned Lucy’s bed to begin with.Maybe, I’d already subconsciously recognized the truth. Maybe, even in that moment, I was trying to bring her into my world.
She'd consumed my thoughts, my focus, my very breath.
