I know he will.He’ll do it without mercy.
If I’m dead, I can’t keep them alive.So I drop my hands.
“Dovey.”He walks me backward, separating me from her.“Did he hurt you?”
“No.”She hugs her waist.“Wolf, I’m sorry.I—”
“Go to the kitchen and get yourself a knife.The biggest one you can find.”
“She doesn’t need it.”I grit my teeth.
Wolf’s free hand cups me between the legs, gripping the hardness there.“Feels like she does.”
Christ in hell.
I hold my hands out to my sides, breath locked in my chest.I don’t look at her.Not when my skin is bared under Wolf’s knife.Not when his fingers are curled around my erection.If I see her face right now, I’ll forget the blade and the consequences and everything I’m trying to keep alive.
But she doesn’t go for a weapon.She stands at the edge of my periphery and shakes her head at Wolf like she can’t process what he’s asking.
He takes in her expression,the tears, and releases my shrinking dick.
“You made her cry.”An ominous chill shivers through his voice.“What kind of monster are you?”
“The worst kind.”
It’s the truth.There’s no excuse left to hide behind, and the sight of her tears—tears I put thereagain—cuts deeper than the blade digging into my throat.
“Look at me,” she says quietly.
I don’t want to.I can’t.But the heartbreak in her tone drags my eyes up anyway.
“I loved you.”She balls her fists at her sides.“You were my entire world.My safe place.My family.My heart—” She inhales sharply.“And you threw me away.”
Wolf’s blade presses deeper.
Her glare is a blade all its own.“You threw me away when I was fifteen.So I did the only thing I could do to protect myself.I ran.But you weren’t finished with your torture.You chased me.Hunted me.Showed up in every town I tried to hide in.Every time I tried to start a normal life, you ruined it.You fucked my friends.My boyfriends.Anyone who got close to me.”
My lungs burn.
“I let myself believe it was because you cared.”Her voice cracks.“That maybe you were keeping me safe.That maybe you still loved me.”
I can’t breathe.
“I wanted you once.”Her eyes shine with grief.“I wanted you so damn much.But you didn’t want me back.You made that very clear.So why, Jag?Why didn’t you just leave me the hell alone?”
“I couldn’t.”I swallow against the steel, because she’s right about one thing.She loved me, and I pissed all over it.On purpose.
She wipes her face and looks away.Angry.Ashamed she cried.Ashamed she kissed me.Ashamed she let all those years hit her at once.
Wolf shifts around me, and for a split second, the absurdity of him is all I see.
What in tropical-hell is he wearing?
Floral rain boots, turquoise shorts with flamingos in sunglasses, and a vintage black tee with a snarling white wolf, its fangs dripping cartoon-red.The shirt hangs lopsided on him, exposing a scarred shoulder that hints at more scars underneath.
Without moving my head, I focus on his face, and…Goddamn.His eyes gleam with that special kind of madness, the razor edge between queer and violent that only trauma-bred boys can master.
“That’s it?”He flutters his thick eyelashes.“You’re not going to defend yourself?”
