There’s nothing to defend.
I removed every boyfriend Dove brought home.Every girlfriend she thought was a friend.They were bottom-shelf humans.Dead ends with faces.The boys cheated on her.The girls were toxic, most of them addicts, and they treated her like shit.So I fucked them to prove their disloyalty and killed the ones who dared to hurt her.
None of them was worth her time or attention.But she doesn’t know that.She only knows the ruin I left behind.
For the longest time, I thought breaking her connections was protecting her.I thought if I kept the world from taking advantage of her, she could be happy.
Twisted logic from a twisted life.
But now?
Now I know the only person who’s ever been worthy of her is the same one holding a knife to my throat.
Wolf will fight for her, kill for her, and protect her from everything and everyone.
Including me.
Her chest rises and falls fast, her hands curling uselessly at her sides.Not afraid.Not timid.This is Dove broken open and trying to rebuild her armor.
“You won’t touch her again.”Wolf lifts my chin with the blade, bringing my eyes back to him.“Not without her permission.Not in confusion.Not in nostalgia.Not because you’re lonely and she makes your dick hard.”
“I’m leaving.For good.”My chest constricts.“I came here to say goodbye.”
“That right?”Wolf narrows his arctic eyes.“Where are you going?”
“Doesn’t matter.She has you, and you’re the only one good enough for her.”
“Hm.Yeah.We’re going to tableall of thatfor a minute.”He makes a face.“Dove darling… Safety check.Would your stepbrother physically harm you?”
“Never.”She steps closer.“But he might hurtyou.”
“I don’t think so.”He lowers the knife and paces in the space between her and me.“Here’s the thing, Murder Muffin.I feel very possessive of my woman.”
He twirls the knife like a lethal baton.Not a flashy trick.Not for show.Just the effortless, predatory movement of a man thinking aloud with steel and fingers.
I’ve never seen anyone handle a blade like that.
“My feelings for Dove are bigger than me.We’re talking princess level.In the realm of the Magic Kingdom.The real deal.”He spins the knife along his knuckles, catches the hilt backward, flips it forward, and meets my eyes.“My feelings for you are…” He gives Dove a look.“Confused?”His gaze snaps back to me, the blade twirling again.“Maybe that’s why you’re still breathing.But the night isn’t over.Help me understand it.”
Confused.Yeah, that makes two of us.
I’ve spent years taking Dove’s companions off the board.Not because I wanted them.Not because they meant anything.But because they didn’t deserve her.I didn’t just fuck them.I made sure she walked in at the right moment so she’d drop them quick.
But Wolf?
If I took Wolf to my bed, it wouldn’t be for Dove’s protection.It would be because I want him.And Christ help me, I do.
All my plans to test him, manipulate him, and break him down evaporated when I learned who he is at his core.
He’s dangerous in ways I respect and loyal in ways I don’t understand.He’s attractive, uncivilized, honest, eccentric, and unashamed of who he is.
He and I?We can’t happen.Because I know what that would do to Dove, and I refuse to hurt her again.
And Wolf wouldn’t hurt her, either.
So yeah, my feelings for him are confused, inconvenient, and completely off-limits.
“Help you understand?”I stand perfectly still, hands loose at my sides, waiting for one of those blade rotations to stop dead in my chest.“Which part?”
