“We know you’re hiding from us,” another voicerumbles, raspier than before, coming from somewhere just beyond the entrance.
“But you can’t hide from us forever, can you, baby?” This came from somewhere behind me, and I can’t help but feel like the raging blizzard outside is the least of my concerns.
My heart is pounding, and my limbs feel heavy as my every instinct screams for me to make a run for it. To bolt back to the cabin and lock the door behind me, but my body refuses to move. I inwardly scold myself at my reaction because it’s so fucking obvious that it’s the guys. Maybe that’s the part that terrifies me? Even as fear claws its way up my throat, I can’t ignore the other feeling simmering right beside it.
Excitement.
I swallow hard, my throat is dry as shit, but I press myself tighter into the shadows anyway, frantically scanning the dark for a place to hide, anything to keep them from finding me, but there’s nothing. I have no choice but to face them head-on, and I’ll be damned if I make it easy for them this time. If they want me? They’re going to have to try a hell of a lot fucking harder than this, because I’m not handing myself over easily.
CHAPTER 9
AXL
DECK MY BALLS… I MEAN HALLS
We fucked up.Big time.
I can’t deny that it feels like a massive weight’s been lifted off my shoulders now that Shiloh knows who we really are, but that relief is tangled with guilt, burning like acid inside my chest because the truth is, we deceived her.
We should have told her from the get-go. Believe me, I wanted to. As unprepared as I was, I still would have removed my mask. But the second her eyes met mine, every ounce of sense I had flew right out the damn window.
Would she have come back with us if she had known? I mean, I know that she was into it. God, the way her body responded to us was fucking mind-blowing to watch. But if she’d known we were Jovi’s brothers, would she have still wanted us?
Shiloh means everything to me—to us. She always has. Fuck, she's the reason we tried to make a name for ourselves in the first place. We wanted her to see us as more than the screwups we used to be, and tonight, call it a fucking Christmas miracle, because for a couple of perfect hours, she looked at us like we meant something to her.
I touched her. Felt her, tasted her arousal that coated my fingers after I made her come, which I had only ever dreamed of doing. Nothing in this fucking world could have prepared me for how drop-dead gorgeous she’d be, or how her blue eyes would darken with each of Zane’s dirty commands. Not to mention that filthy mouth of hers will be my undoing.
She’s a shattered halo wrapped in dark corruption, both angel and ruin, longing to be held by hands that understand her every piece. And now that we finally have her, we’ll show her just how perfect she’s always been, beyond anyone else’s judgment.
Shiloh is the type of woman who knows what she wants, and there’s no denying that she wanted us. Yet, something gnaws at the edges of my thoughts, telling me that we may have already lost her.
No.We’re not doing that.
I will not let that happen.
Shiloh is ours, and the sooner she comes to terms with that, the better. The thought of her walking awayfrom us after the snow clears is like a knife straight through my fucking chest. An inevitable ending to a perfect dream. Though now that I'm thinking clearly, there is no way I'm letting her leave. Not now that I know what she tastes like, and certainly not after feeling what it’s like to finally have her in my arms after all these years.
The cold bites through my jacket as I round the outside wall of the workshop, but it barely registers because my mind is on one thing, and one thing only. Showing our girl that there is no reality where she can escape us.
The hum of the radiator fills the ice-cold air, and I'm glad that she had the forethought to put it on. I don't know what I'd do if she were upside down somewhere, buried beneath a blanket of snow.
Our girl likes danger. We've always known that side of her existed, even if she’d never admit it to anyone. She craves the edge, the chaos, the thrill of doing all the things she shouldn’t. It’s evident in the way she’s transformed into this dark goddess of a woman, against her parents' wishes, no doubt. Shiloh's always been tied to us in that aspect. It was as if something inside her spoke to whatever demons we had lurking beneath our own facades, and that connection was one of the reasons I was drawn to her in the first place.
She wants us to chase her.
She’s been running after guys who weren’t even remotely worthy of her for years. Jovi spilled the beanson that one. But now, it’s our turn. It’s time for our girl to learn what it means to be wanted, claimed, and owned by us. And if she thinks that this is over, she has another thing coming. She’s basically signed up to a lifetime subscription to us, and she doesn’t even know it yet.
“But you can't hide from us forever, can you, baby?” I call out, and I know that she can hear me. Sleet and wind whip against my body in every direction as I push through the snow and trudge around the side of the workshop, making my way to the door. She must love the fucking snow, because fuck being out here in this weather.
The others stalk close behind, whistling into the screaming wind, but the moment my hand closes around the ice-cold handle, the door flies open, hitting the side of the shop with a loud bang. The force of it shoves me back a little, though I press against the wind and snow snarling against me. It will take a lot more than a snowstorm to keep me from my girl. The door slams shut behind me as I slowly make my way through the dark-lit space.
“What do you want from me?” Her voice shakes from the cold, but it's the fear I hear in her tone that has me crossing the threshold, pulling me closer into her orbit.
“You, Shiloh. We want you,” Zane says from behind me, and a wave of anticipation washes over me, knowing that we have her cornered with nowhere torun. A whimper escapes her, coming from the right side of the lower level, and it's all I can do not to chuckle because she didn't even bother to hide from us.
Then, I see her.
My snow angel.
