“I can find them.”
My breath hitched. This was it. The line. The choice. My omega grew protective and held Shadow closer. The more primal side of me took control, and my morality recoiled.
“Can you make it hurt?” I asked in a raw whisper.
The question hung in the air with unspoken meaning. Torin’s eyes—dark and knowing—met mine. Something predatory flaredto life as the corner of his mouth lifted.
“Aye, lass,” he responded, his voice a chilling rumble. “I can make it hurt.”
Something dark twisted inside me. Something foreign. Something powerful.
“Don’t kill them. I want them to suffer. I want them to remember what they did to her every single day for the rest of their lives.”
Torin inclined his head, covering his chest in a silent vow. Without another word, he rose, his broad back disappearing through the doorway, leaving me alone with my racing thoughts.
Later that night, I curled into Kaelen, counting the thumps of his heart as he stroked my hair in my nest. If Torin told him about our agreement, he said nothing, instead distracting me with his knot until I fell into an uneasy sleep.
Two days later, Torin entered the den where I was curled up with Shadow, tossing a burned match onto the coffee table. I arched a brow, confused when I saw none of his usual playfulness.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“The match I used to light him up.”
“Is he… dead?”
“No, lass. He only wishes he were.”
With a tight nod, Torin exited the living room. A cruel pleasure alighted in my veins, brimming with a darkness that mingled with the very fiber of my being.
Twenty-Seven
KAELEN
My alpha paced, unhappy with how sad our omega was. A distance lingered in her eyes, her scent not as sweet as it usually was. After our visit to the vet, all she did was cuddle Shadow, fidgeting with her scarred tail.
I didn’t try to placate her, giving her space to talk to me if she wanted.
While I tried to ignore the feeling, I knew it was more than Shadow. Inside, she was grappling with a lifetime of abuse she suffered at the hands of her father along with her own marks. I wanted to hold her close, tell her that those burns on her skin, on Shadow’s, strengthened them.
Unfortunately, this was something Willow had to come to terms with on her own.
In her own way.
And me springing on her that her parents were attending a dinner with us this weekend didn’t win me any favors. I tried tospin it as an opportunity to see her mom, which made a light spark in her jeweled eyes.
I hated forcing her to spend time with that piece of shite. Yet it was the only way I could get close to Isabelle Sterling. All I had to do was get my mother-in-law alone long enough to convince her to let my private nurse take a blood draw.
Then I would send it to Robert Sweeney for a diagnosis. Once I knew what was wrong with Willow’s mom, I could help her.
Not just Willow’s mom, but mine too. Isabelle Sterling was my blood, and I wouldn’t allow her to suffer a moment longer. And once she was taken care of, I’d crush William Sterling like the fucking maggot he was.
The door squeaked open, and my eyes shot up to it, only now realizing someone had been knocking for the last minute. Torin loomed in the entrance like a cryptic shadow. My jaw stiffened as I leaned back in my chair.
Torin was family in every way that mattered. I trusted him as much as Aidan or Liam. The anger clinging to him reminded me faintly of the night he came to me after his sister had been raped.
He moved across the room, standing stone-still at the edge of my desk.
“Willow asked something of me,” he said, his tone tight and emotionless.
