“That’s because you look like you’re preparing to commit a felony,” Kane says. “You ever try a smile? A wink, perhaps? Anything other than a sneer would do.”
I zip my bag and stand. My muscles are tight as shit from all the adrenaline of the game and the awkward as fuck interaction with the female topic of the hour, and it’s making my blood feel a thousand degrees hotter than it should even be capable of feeling.
Unfortunately, Kane isn’t wrong. I look miserable because Iammiserable.
One day, I was fine—I was a regular guy with a regular job and a regular set of annoying-as-fuck brothers with a special, but rarely inconvenient, biological makeup—and the next, I was a prisoner in my own body.
The second Kylie Moon stepped onto the ice a week ago—the day after I turned twenty-eight—a visceral, bone-deep reaction that locked all my senses in on her snapped into place and hasn’t left since. As if her presence has the power to control me. I thought the lore I’d read about us and our ancestry and the way our love works was bullshit—that if I hated the idea of it, it wouldn’t apply to me.
Turns out, it’s not bullshit, and no matter how much I’ve tried to convince myself that I’d be different or exempt, I’m not.
I’ve been fighting the magnetic pull to claim her ever since. Including tonight.Especiallytonight.
It doesn’t matter that I didn’t want this—that Idon’tfucking want this. I’ve spent my entire life bucking the rules and the expectations of the machine that chews human women up and spits them out after giving them bullshit promises of luxury and status in exchange for their sustenance. I’ve spent myentire lifepreparing to give it all the middle finger.
But now that I’m in the nitty-gritty of it, my body’s nearly inconsolable. It’s pathetic at best.
I spare myself no pity, slinging my bag over my shoulder with shaking hands, barking an order at my brothers. “Just fucking drop it.”
Kane smirks at me like he can see inside my head. The fucker can’t, no matter how hard he tries. That’s a gift reserved for only me, it seems.
“I know you’re fuckingfeelingit,” he pushes, not dropping it at all. “You have to be, bro. You look at her like the whole world will collapse if you blink.”
Calloway’s gaze sharpens as he searches my face for answers I never wanted to have. “Just tell me this…did you feel it immediately after turning twenty-eight? Just turned on like a light switch? Or was it, like, a slow build for the last few months or something?”
I don’t answer. I don’t have to. The look on my stupid fucking face says enough.
Kylie Moon has always drawn attention. I saw it, even if I didn’t care. But now, it’s killing me to let her out of my sight, as if my body registers her absence before my mind can even justify it.
It’s night and fucking day.
She’s always been beautiful, but now, she’severything.
Kane’s mouth stays shut for once, and Calloway exhales slowly, finishing with a whistle that echoes throughout the locker room. “Okay, then. Immediate.”
“Finish packing your shit and meet me outside,” I snap through gritted teeth, grabbing my bag and storming out the locker room door to answer the loudening call to be near her.
Neither brother says a word as I exit because they know this isn’t something we talk about lightly. Both of my brothers are Chatty Fucking Cathys every goddamn day of the week, but there’s some shit you don’t say out loud,vampireandmateincluded.
I lean against the glass, across the rink from the otherspectators—to put it nicely—watching Kylie on the ice. She’s smooth and confident, and every muscle movement is tight and controlled, like she knows exactly where her body is at all times. My body mirrors the feeling, reveling in the comfort of watching her.
She has no idea that she’s being circled as prey, and even more fucked up, my desperate, choking yearn is only a small piece of it.
Holland Thorne, the Fighting Fangs’s biggest piece of shit, leans against the glass on the far side, pretending to joke with theother guys on his team. He watches her closely, tracking her movements, and logging something behind his slimy fucking smile I wish I could figure out. Unfortunately, the elites have gifted him with the ability to shield, so I’m shit out of luck, despite myheightened abilities.
My jaw tightens.Fuck that guy. Fuck everything about him.
Kane, having joined me from the locker room, follows my line of sight. “He looks pretty focused over there.”
Calloway nods. “He’s also been asking questions.”
That gets my full attention. Cal has always had hearing like a hawk. “About her?”
“Yeah. Her job. Her routines. Where she lives. Where her roommate was tonight. If she’s dating anyone.” Calloway’s voice drops. “Any chance he can get, I hear him asking her shit. Hear him asking other people about her shit. It’s nothing overt. But it feels a lot like the pattern behavior we’ve seen before.”
Fuck.My blood spikes sharp and violent.
I know what kind of man Holland is. I know who he works for. I know where his priorities lie. When it comes to women, I know what Holland’s motives are, and I really wish I didn’t give a single fucking shit. But I do.
