I need to hear it.
Need to understand.
His head tilts.
“They took you from me,” he says simply.
My stomach drops.
“No,” I say. “I left.”
His jaw tightens.
“They made you think that.”
“No one made me do anything,” I fire back.
His breathing gets heavier.
Faster.
Unstable.
“I tried to fix it,” he says. “I tried to make it right.”
“With violence?” I ask.
“With what was necessary!” he snaps.
The sound echoes through the trees.
Trigger shifts.
Beast tenses.
Ace—
Ace is a wall behind me.
Ready.
Waiting.
“Come with me,” Daniel says again, softer now. “We can still fix this.”
I shake my head.
“There is no fixing this.”
Something breaks in his expression.
Cracks wide open.
And I see it.
The moment he decides—
If he can’t have me—
