My jaw flexed, teeth grinding together.
Me: You sure?
Three dots appeared instantly.
Gage: Yeah. Been keeping his distance while she’s at the dining hall with Cordi, but he’s watching her. Thought you’d want to know.
Watching her.
Something inside me snapped tight.
Possessive. Violent. Immediate.
I shoved my phone back into my pocket, already moving, boots hitting the dock with sharp, echoing thuds. Bass had given Micah an order. And I was about to fuck with that order.
Actually, I was about to break a shit-ton of rules that not even my last name could get me out of—if someone found out.
But Lexi was fuckingmine.
I exhaled slowly, raking a hand through my hair as I stepped off the dock, the cold air biting harder now. This wasn’t about her.
Not really.
It was about control. Power even.
About making sure no one else touched what belonged to me. About provingIwas the only one who could break Lexi.
The only one who could hurt her.
At least that was what I told myself.
But the unease coiling in my chest—the sharp, restless edge of it—said something different. Something I didn’t want to name. Something I didn’t want to look at too closely.
Even if deep down, I knew exactly what it was, as I’d felt it before, a long time ago.
I cast one last glance back at the boat, the wolf’s open maw glaring out over the water, the name just barely visible in the fading light.
Then I turned away and marched directly toward Stonewall’s campus. By the time I caught up with them, darkness blanketedthe world, and Micah was looming outside of Davenport Dormitory after Lexi and Cordi vanished inside.
The little weasel thought he could hurt Red.
He’d die first.
I silently slinked forward with my hoodie obscuring my face and grabbed Micah from behind.
He tried to fight back, but I clamped a hand over his mouth to silence him, dragging him deeper into the shadows between the buildings.
“Get off me, asshole,” he hissed when I shoved him around and slammed him against the brick façade. “Who do you think?—”
As I searched his pockets for weapons, I yanked out a bag of pills with a familiar number code marking them.
A storm of fury crashed into me, and I ripped the hood down to reveal my face. “What are you doing lurking outside Lexi’s dorm, Micah? Were you planning to dose her with these sleeping pills?”
My control teetered on a thin wire. This motherfucker really thought he could hurt her.
Dark circles bruised beneath his haunted eyes, and his cheeks appeared hollow.
“You know, don’t you?” His gaze flickered to the opening where safety lay just beyond his reach. “You know the girl I’m supposed to kill is Lexi.”
