Her eyes widen slightly.
“And because I bit back,” I add, quieter.
She swallows, fingers still on my chest. “Kayce. Wolf. If I leave, will you bring me back?”
I slide my hand to her waist and hold on. “You’re not leaving,” I say, voice rough. “Not until you’re safe.”
“I don’t want to leave.”
I cup her face and kiss her gently, like I’m trying to be careful with something fragile. My voice comes out low and honest. “You’re melting my walls, angel.”
Her eyes widen.
“I don’t like it,” I add.
She swallows. “Then why…”
“Because I want you anyway,” I finish, rough. “And that scares the hell out of me.”
She touches my cheek, gentle. “Me too.”
I hold her closer and listen to her breathing until it evens out again. Until her hand goes slack on my chest.
I won’t let her go.
Chapter 6
Evie
Morningcomeslikenothinghappened.
Sunlight spills across the cabin floor in pale stripes. Birds make noise outside. The world looks clean and normal, and it makes my skin itch.
Wolf left before I was fully awake. He kissed my forehead, told me he was meeting the club, told me he’d be back soon. Then he pressed a burner phone into my hand and closed my fingers around it.
“If you need anything, you call,” he said. “My number is already saved.”
I nodded and watched him leave, shoulders broad, the kind of man who walks out the door like the world has to behave.
The cabin is quiet without him.
My body is sore in a way that makes my cheeks heat when I shift. My mind keeps trying to go soft and dreamy, and I keep dragging it back to reality.
Voss.
My father.
The word agreement.
I stare at the burner phone until my chest tightens.
I shouldn’t call my father. I know what he is. I know what he did.
Still, there’s something rotten in me that wants to hear his voice. To hear him admit it. To hear him say he’s sorry without using my mother like a weapon.
I dial the number I know by heart.
It rings twice.
