Page 81 of Pucked Around and Found Out

Trying not to completely lose my fucking mind.

When I'm finally sure I can articulate without screaming, I slide to a stop in front of them.

I toy with a puck, hitting it side to side in front of me as I speak.

“I warned you not to lie to me, didn't I?”

I don't need to be looking at her to know she's gone stiff. I can feel the tension radiating off her in waves.

“What file is missing from that drive, Toren?”

At the sound of her actual name—not Tink, not fairy, but Toren—she gasps.

I finally look up and see the terror in her eyes. Her face has gone pale. Her hands tremble at her sides.

I hear a commotion from the sidelines but pay it no mind. My men will hold those two fuckers back while I deal with this.

“Answer me!” I roar, the sound echoing through the rink.

She lets out a frightened sound and steps back, but her feet slip on the ice. Cas darts his arm out to steady her.

I shoot him an icy glare that promises violence, and he drops his hold on her instantly.

“I—Xaden... I don't⁠—”

“Lie to me again!” I yell, my voice cracking with fury and something that feels dangerously close to heartbreak. “I fucking dare you, Toren.”

Tears gather in her eyes, spilling over and tracking down her cheeks.

I draw my stick back and line up my shot.

The puck soars past her head with enough force that it blows her hair back. She screams and drops into a crouch, covering her head with her arms.

I'm already lining up another shot.

“I'll fucking kill you!” Carnage's roar cuts through the air, raw and desperate.

I flick my gaze to him and smirk, though there's no humor in it. “Get in line, fucker. It's kill or be killed in this world.”

I turn back to Toren, who's crouching on the ice, shaking with fear.

“Xaden—” Cas starts.

I snap my gaze to him, and the look alone has him clamping his mouth shut.

“Want to take her spot, Caspian?” I taunt, my voice deadly soft.

His features pull taut. His jaw clenches as he studies me, trying to gauge how far I'll go.

I let him see everything. The monster. The madness. The barely leashed violence.

Without taking my eyes off him, I take another shot.

Toren screams as the puck sails over her head, close enough that she feels the air displacement.

The shouts from the wonder twins stop. The rink falls into suffocating silence.

I feel the shadows I love so much cling to me like a second skin as I drop every mask, every pretense, and allow my friend, my second, my brother, the man who helped me claw my way out of the hole I was in when I thought my world had ended see everything.