Page 726 of Lessons in Cruelty

Or I could stop feeling so goddamn sorry for myself and do what I’ve always done.

Prey on the weak.

And right now, this poor boy is the weakest, most pathetic⁠—

“You know what?” Kai mutters, pushing off the dumpster. “I’m coming for you, Rooke.” He grimaces as his feet tangle beneath him. “Tomorrow. Tomorrow, I’m gonna⁠—“

My laugh cuts him off. “Do what? Fight me? Fuck me? No, Kai. As soon as you’ve sobered up, you’ll just reach for another bottle again.”

He was stumbling toward me, but now he freezes mid-step.

“Because that’s what you do, boy.” I circle around him slowly, like a shark scenting blood. “When things get tough, when emotions get complicated, you drown them in alcohol. In sex. In violence. Anything to avoid actually confronting something.”

“You don’t know shit about me,” he hisses, pointing at me with a shaking finger.

“I know everything about you, Kai.” I stop directly in front of him, blocking his path to the fire exit. “I know you’ve wanted me since the first time I put my hands on you. I know you hate yourself for it. And I know that what just happened—“ I gesture to the space between us “—is going to eat you alive…even if you can’t remember a fucking thing.”

His jaw tightens. His eyes glitter with unshed tears.

Good Wolf howls.

Bad Wolf bares its teeth.

“Want to know the best part, boy?” I lean in close enough that my lips brush his ear when I speak. “When you wake up wondering if this was real or just some fucked-up dream.”

“Rooke—”

“But I’ll remember.” My hand finds his jaw. Grips it. Forces him to meet my eyes. “And every time you see me, every time you see Haven, you’ll feel this—“ I press my thumb against his racing pulse “—and you won’t know why.”

“F-Fuck you, you fucking p-piece of sh-shit,” he stammers, ripping his face out of my hand and stumbling back a step before he finds his balance.

He’s crying properly now. Silent tears streaming down his face, shoulders shaking with suppressed sobs.

It should satisfy me.

It doesn’t.

Because even now—even with tears on his face and cum drying on his hands—some part of him is still defiant. Still meeting my gaze like he’s daring me to do my worst.

Like he’s not afraid of me at all.

That is unacceptable.

“Go on, boy. There’s a blackout in there, waiting for you.”

Kai stares at me for a long moment. Tear-streaked, trembling. Beautiful in his devastation.

Then he shoves past me and stumbles back to the bar.

I don’t watch him go. I’m too busy thinking.

The metal door clangs shut behind him, leaving me alone with the stench of garbage and sex, wallowing in what might be regret, if I could ever experience it.

“You’re just as evil as the rest of them,” Good Wolf whines. “Haven will never forgive you for this.”

No. She won’t.

But I don’t care.