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CHAPTERONE
Coldest Fire
BEAST
“People like you and me don’t get to love…”
Those are the words that play on repeat inside my head as I stagger to my feet, blood seeping from the bullet wound just below my right shoulder and mixing with the drying blood already covering my body. I don’t feel the pain from it. On the contrary, I’m numb to everything bar Kate’s words.
People like you and me…
Don’t get to love…
Don’t. Get. To. Love…
She’s right in a way, but not entirely.
It’s true that the likes of us don’t get to lovewithout fear.When you mix with the people we do, you gain enemies. Even the friends you think you have can turn against you on a penny if the price is right. Look at the King - he was ‘friends’ with Carter, but he took the opportunity to take him out the moment it was offered.
Itook out my boss without a second thought.
Granted it was to protect the woman I love from her very own dad, but she doesn’t know that, and I can’t tell her.
Not yet, anyway.
But one thing I do know with absolute certainty is that Idoget to love.
And I never thought that was possible for me.
Yeah, it’s dangerous to love when it can be held against you, but it doesn’t make it any less true. If I know anything about myself, it’s this: I won’t give up on our love. I refuse to, because what the fuck kind of man would I be to turn my back on something so fundamental to my very existence? A fucking pussy, that’s what, and if there’s one thing I’m not, it’s a pussy.
I won’t give up on our love. Not now, not ever.
Lifting my head, I meet Kate’s hard stare with that promise burning in my veins.
But right now, no matter what I say, I know it won’t make a difference.
Kate might love me, but Grimhasto make a stand.
We both know that.
Shooting me was her only choice given the circumstances. Closing herself off, shutting down, was her only option.
I don’t fight it, I can’t fight it, but most importantly, I won’t.
“Get. Out!” she snarls, the slightest flicker of regret in her eyes the only sign that beneath the pain, betrayal and disappointment, she still cares for me. That Kate is still there inside of Grim, who stands before me now. “I said, get the fuck out!”
I ignore Rodriguez’s laugh. I ignore the King’s smirk. I ignore Dom asking Kate to reconsider.
Instead, I lower my head in acquiesce. I raise my hand and place it over my heart, over the tattoo of her handprint embedded in my skin and vow to myself that I will find a way to protect her from afar, no matter what.
With one last look at Kate that I hope conveys all the love and affection I feel for her, I twist on my feet and stagger towards the exit, my gaze falling to Dom as I reach the door.
“Take care of her,” I bite out through gritted teeth, fighting the darkness that’s threatening to drag me under.
He nods. “You can count on me, Beast.”
* * *
