Page 101 of Burn It Down

If I wasn’t in this headspace, it would have worked, I had little doubt given how close we’d become before I’d done this… become this thing he didn’t like because it cut me off from him.

“Guys, stop it,” Aurora called.

I shrugged my jacket off, then shucked my shirt off, tossing them on the floor.

“Oh my God,” Aurora choked, and I looked to see her eyes darting all over my fresh scars.

“Yeah. So, you think a single flesh wound to the person who basically pushed me into the situation that caused all of this damage wasn’t warranted now?”

“I… I’m so sorry, Asher.”

I snarled.

I didn’t want her pity.

And I didn’t like that I could feel it and react to it when I saw the pain all over her face.

She was doing it again, affecting the beast.

Humanizing it.

Soothing it.

Taking away its power.

I turned from Jonah and walked to her.

Her breath hitched as I pounced on the bed and straddled her.

“Stop doing that,” I growled, slapping my hands down on the pillow either side of her head, effectively caging her in.

“Making you feel?” she asked, tentatively.

“Affecting it, humanizing it.”

She reached up, despite the animosity coming off me, and cupped my face in the most tender way that had me startled and unmoving above her. “I can’t help it.”

“Why?” I uttered, unevenly. “Why not?”

“Because I care. Because I love you.”

“Aurora,” I said, shaking my head. “To win this war, I need to be this. I can’t falter. I can’t—”

“Suffer through processing what was done to you?”

I screwed up my face.

“We’re here,” she said, stroking my cheek. “We’re all here for you, to listen, to help you in any way we can.” She beamed up at me. “We love you, Asher. You’re safe with us, loved.”

As I sat back on my haunches, trying to reconcile her words, her comfort, her promises, she crooked her fingers at Killian and Jonah, beckoning them over.

Wanting their love to surround us.

To infect me.

Jonah was there in the next moment, curling his hand around her nape, then bringing his lips to hers, taking her in a deep, devouring kiss.

Killian climbed onto the bed and lifted his tee over her head, breaking their kiss briefly to pull it off her, baring her naked body to us all.

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