Page 47 of Primal

I ignore him as I try to unlock my front door as quickly as possible, and just when I open it and duck inside, he pushes against it and follows me.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I ask angrily.

He kicks the door closed behind him and gets in my face. I wince when he grips my arm tightly. “Getting what I deserve.”

CHAPTER 38

ZYRAN

The stars are bright tonight, but they don’t shine as much as my butterfly.

From my spot across the lot at the drive-in theater, I watched the scumbag she was with wrap his arm around her shoulders. I didn’t miss the way she tried to scoot away from him without him noticing.

For the past twelve months, I’ve sat back and watched her bury her pain in the affections of other men. Going on back-to-back dates for a whole year just to try to get me out of her head, meanwhile, it’s my name she calls out when she comes in the dark, long after her dates have left, failing to give her an orgasm. They don’t know what she wants, so they can’t give her the pleasure I know that only I’m capable of.

They don’t know that I watch her every move, that I follow her everywhere she goes to make sure she’s safe.

Well, they don’t know until I tell them—until I’ve got them tied up and begging for their lives, right before they find their deaths at the end of my knife.

My obsession with Kiara never ends; it bleeds into every aspect of her life. Every single man she meets is subject to in-depth background checks. It’s how I knew that Jax, her first date, was a registered sex offender with an appetite for underage boys, hiding behind adult relationships so people would think he’d changed.

Liam, her tenth, served time for his mother’s murder. He escaped from prison last year and had been on the run since, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake.

And John, her current date, has a history of abusing his partners.

Why my butterfly seems to attract the scum of the earth is beyond me. Kiara needs me to vet out the bad guys, even if it means leaving my own trail of bodies behind me.

I followed behind them from the theater back to her place. If it weren’t for the tiny microphone I’d hidden in the lining of her purse months ago, I would have thought she was taking him back to fuck. But I could hear the resignation in her tone. She wants nothing to do with him, and if he so much as lifts a finger toward her…

Well, his death is already planned, so it really doesn’t matter either way, but if he does anything to hurt her, I’ll hurt him ten times over.

Before I jump out of my car, I sit back and wait. Watch.

Kiara’s body language makes it clear that she just wants to be left alone, but John can’t seem to take no for an answer.

I grit my teeth as he runs behind Kiara and forces himself inside the house.

That’ll do it.

I hop out of my car and run up the driveway. John kicks the door closed, but I’m there less than five seconds later, flinging it open and tackling the bastard to the floor.

“Zyran!” Kiara calls out on a gasp, but I don’t even look at her.

The sight of John grabbing her sends me into a murderous rage.

“What the fuck, bro!” he shouts, trying to elbow me in the neck, but I whip my head to the side to avoid the blow. I grip his hair and slam his head into the hardwood floor, causing him to groan and go limp beneath me.

“Zyran, please,” Kiara cries. “Stop!”

Finally, I look up at her. She’s shaking violently, arms wrapped around herself protectively.

“Please, don’t kill him,” she whispers defeatedly.

“Why not, butterfly?” I ask, standing up and walking to her. She doesn’t take a step back like I expect her to, but she doesn’t reach out to touch me, either.

Her dark brown eyes search my face for a moment, and I see the battle there, the struggle to keep me at bay, while also wanting to take me back. My heart skips a beat at the knowledge that she still wants me. Of course, I’ve known this whole time that she does, but it’s different actually seeing how she feels in person.

“I don’t know if I can continue to live with that,” she says quietly, eyes filling with tears. “That’s why I lost my best friend, Zyran. It’s hard to sleep at night knowing that you’ve done so many horrible things.”

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