Page 46 of Ruthless Moon

With a fierce tug, I wrench my arm free, spinning on him, a snarl curling my lips. I need to go. I need to escape before the dam breaks, before I utter words that could irrevocably ruin everything.

“I’ll take you wherever you want to go. My men will guard you tonight, but I’ll have them stay out of sight. You’ll never know they’re there. That’s what I can offer,” he says with a conciliatory mix of command and promise.

“The illusion of freedom.” I spit the words at him, the acid in my voice matching the bitterness in my heart.

“If I hadn’t been there, what would he have done?” he presses, his gaze unyielding, drilling into me.

And in that moment, I crack, letting my shoulders drop in defeat.

It’s a tiny fissure, barely visible, but his keen eyes catch it.

My hesitation. The way my mind conjures the image of the beating I would’ve endured. The familiar cold chains in the dark basement. It wouldn’t have been the first moon I spent shackled, punished for refusing to bow to my father’s tyrannical will.

Aiden’s eyes flicker gold, a pure, unadulterated fury burning in their depths. “You’ve got to work with me, Gen.”

A growl rumbles in my chest, my wolf inching closer to the surface. Despite the logic that tells me not to resist his offer, I find myself pushing back yet again.

“I’m about to give you everything, but I’m not giving it to you right now. I don’t want to see you or anyone else anywhere near me during the blood moon,” I say, my voice breaking under the crushing weight of the emotion I’m barely managing to keep at bay.

“You won’t.”

“Fine.”

“Good.” He exhales a sigh of relief at my surrender. “Just tell me how to get to your cabin.”

Chapter Sixteen

It All Starts with a Kiss

LIAM O’CONNOR

“I can’t leave her, Bast!” My words come out through clenched teeth, echoing the conflict churning within me—a blend of desperation and anger. My hands ball into fists. Knuckles tightening, fingers digging into my palms as if I can forcefully hold on to the control slipping bit by bit from my grasp.

Bast, despite the tension knotting the air inside my living room, maintains an infuriatingly calm facade.

A petty spark of jealousy ignites inside me at his apparent ease.

After Lila’s healing, my wolf took over and had me up and mobile again within a few hours. The pain isn’t all gone from the gunshot yet, but it will be by tomorrow. Right now the pain just fuels my rage.

He sighs, the sound a deep rumble that reverberates through the room. His resolute gaze meets mine. “Liam, you have to trust me. I will keep her safe. I promise you,” he insists.

But the mere thought of leaving Gen behind, even under Bast’s watch, stirs the beast within me. A low snarl rumbles in my chest, a primal warning from my wolf to me against the plan to put distance between me and my mate.

Over my dead fucking bodyis really what he’s saying.

“You almost died, Liam.” Bast’s words hang heavy in the air, thickening the tension with a weighty dread. He lowers his NFL linebacker-sized body onto my couch with a weary grunt, his eyes reflecting a pain that mirrors my own. “It nearly tore her apart in front of Aiden when that happened.”

Mine. Mate. Mine.

The wolf within me, deaf to reason and logic, growls his claim, his possessiveness rising like a tidal wave. The urge to protect, to guard is overpowering. I pace my living room, each step echoing my growing restlessness.

The front door swings open abruptly, the sudden intrusion slicing through my brooding thoughts. My youngest brother strides in, his expression somber. “So when was someone going to fill me in that Gen is Liam’s fated mate?”

“Fuck. Jackson, why are you here?” I cast a blame-filled glare at Bast. He merely shrugs a silent “I-don’t-care-what-you-think” and settles farther into the couch.

“You almost died, bro. Good luck going anywhere alone for a few weeks. Bast and I are traumatized,” Jackson quips, the humor barely masking his concern.

Bast gives a snorted laugh. Then he looks at me, his expression once again void of humor. “You’re not thinking clearly. You shifted in public. People saw you. Rachel’s gonna have a fun time cleaning up that mess, Liam.”

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