Page 28 of Ashes

I took another hit before getting to my feet and handing the joint off to Stitches. He took a final pull then put it out and followed me like a damn zombie.

“Showtime,” I said.

He nodded tightly, his eyes still glassy.

“I’ll get Sin,” Ashes muttered, darting to Sin’s room where the prick was still holed up.

Stitches and I stepped onto the patio and watched as Seth approached.Asylum.Stitches tensed beside me. As much as I wanted to pummel Seth and rip his spine through his throat, I shoved those feelings beneath the surface.

“Easy,” I said softly to Stitches. “Sit down and don’t get up for shit. Got it?”

He said nothing. Instead, he backed away from me and went to the patio chair and sat down, his eyes narrowed as he took in Seth who was now climbing the steps to me.

“Church,” Seth said, inclining his head at me. “Glad to see you have your dog on its leash.”

“I’d be careful if I were you,” I said with a snarl, not caring for his jab at Stitches. “You’d be dead if I let him free.”

“I don’t fear death, Dante. It fears me.”

I scowled at the asshole and gestured to a patio chair. “Sit.”

He moved past me and grabbed the chair opposite Stitches, who glowered at him.

Ashes and Sin joined us a moment later. We formed a circle around the gas fire pit on the back deck. The sound of the waves lapping the shore in the distance filled the silence for a minute.

“Let’s get to the point in all of this,” I started. “Sirena.”

“I want her,” Asylum said immediately.

Stitches sat forward. Ashes threw his arm out to stop him from fully getting out of his chair.

“We’re aware,” I said, reeling in my anger. “But we had a deal. Whoever could make her scream would get her. She screamedmyname.”

Asylum licked his lips, his blue eyes focused on me. “We did make a deal. However, the deal was that whoevermadeher scream would get her. That would be me. It was with me that she screamed. Yes, she screamed your name, Dante, but had I not been there to provoke her shout, your name would’ve never slipped past her lips. Yours may have been the name on her lips, but I’m the one carved into her fucking soul. She belongs to me. Tous.”

“She belongs to the watchers,” Ashes snapped back.

I glanced at him. I didn’t want Ashes to lose it. He was the sanest of all of us. If he slipped and fell, it’d be a fucking feeding frenzy of crazy. Asylum really would end up buried beneath a new hot tub.

Asylum leaned back in his seat, his blue eyes darkening. “I know what you did.” His focus was on me.

“What I did?” I raised my brows at him.

He nodded slowly, his gaze raking over me. “You claimed her. Youfuckedher.”

I stared back at him. “I did.”

He narrowed his eyes. “She loves you, which is the only reason I haven’t killed you… or any of you, yet.”

Stitches lunged to his feet this time. Instead of Ashes holding him back, it was Sin who moved to get in front of him. He spoke in a hurried, soft voice to him as Stitches glared at Asylum. Finally, Stitches sat back down, and Sin returned to his seat.

“She’s mine,” Asylum said softly. “I won. You know I did.”

I fucking knew he did, but there had to be something else. Something I could cling to because giving her to him didn’t sit well with me. She was my girl. Fucking MINE.

“Why do you want her so badly?” Ashes asked.

Asylum snapped his focus to him. “Because she’s my forever girl. She’sours.We’veknown her sincewewere children. She needs me—us— right now. Believe that.”

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