Page 22 of Claimed By Shadows

“You have some visitors, Miss Iris. Are they okay to stay?” the older man asks, eyeing up Hunt who is almost vibrating as he stands there, his chest heaving.

“It’s fine, uh…” I trail off, trying to recall the man’s name but coming up short.

“Donald, Miss,” he supplies helpfully with a nod. “I’ll leave you to it then.”

“Thank you, Donald,” I say, watching as he retreats, shutting the door behind him.

“Peaches, look at me,” Hunt orders, and I tear my gaze away from the door to find emerald eyes blazing into mine. “Come here.”

“Hunt…” Rowan warns, his tone low, but I lick my lips, holding out my hand.

“It’s okay, Roo,” I tell him, slowly getting to my feet and cautiously stepping towards Hunter. My gaze drops to my feet, my body shaking the closer to Hunter I get, my thoughts swirling in my mind. I should have spoken to him sooner, not just left it up to Roo to text him once we’d arrived and unpacked.

“Look at me, Iris,” Hunt demands again, and I lift my gaze, realising how close we’re standing to one another, our chests brushing with each of our breaths. My eyes lock onto his emerald ones, which swirl with so many emotions it makes me dizzy. “Why didn’t you tell me, baby?”

“I–I’m sorry, Hunt,” I whisper, tears stinging my eyes. “I worried that you wouldn’t let me come, and I need this…so much.”

“Fuck, Iris,” Hunt breathes out, closing his eyelids and taking a deep inhale, his chest expanding and brushing against mine. He opens his eyes, staring into my very fucking soul. “Don’t you know that I’d burn the fucking world down without question if you needed me to? I’d start a war with the Bratva, sacrifice everything that I am just to keep you safe, baby.” The tears burn a path down my cheeks as they fall, and his fingers come up to brush them aside. “I’d do literally anything, even offer up my entire crew, just to see the shadows in your eyes go away.”

“I don’t want you to do any of that, Hunt. I just need time and space,” I tell him, my heart swelling at his offer. The Shadows are his life, he’s spent his life protecting them, and for him to offer them up is a big fucking deal. “And I like some of the Shadows in my eyes.”

One side of his lips tips up in a half smile, his palm cupping my cheek to bring our foreheads together. “I love you, wife.”

I huff a laugh, recalling how I became his wife without him even knowing. “I guess we’re even now. Maybe the next surprise could be something less…well, less dramatic?”

“Maybe that’s just how we roll, Peaches,” he tells me, pressing his lips against the space his forehead was a moment ago before heaving a sigh. “I’m going to go over security with Rowan, but Roman needs a hug.”

With another parting kiss that leaves tingles racing across my skin, he steps aside and I find Roman standing there, his hands tucked into the pockets of his dark jeans, his gaze on the floor.

“Ro?” I gently ask, taking a step towards him. “I’m sorry, I should have said?—”

“No, I’m sorry, fuck!” he rasps, his voice broken and thick with emotion. His hands come out of his pockets, tugging his hair loose, his fingers running through it. His brown eyes lock on mine, his gaze tormented. “When I read Rowan’s message, all I could think is that we weren’t enough to fix you, that we failed once again, and I know that makes me a selfish bastard, Princess, but I just wanted to be enough. For once in my miserable life, I wanted to be enough.”

A sob tears through me at the tears that glisten in his eyes, at the way his shoulders cave like he really believes that he is worthless. Without thought, I step right up to him, pulling him into my arms and wrapping him in a tight embrace.

“You are enough, Ro, more than enough. I’m the one who’s broken, who’s so lost I can’t find my way back to you. I’m lostin the dark, screaming and screaming, but no one comes, only monsters who want to tear me apart and devour me.”

My knees buckle as I weep, but before we can crash to the floor, strong arms wrap around us both, Hunt behind me and Rowan behind Roman. They guide us down, holding us between them as we both just cry.

“I’m the one who’s not enough, who’s like a shadow, a wraith,” I tell them, tears streaming down my face and soaking Roman’s T-shirt. He holds me tightly, his own tears dripping onto my hair. “And I refuse to let that man steal anything else from me. I will not let him take you away from me, but he’s winning at the moment, Ro. So we need to try a different approach, but it’s not because you’re not enough. Sometimes, we just need a helping hand.”

“Shit, I know, Princess. I’m making this about me, and it’s not?—”

“It is about you too, Ro. All of you. It’s why Julia has agreed to talk to you guys too. She agrees that it’s affected all of us and we need to work together to get through this,” I tell him, moving so I can look into his red-rimmed eyes. “And we will win. We will make it through this, Ro.”

“You’re so fucking strong, Princess,” he tells me, dipping down to place his lips against my forehead. “And we will win because of you.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“EVERYTHING” BY VIDE

HUNTER

Ifucking hate leaving her, even if I know that deep down she needs this.And maybe that’s part of the problem,I muse as I prepare to leave her room while my fucking soul screams at me not to go. Maybe a part of me, a really selfish part, hates that I can’t fix this. That I’m fucking useless to help her get over what that cunt did to her.

We’ve all heard her screams at night, heard her whimpers and pleas for him to stop. It doesn’t take a genius to work out what he did to her. How he defiled and raped her every night. Sick, dead fucking bastard. I don’t care if Nikolai gets first cut or even the last one. We will take our pound of flesh from Sergi one day, and we will make him scream the way he makes her scream when she’s asleep.

“We have guys on their new security team,” I tell Iris, blinking away the violent thoughts as I brush some of her hairbehind her ear, drinking in her features. “And Rowan tapped into their feed so we can keep an eye on you.”

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