Page 6 of Consume Me

“Yes, because you’d sacrifice yourself for what’s right, for the people you love.”

She digs into her bag, then stretches out her hand to me. It’s a thick black envelope with the gold crest of the Family stamped on it. I take the envelope from her and then she places her palm on my arm, giving it a little squeeze.

I don’t remember my mother, so I relish her motherly care. Savoring the comfort for a moment longer, I ask, “What’s inside?”

“My mother wanted you to have it. I didn’t look.”

“The matriarch should know everything.”

“The matriarch knows who she can trust. That’s even better.”

A small smile tugs at the corners of my mouth. She leaves me alone with the damn package that feels like a bomb ready to blow up my world.

Dropping onto the bed, I rip through it.

My brows furrow at the golden dagger with an intricate pattern. An emerald is encrusted at the top of the blade, and it weighs heavily in my palm.

She found out. Surely. Grandmother, this might be the only time I have truly respected you.

There is an inscription on each side of the blade.Neither side is completely right or wrong.

I place it next to me on the bed and open the letter that came with the package. My fingers shake so much that it takes a few attempts to steady them.

Blake,

Repentance is for the weak. I raised you to stand above those feelings. Don’t ask for or expect forgiveness. We are born to sin and die as sinners.

It was my responsibility to protect you, and I failed. Your responsibility is to accept that you’re the antihero. Unleash that silent panther within you. Become who you were always destined to become—the villain who would kill for his family, not the hero who would die for them.

Be lethal yet gracious. I have complete trust that you can be the representative this Family needs in public, as well as the monster lurking in the night when it’s needed. Don’t disappoint me now. Family always comes first, our personal feelings second.

You can do it. It’s up to you to accept yourself and embrace the duality. It has always been up to you.

I wish I had someone as loyal as you in my corner.

Fuck. The letter slides from my fingers, gliding like a paper airplane until it drops onto the worn-out, holed carpet—just like my resolve to stay away.

“Even from the fucking grave, Grandmother.”

The tension in our house is all-encompassing, lingering heavily in the air and stifling the atmosphere. The college house burned once, and I am pretty sure it might catch fire again from the pent-up emotions alone.

It’s been eight weeks since that selfish asshole disappeared without a word, not caring what his absence would do to the group. Blake never thought much of me anyway. He discarded me as if I was nothing. But that’s on me for believing in that strange connection. Maybe all those romance novels I read went to my head, and I imagined things that weren’t there.

He started as a mission but was too smart and saw through me. Instead of me stealing information, he stole my heart. I basically begged him to choose me.

I will never let a guy hurt me like that. Happy endings only happen in romance books; I learned that hard way. There’s a gash in my chest that will never close for good, oozing with unrequited love and shattered dreams.

Pulling a strand of my hair back, I attach a clip and walk out of my room.

At the kitchen table, the silence stretches, once again nerve-racking. I have always wanted a big family and friends. I have those now, yet it’s not enough to fill the void in my heart.

Celine, Kaden, Abigail Voss, Abigail’s boyfriend Dane, and my twin brother, Hunter, are seated around the table. I take the chair next to Bailey Fairchild, smiling at her. She returns it, and then we eat our omelets, knives grazing on the plates, adding the only sound to the heavy silence. I steal a look at the empty chair. Blake left a void, like an eerie ghost sitting with us.

One day, I won’t think of him. One day, losing the only person who ever truly saw me won’t pain me this much.

Kaden lifts his gaze, pinning it on Bailey.Here we go again.

“How much longer, Bailey? I don’t fucking understand why you wouldn’t help us get him back.”

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