Page 11 of Between Dusk and Dawn

For any other person, Cagen would be the perfect girlfriend, but she was about projecting a certain image for me. Over the last nine months, I’d spent many nights at her apartment obsessed with her roommate, but my muse didn’t fit into my life. She wasn’t strong enough yet…one day…

I wanted to prove to my dad, to the family, to the fucking fraternity that I was a man. Cagen came to me earlier, willing to spread her legs, and while she offered me decent company, at that moment, she was hindering my success.

Recently, I had been having regrets when it came to her. She was making plans about what happened after college and wanted a ring on her finger. Yet, there was one person I couldn’t get out of my mind. I tried to avoid her over these past few months because I didn’t want to be tempted again, fearing getting caught and losing the reputation I’d built around campus. When we would run into each other, she pretended Inever existed. She never spoke to me about that night, and there wasn’t a word from the gossip mill either.

My good girl already knew her role.

My muse was far too busy playing the role of the good girl, but she was the villain in my story. She had come into my life so suddenly, and I became obsessed with her. The threads of my sanity were unraveling. The night had come to prove I still had the control I needed.

"Luca specifically invited me. I am not saying no to him. You know this." I attempted to push Cagen off me, but she clung to my arms.

She knew what the bonfire was, most kids on campus knew it was a night of pure chaos. No one had actually died in ten years, but murder wasn’t written off the table either.

"Please…" Her big eyes were filled with fear.

That’s where she and I were so different. She was scared—fearful of what lay within the darkness. She didn’t know that over the last year she’d gotten well acquainted with it.

Iwasthe darkness and thrived in the moments between dusk and dawn. I was the nightmare her parents had warned her about.

"Please," Cagen begged again, snapping me out of my thoughts. Standing in a shed outside the Alpha house, shadowed by the pine trees in the back, I opened one of our safes and pulled out two pistols, strapping them both onto my belt. Cagen burst into tears.

Listen, it wasn’t that she was a bad girlfriend. Spending time with her was enjoyable. Although I wasn’t in love with her, I genuinely cared about her and didn’t want to see her hurt. However, her constant damsel-in-distress act was becoming exhausting.

"Solis, pronto (hello)?" Luca asked in Italian, opening the back door just as Cagen clung onto my arms. I ran a handthrough my freshly cut, thick black hair to ensure it wouldn't get in the way at the bonfire, then tightened my black leather jacket.

"Hey, Cagen, he’s gotta go," Luca said.

I gave her adon’t fuck with me right nowlook, then she sniffled before dropping a kiss to my lips.

"Be safe," she whispered into the shell of my ear, standing on the tips of her toes. "I love you."

Somehow, I knew that shit was coming, but I refused to deal with it at that moment. I couldn’t share the same sentiment with her because my heart lived in the darkness with me. Loving my family was easy, I cared for them, but I didn’t think I was capable of love in any other form.

"Come on, Cagen." That fucking familiar voice floated in the air, blanketing the night sky with the familiarity that my cold heart may even warm to.

Muse.

I was incapable of love but perfectly capable of having an obsession.

And my obsession just walked outside.

"Maddy," Luca said, whistling at her. She wasn’t Maddy to me though. I saw her for who she really was. I whipped around, and she was sporting those fucking leggings she always wore and a cropped top with a cardigan over it.

"Leave her alone," I ordered Luca, and he glared at me.

I’d deal with him later.

"Come on, Cagen," Maddy whispered as she threw her arm over her shoulder to lead her out.

"Go with her." I pointed in Madison’s direction, but this stubborn fool shook her head.

"I’ll wait for you here."

A few other guys from the Alpha house came outside, strapping their weapons to their chest before heading to the front.

"We gotta fucking go," one of them shouted.

"Just stay in the fucking house, and whatever you do, do not leave my room." She nodded like she understood what I was saying. "Do not try and save the day, Cagen."

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