Page 48 of Conflicted

“Yes,” I said baldly. “I’ve been trained and taught to do very bad things. It’s a side of me that I don’t want Micah exposed to. Besides, I don’t even know if Iwantanything with Micah. I just know I can’t keep ignoring this pull. It’s driving me crazy.”

Jeremiah sipped his tea. “Okay, so it sounds like you need to stay away from him. Travel to the other side of the world. The pull is probably this intense because you’re so close to him. Maybe if you go somewhere far away, it’ll be easier to ignore.”

“Maybe.” I scowled down at my cup. Jeremiah’s solution was the logical answer, so why did the thought of leaving make me feel this…angry?

“You should do it sooner rather than later,” Jeremiah said. I looked up to see him studying me in concern. “Micah might not know you, Nox, but I do. The longer you stay, the deeper you get in with him, the harder it’ll be for you to walk away. Do it now, while you still have the chance.”

“You’re right.” I got up from the table before pausing. “Will you all be okay without me?”

Jeremiah shrugged. “I mean, there’ll be more blood to clean up, but we’ll survive. Besides, I might see if I can persuade Quill to let us join you. Just choose somewhere with better weather than here.”

I laughed dryly. “Noted. I’ll be back later to pack and say goodbye.”

“Where are you going now?”

I inhaled deeply. “To tell Micah I’m leaving.”

Jeremiah’s nose scrunched up. “Why?”

“Because I don’t want him tracking me down.”

“You really think he’d do that?”

I thought about the wards Micah had left around the house. Him flying over late at night. Tracking me down at the club. “There’s a chance, yes. I don’t want to spend the next few decades looking over my shoulder, waiting for him to appear. I need to tell him. It’ll be closure for both of us.”

I could tell Jeremiah didn’t agree with me, but as he’d said earlier, he knew me, and he knew better than to try and change my mind when it was set on something.

“Enjoy.”

11

Micah

The simple visit to the Jaguar Clan had stretched into seventy-two hours of interminable diplomacy. How shifters had managed to form any kind of hierarchy was beyond me. They had a council of elders who were meant to guide the alpha, but more often than not, they seemed set on grabbing power for themselves.

In the end, it had taken Ezekiel breaking out his temper for them to fall in line. Even so, I had little doubt that we’d need to return before long to give them another reminder.

Being the unofficial police force of supes was exhausting. It wasn’t technically part of our mandate, but keeping humans from discovering our presence was. If we allowed situations like this one to escalate, we ran the risk of open battle happening.

Compelling a human into forgetting seeing a person shift into an animal was one thing. Making hundreds of them believe they hadn’t seen hordes of them doing it before tearing one another to pieces was another entirely. Today’s technology made it even more difficult. There’d been a few instances where photos and videoshad been uploaded before we could stop them. And with live streaming? Forget it.

It was testing our skills like never before. Fortunately, it was the burden of all angels, not just us. All units had someone on their team who was tasked with tracking down the footage and deleting it, before finding a way to debunk it. For us, that person was Nate.

By the time we finally left, I was exhausted. Not physically, but mentally. I hadn’t had a chance to breathe the whole time we were there, let alone do anything else.

Unfortunately, my brainhadfound the space to think about one topic. Namely, Nox.

What’s he doing right now?

Is he thinking of me?

Remembering how he fucked me?

Replaying what we said to each other?

Does he want to do it again?

Do I?

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