Page 104 of Devoted

“Wait…” I pulled back so I could see his face. His eyes were puffy and red. “You know the man who did it?”

“Yes, but he doesn’t know who I am. I mean, obviously he knows who I am, but he doesn’t know he killed my father. As far as he’s concerned, my father was just another fool stupid enough to think he could defeat him.”

“You speak as though there’s some secret war going on.” I shook my head in confusion. “Are you, like, in the Mafia or something?”

“Or something.” He took a deep breath, squaring his shoulders. “It’s all so complicated and I understand how all of this must sound like to you. Why don’t we go inside? We can find somewhere quiet and I can tell you all the rest of it.”

“Sounds good.” I looped my arm through his as we turned back in the direction of the house. As we walked, a final question occurred to me. “Do you want to stop? Losing control, I mean.”

Zeke’s voice was raspy when he answered. “More than anything.”

I hummed, pulling him tighter to my side. “Then we’ll just have to keep taking laps.”

23

Ezekiel

Adrenaline was riding me hard as we stepped back into the kitchen. A large part of me couldn’t believe Sam was still there. There’d been many times I’d expected him to walk away, but he hadn’t.

Instead, he’d comforted me. Told me it was okay.

He…understood me.

For the first time since my father was killed, there was another soul who knew what I’d gone through. And, unlike my father, Sam hadn’t seen what I’d gone through as growth. Training. A necessary regime to create the perfect soldier.

He’d called it something I’d never considered before.

Abuse.

It had put a new filter on everything. On every guilty thought I’d had about my father. The shame I’d felt at my lack of grief. The fury about someone else having the pleasure of snuffing out his life.

All the weight of what I’d been struggling under for centuries had been lifted by one conversation with Sam.

It was a revelation.

I wasn’t naive enough to believe it was gone forever, but this was a start. If I could get my monster under control, perhapsSam would never leave. Maybe I could find a new harmony with the Seraphim if I wasn’t losing my temper all the time.

Now, I was going to tell Sam everything else he didn’t know about me. I’d been waiting for the right time, but I could tell my explanation had given him more questions than answers.

If I wanted Sam to fall in love with me, he had to know the real me. The full story. Every blood-soaked, rage-filled page.

Any love that came before that wouldn’t be real. It would have no roots, no foundation to sustain it, no promise of forever.

And that was the only kind I’d accept for us.

I stopped abruptly at the sight of the twins sat at the kitchen table. They were side by side, hands clasped before them, solemn expressions on their faces.

When their gazes slid sideways to Sam, their cheeks coloured. Both my brows shot up. What the fuck was happening right now?

Nate cleared his throat, his eyes darting back to me. “We want to apologise to you, Sam. To both of you.”

Theo’s head bobbed rapidly. “Yes. We behaved like complete twats. You’re a guest here, Sam, and you never should’ve seen us behave that way.”

“I think you mean you should never have wound Zeke up like that,” Sam said, narrowing his eyes. “Because that’s what the issue really is, not that it happened in front of me.”

My vision blurred again. I’d heard Sam stick up for me earlier, but here he was doing it again. I didn’t know how to handle it. How could I thank him for this? For giving me the one thing I’d never had? For not running away the minute he saw the worst part of me.

By loving him unconditionally.Forever.

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