Page 27 of Our Deceptive Heat

It’s the one subject that can get all five of us obsessed. Tyr is humming along and suddenly breaks into the chorus, singing the part with ease.

She transfers her gaze to him, while Mako adds his baritone, singing backup with him in perfect harmony, but darker like Envy told them to.

It sounds better, more poignant.

This is why. When we write music, she can pick up our weaknesses and make it better. When she writes it, we make hers better.

The song finishes, and I watch as she chews her thumb nail, apparently lost in thought, so much so that when Tony speaks, she jumps, almost dislodging her laptop.

I snicker, but I’ve had enough. I pull some eye covers down over my eyes, getting comfortable for the long flight.

Okay, so Tyr’s idea wasn’t such a bad one. But I’m nevergoing to let him know.

I pause when I catch the scent of coconut. Hmm, Tony must have used a new shampoo. Strange, it’s nice. I like it.

Chapter nine

Ryn

I find when you’rearound, I can’t see the world anymore, all I can do is look at you- Ryn Raines

The second to last place I want to be is stuck on an airplane with Pack Fate. The first is back in that hotel room.

I shift my weight uneasily and note that every movement I make is being cataloged, watched, assessed. I feel like I’m being hunted. It takes me a moment to figure out who it is. It’s always him. Envy might be the quietest of the pack, but he’s got this aura that takes up all, and this alpha sees everything.

He’s always watching me.

I never know what he’s thinking. Once, his eyes on me were like a lovely caress, one I was addicted to. Now I fear it. Those eyes know far too much. They know how to destroy me.

I don’t want to be destroyed.

I want to live.

So I keep my eyes down and make notes in my new notepad, and I hate every second of using this book because it feels wrong. I want my notepad back, but I will not use it. There is no way I’m giving him the satisfaction. I saw how intensely Tyr stared at me after he made that revelation. He thinks it means something, and it absolutely doesn’t.

“So, the main issue with their marketing is Tyr.”

I jerk my head back to Tony and study him. “What do you mean?” Okay, so that comes out a bit sharperthan it should.

“Tyr’s sister got in trouble a couple of months back. The photos have just started circulating.”

I take his tablet and press play, watching the newsreels. It shows Tyr coming out of a well-known brothel with a teenage girl wrapped in a blanket, clinging to him. He’d been in there all night, some of the girls confirm, shut in with the girl they call Sita and another older man. She screamed a lot.

I want to roll my eyes at the obvious bullshit. Tyr would never, ever do that.

I turn it off, not needing to hear anymore.

“The other man was a doctor, and she was back on the drugs again, wasn’t she?”

“Yes. Sita is twenty years old. Not underage, like they are inferring. He never had sex with anyone in there. In fact, he was in the doctor's presence the whole time.” Tony shakes his head. “Stupid girl.”

“Where is Tyr’s sister now?”

“Rehab.”

“Good. Can I assume the reason this hasn’t been squashed is because Tyr is refusing to sully her image?”

“Yes,” Tony growls. The old beta glowers at Tyr, who ignores us as if we aren’t even here.

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