Page 86 of BounBound By Scars

She was excited. Adorable. Mine.

I couldn’t stop looking at her.

I couldn’t stop smiling when she adorably pointed to each propeller and said, “Dahlia. Lotus. Orchid. Lily.”

What the hell was this woman doing to me?

And now she was here. In my arms. Asleep, after swearing she wouldn’t be. She’d said she wanted to talk all night, to soak me in. We did talk—for a while.

She told me about how the whole thing with Sebastian started. How he needed help with something—though she wouldn’t share what.

I was okay with that. She didn’t need to.

I had my own assumptions and I was quite certain about what Seb needed help with.

But after twenty minutes, she crashed. Sound asleep.

I figured she’d probably joined the VR sim and worn herself out.

Didn’t matter.

She was here now. Wrapped around me like she’d always meant to be.

And God help me—I was never letting go.

I traced the slope of her nose with a single finger, brushing a thumb gently along her jaw. Tucking her hair behind her ear just to watch her wrinkle her nose at the tickle. This woman—this force of nature—was asleep in my arms and I’d never felt more like a fucking king.

And then it happened.

Ping.

That familiar sound. That sharp, cold ping that had no business coming from my phone at this hour.

My blood turned to ice.

Careful not to disturb her, I slipped my arm out from under her and grabbed my phone from the nightstand. The screen glowed.

Zane, Inactive

Timestamp: 00:42 hrs

Location: NULL; Signal terminated

My stomach dropped.

What the fuck?

I sat up sharply, my chest tightening as I stared at the alert. Zane’s RLM wasinactive. The last time I was looking at the dreaded word was when Logan had allegedly died.

Something was wrong.

My pulse roared in my ears.

Without a second thought, I grabbed my usual hoodie, shoved my feet into my sneakers, and left the room. I didn’t wake her. Couldn’t. Not until I knew what this was.

I checked the cams as I walked, flicking through screens. That’s when I saw Zane grabbing one of the vehicles from the fleet and leaving the compound about an hour ago.

The Command Center was dead quiet, except for the clacking of a keyboard. Ronan was at the far table, lit only by the pale glow of his laptop screen.

---