Page 270 of Blood and Ruin: The Complete Series

Axel huffs out a laugh, but I feel the tremor work its way through his body as he holds me. I grip him a little tighter, hoping he’ll know I was just as worried about him.

Axel pulls back, glancing down at me. “You okay, Princess?”

I smile. “Never better.”

Nodding his head, he blows out a harsh breath before stepping back. Dragging a hand down his face, he glances around at the destruction.

Luka steps up beside me, gripping my hand like a lifeline as we look around. The area is nearly empty, with most people already cleared out or are in the process of doing it.

Kai turns to us. “I’ll call in some healers and see if I can get a big enough clean-up crew down here to sort this mess out.”

He glances down at me, his eyes softening. “Let’s head back and get some rest.”

CHAPTER 28

KIARRA

Heading straight for the shower, I stop short, finding a half-naked Luka in the middle of my room.

Biting my lip, my mind wanders as my eyes trail up his legs to the curve of his backside and up his broad back. But I stutter to a stop at what I see. Any heated thoughts completely leave me as my stomach drops.

There are large, jagged scars running in every direction across his back. Some are a familiar shape or imprint that I can make out, like the edge of a belt or whip. There is also the sharp cut of a blade trailing up the top of his back, with strange shapes hidden behind the long scars and woven into them.

Luka’s head whips around as if only noticing I’m here. He twists his body, hiding his back from me, and swallows hard.

“Sorry… Jax normally hogs the bathroom we share, so I slip down here sometimes. I thought I’d be in and out before you got here.”

“Luka…” I take a step closer but stop when his eyes drop to the floor.

“Who did that to you?”

Luka looks up, his eyes turning sad. “You caught them, huh?”

His sadness breaks my heart. I want to hunt down whoever did this to him and rip them apart.

“It was… a long time ago.” Luka sighs, shaking his head.

“It’s not important.”

“Like hell it isn’t. Who did this? When…”

He looks at me for a minute before nodding his head.

“It was after you were… taken. Remember, I told you we kind of fell apart after that?”

I nod my head, taking a step closer. When he doesn’t step back, I take another and another until I’m beside him.

“Well, we all went our separate ways for a bit and ended up spending less and less time together and more and more time around our families.” He shakes his head, smiling. It was anything but humorous.

“You would think that was a good thing, but no… Our families are all just as fucked up as each other.”

My stomach twists. “Your family did this to you?”

“My uncle. It was no secret that Jax and I were the black sheep of the family. We’re shadow wolves, and to them, there’s nothing worse.”

I frown, not understanding. “But shadow wolves have been around for centuries. Why would they—”

“We were more powerful than them, even at that age. They saw us as a threat to their hierarchy. Even though Jax and I never wanted anything to do with it, they still didn’t care.”

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