Page 41 of Blood and Ruin: The Complete Series

“I can take care of myself. I don’t need chaperones.”

“Well, we weren’t fucking asking!” Axel growls, clenching his jaw.

“Why the fuck do you care?”

“We don’t,” he sneers.

“Then leave me the hell alone!”

“Not fucking possible,” he grits out, looking away.

What the hell? He’s making no sense.

“What—”

“Dance with me?” Jax pleads, cutting in.

“I’ve had enough of possessive assholes for one night. I’m going to bed.”

“Better be fucking alone,” Axel mumbles, lighting my fuse once more.

“And if it’s not?”

Axel steps closer, his raw smoky scent hitting my senses. “Then the fucker better pray for a swift death when I get my hands on him.”

Was he actually serious right now? Not one thing that came out of his mouth made any sense.

He hated me but didn’t want me with anyone else?

“Come on, sweetheart?” Jax pushes Axel out of the way, earning a growl from him. Kai holds him back from taking a swing at Jax.

Jax ignores him, his soft, hopeful eyes making me lose some of my ire. But it also reminds me of how much everything has changed and at the same time, hasn’t.

I care about them, more than I’d like to admit. But Alana and I would be leaving soon. Getting closer to them to then turn around and leave, would only hurt us all more.

“I can’t,” I tell him, pleading with my eyes to try make him understand. We couldn’t get any closer than we already were.

King can’t find out about how much I cared about them. If he did, they were all dead, agreement or not.

He drops his hand, taking a step back. A look of devastation crosses his face before it turns to one of resolution.

“Challenge excepted.” He nods his head, crossing his arms. Luka grabs his shoulder, as he raises a brow at me, also sharing his brother’s stance.

I shake my head, knowing I wasn’t going to get anywhere with them tonight.

Axel’s jaw is clenched as he avoids looking at me while Kai and Rion share a similar look to the twins, waiting for me to start my objections. But it was late and tomorrow held a challenge of another kind. One that would force me to lay low for a couple of days.

Turning around, I stop myself from glancing back, feeling five sets of eyes follow me as I make my way out of the club.

CHAPTER 10

Balor is making sure I’m ready for King’s next little session.A warmup.

A shitty excuse is what it is, not that he needs one. He’s a jaguar shifter who loves to inflict pain on others in any way he can.

Balor was here when I arrived six years ago, when I was just the sad little girl who had lost her mother, oblivious to what King had in store for me.

I learned quickly just how sick and twisted supes and humans can be. King made sure I was well acquainted with how brutal and bitter the real world is, but no matter what he did, he could never completely break me. My dreams of getting out of here, always in the back of my mind.

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