Page 110 of Break Her Heart
August twisted like a storm given shape—snarling, eyes wild, the whites glaring around his irises. Every muscle was wound tight, vibrating with the need to destroy. He didn’t care who saw. He didn’t care what shattered in the process.
This wasn’t just desperation.
This was a man coming apart at the seams, fury spilling out of him like it could burn the forest to the ground.
They held him.
Barely.
“Let her go! That is an order!”
He looked feral—dangerous and unhinged, a creature poised to tear the world apart the second those chains failed.
My heart was pounding so violently it hurt. I tried to scream for him, but the gag turned it into a muffled, broken sound.
One of the vampires stepped toward him, calm in the face of his fury. “We are to protect the bloodline.”
August’s brow furrowed. “What? She isn’t a part of the bloodline. She—”
He froze.
His gaze turned to me. Not just to my face—but lower. His eyes dropped to my stomach. His face went still.
“No,” he whispered. “What have I done?”
He heard something I couldn’t. Knew something I didn’t.
“Winnie,” he whispered, “Winnie…” He frantically looked between my face and my stomach.
And then I realized what he heard.
Another heartbeat.
It beat beneath my skin like a secret I’d never meant to carry, loud enough for him to hear, loud enough to break him.
August staggered as if the truth had slammed into him with more force than any chain could deliver. His lips parted, but nosound emerged—only the faint hitch of a breath that seemed to hollow him out from the inside. His eyes stayed locked on my stomach, wide, stricken, as if the world had narrowed to that one truth.
Hot tears blurred my vision, spilling down my cheeks. I thrashed against the gag, desperate to speak—to tell him, to deny it, to confirm it—but the ropes bit into my wrists and the words died in my throat.
“Your sacrifice for the rest of us is greatly appreciated,” one of them said.
They spoke to August as they uncovered the dagger, but he didn’t so much as glance away from me.
“Forgive me, Winnie,” he whispered, the words frayed and trembling.
I tried to crawl toward him, dragging my knees through the dirt until they burned, but my bound hands kept me from going far. Each inch forward was agony—my shoulders screaming, wrists raw from the rope, breath tearing from my lungs. I had to stop this. I had to get to him before they did it. My pulse roared in my ears, drowning out everything else.
“Close your eyes.”
I froze mid-crawl, my chest heaving. August had stopped fighting. Why wasn’t he fighting them? He promised he wouldn’t stop!
The full moon reached its peak, casting pale light over everything, silvering the chains and the blade glinting in the dark.
“It’s time,” one of the vampires said.
“Please,” August said again, softer this time, almost pleading. “Close your eyes, baby.”
The desperation in his voice scraped at something deep inside me, warring with every instinct I had to keep my eyes open, to fight, to not give up. I didn’t want to. I wanted to seehim, to hold on until the last second. But the way he said it—like it was the only thing he needed from me—broke me. My lashes lowered, and I squeezed them shut.
