Page 161 of The Piece You Stole

Someone is standing on my chest.Hurts.

I gasp.

Suddenly, I’m sitting cross-legged on the floor, my gun loose in my hand as I rest it on my knee. Aden stands beside the table, his machine gun pointed at the door.

“Dariel isn’t a jackass, Saige,” Aden says. “He cares. Too much sometimes about the people he loves. You should think about forgiving him.”

I grin up at him because no wolf has burst through the door and maybe none will. “He should think about apologizing in a way that makes mewantto forgive him.”

Aden laughs. “Stubborn. You sound just like him.”

“Kade?” I guess. It’s not the first time he’s said I’m like him, and I doubt it will be the last.

Still laughing, he shakes his head. “No. You sound just like Dariel.”

A whisper of sound draws my gaze to the door. Aden’s laughter cuts off so abruptly I know he must have heard it, too. I bounce to my feet, palms sweating already, heart in my throat as I lift the gun, holding it the way Aden showed me how to.

I’ve just taken my first breath when the world explodes in a shower of gunfire, wolf growls, and agony.

Something hits me hard in the chest, making me grunt as I fly back. When I thump to the floor, smashing my head on the hardwood floor, the gun is suddenly no longer in my hand.

The copper tang of blood fills my nose, and my vision turns hazy as a harsh whisper fills my ear. “You belong to no one but me, Saige.”

“SAIGE!”

My eyes fly open…

And clash with a familiar gray stare an inch from my face. Kade.

“Fuck, angel,” he breathes. He presses his head down over mine, breathing unsteady. “You’re okay,” he whispers, a tremor in his voice. “You’re okay.”

I stare up at the ceiling. I’m still in the attic. Still alive. But I thought I was—

“You ready?” That same voice. Sterile. Unfamiliar.

“Ready.”

I angle my head to the right. A man in a dark blue jacket is on his knees, back to me.

Kade is speaking, but I’m not listening. I push him away. “Where’s Aden? He was—”

The man in blue turns his head, turns his whole body around, and peers down at me.

And then I see.

“No.”

They cut his shirt open. I could count the white threads dangling loose. His golden face is pale. Too pale. Washed out. Blood paints the floorboards red. They’ve taped something on his chest. Something with wires.

“Aden!” I scream, lunging toward him.

Pain stabs me all over, forcing me to stop. I groan, curl into myself, and roll onto my back. But only for a moment, because I have to get to Aden.

“Angel,stop. You have to lie still.” Kade leans over me, pinning me down.

I shove Kade away, but he won’tmove. Why can’t he understand I have to make sure Aden is okay?

And then I see Dariel, his back to the wall, hands clenched into tight bloody fists. He’s looking right at me, but those green eyes look through me.

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