Page 65 of The Piece You Stole

Whirling around, I lunge for it.

CHAPTER 16

SAIGE

Itaste fresh air. My fingers tease the window frame.

An iron grip closes around my left arm, drags me away from freedom, and slams my back against the bathroom wall.Hard.

If I didn’t have Rylan’s right hand wrapped around my throat, I’d be gasping like a fish, but all I can do is fight to breathe as tiny pinpricks of light dance across my vision.

“Check him,” Rylan barks.

I don’t know who he’s talking to, and the sudden flow of movement behind him isn’t enough for me to break our stare. It isn’t just that. His pure silver wolf eyes hold my gaze and refuses to release it.

My face feels cold, and my body strange and heavy as I hang limp in Rylan’s grip.

I blink once. Twice. Thrice. Each blink is slower than the last. When the pressure around my throat suddenly eases, I know it’s only because Rylan wants me to be conscious for whatever punishment he’s planning.

“It’s deep,” Eva calls out.

Rylan’s jaw tightens. “Then get a towel and seal it so he has time to—”

“He’s dead.”

Chance’s voice carries the same shock as when he swore before. It was the first time I’d ever heard him do it because, like most things, he’s too good for it, or it’s not good enough for him. Like Rylan. Like all the rest of them.

“Don’t be stupid,” Rylan snaps. “He can’t possibly be—” He rips his gaze from mine and peers over his shoulder, stopping so suddenly that I know Chance was right.

Nathan is dead, and I killed him.

A muscle twitches just under Rylan’s left eye. His fingers flex around my throat, and I gasp before I remember I still have something in my right hand: a shard of glass sharp enough to open a shifter’s throat and kill him.

This is my chance to get revenge for Dad, Simon, and me.

One chance.

I aim for Rylan’s jugular.

Rylan whips his head around, rips the glass out of my hand, and stabs it through my left arm.

A howl of agony pours from my throat as pain explodes through my arm, my shoulder, everywhere all at once.

I stare into Rylan’s enraged face, and there’s nothing human in his eyes.

This is pure, unbridled rage.

Will this be when he finally kills me? Or won’t his wolf side not let him?

A rumble works its way up his throat, and when he peels his lips from his teeth, the low growl that emerges starts a tremor all over my body.

But my fear doesn’t make me cower the way it would have years before. With Rylan’s hand still tight around my throat, it costs me most of the air in my lungs, but I need him to know I’m not sorry. That I willneverbe sorry. “He deserved it.”

Rylan’s breath is almost as loud as mine. “You’re going to wish you hadn’t done that, Saige,” he says, his voice whisper quiet.

My breath gusts out of me, harsh and overly loud, as if I’ve run to the furthest reaches of the world without stopping. “I hate you,” I gasp through the agony in my arm.

“Hate doesn’t change the fact you’re mine.”

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