Page 43 of Piece You Saved

Kade stops and presses my back to the banister, his eyes locked on me.

“Do you know what I was like when I was just your regular, run-of-the-mill human?”

I try to imagine Kade as just an ordinary guy on his way to work, hitting the gym, or at the grocery store, trying to figure out what to cook for dinner that night. Pasta or pizza with salad? And I fail, because I can’t imagine him being any other way than he is now.

I shake my head. “I don’t know.”

“I had more hair.”

I wait for more. More is not forthcoming. “That’s it?”

He flashes me a grin before we continue up the stairs. “And I lost every fight I was in, even the ones I started.”

“Then why did you keep starting them?” I ask as we reach the first floor. There’s another floor above with more bedrooms. Beyond it, the attic with a blood-soaked floor where Aden nearly died. I think I’d be happy if I never went up there again.

“If I ever work out why, I’ll let you know.” His grin extends. “Dariel calls it a failing. I disagree.”

And that, strangely enough, is what has a genuine smile tugging the corners of my lips up as I shake my head. “And the snarling? You can’t tell me you snarled when you were human.”

We come within sight of Dariel’s open door. He’s sitting with his back against the bed, facing the open doorway. Aden sits beside him, wearing sweatpants, his face pale and drawn.

Aden’s warm hazel eyes meet mine. “I’d put money on Kade snarling when he was still human.” Relief fills his gaze. “You’re okay.”

I take a step inside the bedroom, but two things happen at the same time.

Dariel tightens his hand on Aden’s forearm, and Kade tugs me back outside the room. “We’re staying here, angel.”

My smile fades, because despite what Kade said, Aden isn’t the same Aden he was before. If he were, I wouldn’t need to stay on this side of the door, and Dariel wouldn’t be holding onto Aden as if he were a firework about to go off.

Sinking to the carpeted floor just outside the door, I lift my legs and wrap my arms around them. I rest my chin on my knees as I keep my eyes on Aden.

“How do you feel? Are you in pain?”

There’s no sign a wolf tore his chest open with his claws hours ago. His skin is flawless, even if he’s a little paler now than the golden tan glow he had before.

He presses his back harder against the bed, his eyes latching onto me like a lifeline.

I imagine I’m looking at him the same way.

And my hands… my fingers prickle and itch with the need to touch him—more than touch—I want to throw my arms around him and have him hug me back.

But I can’t. I don’t know if he would lose control of his wolf and kill me the way Dariel nearly did in Cerberus. From the way Dariel is gripping onto him, he must think he will.

“Different,” Aden says slowly. “Not… me.”

When my eyes burn, I turn and blink tears away. He would be okay if I had just left. Aden must be thinking the same. How could he not regret stopping to save a girl who smelled like piss from pimps outside a grocery store?

“What happened?” Aden asks after a long moment.

I blink back more tears, and when I have the need to cry under control, I turn to face him. “I think Rylan wanted me to watch you die. He probably thought ripping your throat out would be too fast.”

There’s enough spite and cruelty in Rylan for me to believe it. I ran from him, so what better way to make me suffer, before he dragged me back to him, than by slowly and painfully killing the men who saved me?

Aden stares at me without expression before he lifts his hand and presses his palm over his chest as if he remembers claws slashing him open. And his heart. “Kade, we have to kill that bastard.”

Kade snorts in amusement. “You’re telling me.”

Aden sweeps his gaze over me. “And you? What did he do to you?”

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