Page 99 of Sweetheart: Part Two

“Why didn’t he tell me he was rutting?” she demanded.

“It was last minute. We didn’t have many options.”

“Youcouldhave told me.”

“He…” I scowled. “He didn’t want you to try and fix it. He didn’t think he deserved that.”

“But it’s my job—”

“Vex,” Drake said, frowning. “That’s not true. You know that’s not true.”

Vex jumped as Rook was slammed against the cage wall at our backs, a low groan sounding in the air. He was on the brink of collapse as the alpha gripped him.

Good.

Maybe this would be when he finally—I winced as his aura flared out of control and he headbutted the alpha with all of his might.

The man crumpled, ending his seventeenth fight.

“Rook!”Love was at the edge of the viewing area.“Enough!That’s an order.” There were two layers of metal bars between us and him. The cage’s bars and the one’s containing our viewing area. Above, the crowd roared, the first rows ten feet above us in a circular stadium that looked down on the cage. Rook, barely recognisable from the bruises and swelling on his face, turned to us weakly, taking in Love.

“I… I can’t.”

“You can,” Drake hissed. “Get the fuck out!”

Rook shook his head. “You don’t… you don’t get it. She wants you, Drake. She told me to figure it out myself. That’s what…” He wiped away another smear of blood, fingers curling around the bar of the cage, dragging himself up. “That’s what I’m doing. Sofuck off!”

“No, this isn’t what I meant!” Vex’s voice shook. “Get out!”

Rook stared at her for a long second, eyes glazed over with something uncomprehending.

“Ebony…” he said, eyes finding mine, and I could barely hear him over the crowd. “I… I don’t think I can stop.”

“You won the title, Harrison. You’ve done better than any other alpha that’s been in that cage. You can give it up now.”

Some alphas collapsed between fights, ending the cycle there, exhaustion catching up to them as hormones burned out.

“I c-can’t, Ebony. I haven’t… I haven’t hurt enough.”

“Rook, please!” Vex begged.

Rook stared at her as if he didn’t know what he was seeing. “It’s not enough, Baby Girl.”

“It is, okay!”she shouted, trying to reach for him desperately through the bars. “It’s enough.”

Rook blinked, hand reaching out to hers for just the briefest moment, and then he pulled back. “I don’t think you’re even real,” he said. “You wouldn’t… you shouldn’t have come here for me.”

“N-no!” Vex called.“ROOK!”But he ignored her.

He wiped away the blood trickling down from his nose with a grin and turned away from us. The roar of the crowd rose again, even more deafening, as the next two alphas entered the ring. Rook had to hold onto the bars for a second to keep himself steady, then his aura flared.

“ROOK!” Vex screamed again, reaching for him.

I felt the faintest flicker of him through the bond, it was gone in the next instinct, and his scent of burning chestnuts turned feral again.

“Get him out!”She turned on us, eyes wild with terror. “It’s too much!”

“I can’t, Vex. That’s not how it works.”

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