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Chapter 84 – Fangs and Fire

Riley

Speedy was unusually quiet on the ride.

Not his usual growling, pacing self. Not even a sarcastic grumble. Just… silent.

You’re really not going back to him? he finally whispered, his voice low and mournful.

“I can’t, Speedy,” I murmured, eyes fixed on the road. “You know I can’t.”

But he loved us, Speedy said, almost like a whimper. He smelled like home. He held us like we mattered.

I closed my eyes for a second, swallowing hard. “I’ll miss him,” I confessed, voice barely above a breath. “So damn much.”

The silence that followed wasn’t empty—it was heavy. Grief. Loss. Regret.

Then my phone buzzed. Zane’s text. A pin drop and two words: Don’t be late.

I parked near the abandoned warehouse, the one he’d chosen like the coward he was—far from the city, far from Ethan.

The metal door loomed in front of me, rusted and crooked, like it had seen too many secrets.

I hate this guy, Speedy growled suddenly, voice hard now. I hate what he did to us. What he too