LOGINCHAPTER THIRTY- EIGHT Nala’s POV To think this little shit of a cat hated my guts when we first met. Now the furry traitor was curled up on my pillow like we'd been married for ten years. I was halfway dozing off, trying to finish a chapter of some blood-soaked haunted-house novel — because fuck those cheesy romance books — when a muffled knock hit my door.I didn't even bother asking who it was, knowing nova or Lena could want to check up on me, I just yanked it open."You lost or something?" I snapped at the giant filling my doorway.Ivin didn't answer. Just gave that low grumpy grunt and shoved past me like he owned the damn place."You can't just push your way in here whenever the fuck you feel like it," I said, slamming the door behind him.Another grunt. He was already inside, eyes scanning the room."Ivin. What the hell are you doing in my room?""I came for Nero.""Who the fuck is Nero?""The cat," he said, like that explained shit."Fine. Grab him and get the fuck out." Bu
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVENNALA POVI noticed three things as soon as I woke up. I'm sore between my legs. I'm stark naked.The space where Ivin was supposed to be was cold AF, Ivin was long gone.The window was slightly open the way it was when he came in and the indent on the pillow beside me was the only evidence that last night wasn't an extremely vivid continuation of my ongoing Ivin dream situation.It wasn't a dream. My body still had imprints of his hands as evidence. I lay there staring at the ceiling for a solid five minutes doing a full internal review of every decision that led to this moment and arrived at the conclusion that I had zero regrets which was actually the most terrifying outcome of the review.I needed to get up. I needed clothes and food and something to do with my face before I turned into one of those people who lay in bed replaying things with a stupid smile on their face.I was already smiling."Get up Nalayna." I said it out loud to the room. The cat opened
CHAPTER 36 Nala pOv Lena's face when she opened that door deserved a museum exhibit and a placard and if I wasn't so horny I would probably say it out loud.Her eyes did a full tour of the room in under a second from me to ivin, the distance that wasn't enough distance, his hand, back to me — and then "sorry" came out of her mouth in a voice so small I didn't know Lena Calloway owned it and she pulled the door shut behind her with the care of someone defusing something explosive.The silence that followed was uncomfortable.I cleared my throat.Ivin put three feet of air between us and stared at the wall with the focused energy of a man hoping he could rewind time and erase this bad decision."So." I said.The wall offered nothing."That happened."Still nothing from either of them."It won't talk back just so you know. I've tried the wall thing, it's a dead end." I pulled my knees to my chest. "Waste of a perfectly good stare."He looked at me then. Something was moving behind his
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVENALA POVNova came back again, then she left, Ivin was yet to be back and strange enough even though I was alone in the room, it wasn't pressing on me like it usually would.Nova brought some food over but I'm hungry again, and I'm bored to my ass. Just as I was about to spiral in my thoughts, Ivin chose that moment to come in after a brief knock on the door. Ivin came in first followed by Lena and Sam again but as soon as Ivin settled on chair and looked around with an unwelcoming expression and silence, the others start excusing themselves, they took the hint in stages until it was just the two of us and the door clicked locked behind the last person out.He had a bag with him and as soon as the last person who was Sam closed the door behind him he Set the bag on the chair and left it there while he did his usual check of the window, the room, the corners, all the things he checked in every room he entered out of what I was starting to understand was less about
CHAPTER THIRTY FOURNALA POVI had been staring at the ceiling long enough to start finding shapes in it when the knock came. Since niva left Ivin is yet to come back, so I wasn't expecting Two knocks, a pause, then one more. It was a rhythm I didn't recognize which meant it wasn't Ivin and it wasn't Nova and my visitor pool beyond those two was limited enough that I was already curious. I knew a security guard was outside the door so anyone would have to be verified by Ivin before they could even come near the door."Come in."Lena came in first. The man behind her was one of the men I'd seen during the underground stay but then he was heavily bandaged, I think his name was Sam from petals creek or something, my brain is still quite foggy.However looking at him right now I could note his details, he was tall in the kind of way you'll take note of if you entered a room, he looks friendly and quite warm, the type of stranger that will give you a friendly hi at the airport.He was bro
CHAPTER THIRTY THREENALA POVThe beeping was the first thing that pulled me back to life, not that it was a pleasant existence but right now, the beep sound was annoyingly steady and too damn close to my ear to ignore no matter how much the rest of my body wanted to stay wherever it had been.The ceiling was white and unfamiliar and too damn bright in a way that made my eyes want to go back to where they came from.Where the fuck am I? What the fuck is going on? Then I saw Ivin and my eyes stayed open immediately.There's something about this man that itches me the right way and right now I couldn't even unglue my eyes from his figure.He was sitting in a chair that had absolutely no business being under a man his size, forearms resting on his knees, eyes already on me like he had been watching for the exact second I would open mine. He had a few days worth of stubble doing something genuinely criminal to his jaw and his shirt was the same one from the chapel, wrinkled in ways Ivi
CHAPTER SEVENTY- ONE: MY WOMANGRANT POVMy fist landed hard against his jaw.The crunch of bone was clean, wet, and satisfying as he choked on his own breath, his eyes rolled to his skull and his blood was already slicking his chin.I hit him again.And again.The next punch shattered his nose and
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN: CALCULATEDSANDY POVLove disgusts me.There’s nothing pure about it. Really, it’s just a convenient word humans invented to make their stupidity sound poetic. If you’re not the one in control, you’re the one bleeding. Simple.And walking beside me to the rental car are two pr
CHAPTER SEVENTY: RED LIGHTSNOVA POVThe sound of the monitor wouldn’t stop. That flat, endless beep was a sound that doesn’t belong in real life, not in my type of life, it belongs in nightmares.“LENA!” I screamed, but someone caught me before I could reach her door. My fists hit a chest, solid
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX: DADDY’sNOVA POVThe words raise up your shirt weren’t the issue.It was the way he said, spread your legs, like he was talking to a street girl and not me.My spine went rigid, and I didn’t even have to speak before Grant did.“If you don’t address my woman properly,” Grant’s vo







