Mag-log inMASON.Bianca was face-down in the pillows with her ass raised high, knees spread wide on the messy sheets, exactly how I liked her when I wasn’t in the mood to pretend this was anything soft or meaningful.I slammed into her from behind hard enough that the headboard cracked against the wall and a broken, high-pitched sound tore out of her throat. My entire body still ached from the beating Kyle had given me the night before—ribs screaming with every deep thrust, left eye swollen nearly shut, split lip stinging every time I breathed through my mouth, knuckles stiff and scabbed—but the pain only made me fuck her harder. Every stroke sent a fresh jolt through the bruises and I welcomed it. Pain meant I was still standing. Pain meant that self-righteous captain hadn’t put me down permanently no matter how hard he had tried in front of half the team.“Fuck—Mason—yes—” Bianca moaned, voice already wrecked and climbing higher. She pushed back greedily to meet every thrust, arching her ba
ELARA.I tried the number again.It rang once, barely long enough for hope to form and then dropped into dead silence. I stared at the cracked screen like it had personally betrayed me, thumb already slamming the redial button before my brain could catch up. Same result. Half a ring and no response. The third attempt didn’t even pretend to connect. Just the flat, final tone of a call that had been rejected before it properly began. My hand was shaking so hard the phone nearly slipped onto the bed.“That bastard,” Iris muttered. She was pacing the length of my room like a caged thing, bare feet slapping against the floor with every sharp turn.Her hair was still a mess from the night before and her eyes were bright with the kind of anger that usually preceded bad decisions. “Can’t we just involve the police? This is revenge porn. It’s illegal as hell. We can report it, get a lawyer or something.”“No.” The word came out sharper than I intended. I stared down at the paused frame still
ELARA. My eyes flung open to a ceiling that was not mine. Pain arrived first, thick, pulsing, centered right behind my eyes like someone had taken a blunt object to the inside of my skull and decided to keep swinging. Light leaked through the half-closed blinds in thin, aggressive stripes and stabbed straight into my brain. I groaned, rolled onto my side, and the sheets slid cool and unfamiliar against my skin that still felt oversensitive. Kyle’s room. Not mine. The realization landed at the exact same second as the memory. A flash of Kyle on top of me, his weight pinning me down, the thick stretch of him buried deep, the filthy, wrecked sound of his voice when he told me this cunt was his for the night ripped through my mind so vividly I physically flinched. My eyes flew wide. Heat flooded my face, my neck, the space between my legs, all at once and without permission. “Oh shit,” I whispered to the empty room. I sat up too fast and the room tilted. The sheet pooled ar
ELARA.I stood up to leave.The wreckage of the living room felt too small with just the two of us in it. Blood on the floor, broken glass winking under the low lights. The silence after everyone else had gone upstairs pressed against my ears. I needed distance, a locked door between me and the man who had just nearly beaten someone unconscious and then told me I overestimated my own importance.“I’m sorry.” Kyle’s voice stopped me with one foot already turned toward the stairs.I looked back at him. He was still standing in the same spot, split knuckles dripping slowly onto the floorboards, lip swollen, one cheek already darkening. He looked wrecked.“For what?” I asked.“For the way I spoke to you earlier.” His throat worked. “It wasn’t okay, I was angry. I shouldn’t have talked to you like that.”Something in my chest loosened a fraction. “It’s okay.”“It’s not okay.” He shook his head once, sharp. “I was angry and I took it out on you. That wasn’t fair.”I studied his face. “It r
KYLE.My fist connected with Mason’s face for the second time before anyone in the room fully processed the first.His jaw shifted under my knuckles with a soft, sickening sound. Mason’s head snapped sideways. Blood sprayed bright across his upper lip and cheek. He staggered back two full steps, eyes wide with the pure shock of someone who had not expected the first punch to be followed so immediately by a second. The entire party froze in that split second of collective disbelief—music still thumping uselessly from the speakers, mouths open, phones half-raised—then the noise returned all at once in a single roaring wave. Shouts, gasps and even someone near the back screamed for us to stop. None of it landed properly, It all sounded like it was happening underwater. The only thing that existed in sharp focus was the red haze sitting behind my eyes and the fact that this bastard had put his hands on Elara after everything he had already done to her.I followed him.He swung wild, a
ELARA.I looked at him, eyes widening so hard the edges of the room seemed to blur. “What the fuck are you doing here?”Mason stood at the edge of the cleared circle like he belonged there, hands still tucked in his pockets, that same lazy, arrogant half-smile sitting on his mouth as if the café confrontation earlier had never happened. The party noise dulled around him until all I could hear was my own pulse.“Competing for a dance,” he said, voice mild and almost amused. “As you can see.”“You’re not allowed to.” The words came out sharp enough to cut. My pulse was already climbing into my throat.From somewhere behind me Kyle’s voice cut in, low and edged with something dangerous. “Well, the host didn’t say anything like that.”Iris opened her mouth, clearly ready to shut the entire thing down and reclaim control of her game, but Josh spoke first. He was still riding the high of his earlier win, chest puffed up, grin wide and reckless.“Bring it on.”The crowd lost their minds. Che







