“I didn’t!” My voice cracked, raw and jagged, but I forced it out, fists trembling at my sides. Tears burned behind my eyes, but I refused to let them fall, not yet. “I never asked for this! None of it!”I jabbed a shaking finger toward all three of them, my chest heaving. “You think this is some kind of game? That I’m just… some prize to be won, passed around like I don’t have a choice? You’re tearing me apart with your fights, your accusations, your damned jealousy, and I’m sick of it!”The words poured out like poison, years of silence, of swallowing everything, bursting free at once. “Do you even hear yourselves? Liam, you can’t look at me without suspicion, like I’m guilty of something I never asked for. Zane, you treat my pain like it’s your entertainment, like you can twist it into some sick victory. And you, Kai” my voice faltered, but I forced myself to look at him, steady and trembling all at once, “you stand there in silence, letting it all happen, like your silence makes y
“Get your filthy hands off me, Zane!”The shout ripped through the hallway as I yanked open my door, heart pounding so violently I thought it might burst from my chest. The sight that met me turned my blood to ice.Liam and Zane were locked together like wild animals, fists flying, teeth bared. Liam’s knuckles cracked across Zane’s jaw, blood spraying against the polished wall. Zane only laughed, laughed, as he swung back, his fist sinking deep into Liam’s stomach with a sickening thud.“Liam!” I screamed, but my voice drowned under the sound of their violence.Kai was already there, his hands gripping both of them, trying to wrench them apart. But his strength, his calm, wasn’t enough this time. They were possessed, burning with fury, tearing at each other like their veins ran with gasoline.“You think you own her?” Zane snarled, spitting blood, eyes blazing with madness. “Newsflash, brother, she kissed me back. She wanted it. You should’ve seen the way she trembled.”The words slice
But safety didn’t stop my mind from racing.Safe didn’t erase the heat of Zane’s kiss, or the memory of Liam’s fury.Safety wasn’t simple anymore.I pressed my face into the pillow, clinging to the fabric as if it could absorb the chaos inside me. The quiet Kai left behind was softer than his brothers’ storms, but silence had its own sharp edges. My heart kept pounding, restless, unwilling to calm. It was as though my body had been rewired tonight, every nerve ending raw, every breath laced with fire I didn’t ask for.I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling, the shadows shifting with the moonlight that slipped through the curtains. I could still feel Zane’s hands on me, burning brands across my skin. I could still hear Liam’s voice, furious, possessive, like he had a right to me. And then there was Kai, steady, controlled, quiet thunder. His voice had been the only thing that didn’t make me want to claw out of my own skin.But even Kai wasn’t simple.Because when he looked at
“Lena!”Kai’s voice.It was sharp but not angry, steady, grounding, slicing through the fever of Zane’s touch like a bell ringing in the dark.I jerked back, breathless, lips swollen, Zane’s grip still iron around my waist. His eyes blazed at me, feral and unrepentant, but his jaw tightened when the handle of my door twisted.“Kai,” I whispered, shoving at Zane’s chest, panic rising like fire in my throat. “Let go.”He didn’t move. His hand stayed on me, his breath ragged, his lips still glistening from mine. His voice came low, guttural. “Say you don’t want me and I’ll let go.”I swallowed, trembling. My body screamed one thing, my mind another. “Zane, please.”The door creaked open.And there he was.Kai.His tall frame filled the doorway, but unlike Liam’s fury or Zane’s recklessness, Kai’s presence was quiet thunder, calm, watchful, heavy with meaning. His eyes fell instantly on Zane’s hand gripping my wrist. His brows lifted, not in rage but in disappointment, the kind that made
I sat up, meeting him eye to eye for the first time since he’d entered. My voice was small, but steady. “Leave in the morning if you must. Come back only if you’ve learned to stand without breaking me. Don’t kiss me in the dark and expect me to forgive the light. And… don’t touch me like I’m not allowed to walk away.”He listened like I had recited a law. When he spoke, it was the slow, deliberate voice of a man making a vow. “I’ll do it. I’ll earn the right to be near you. I’ll be here if you want me to be. I’ll leave if you say go. I swear on—” He stopped himself, then smiled crookedly. “On something I can’t break.”Something in me softened, but I clenched my fists anyway. Softening wasn’t forgiving. It was simply an admission that I was human, messy, ache-filled, and stupid for wanting warmth when the cold felt safer.He leaned in, not to kiss, but to press his forehead gently to mine, a quiet, almost childish gesture that cracked open the armor around my heart. “I don’t expect yo
And that was the cruelest truth of all.That night, I tried to sleep. Tried. But every time I closed my eyes, I saw Liam’s burning stare, Zane’s wild kiss, Kai’s steady warmth. My sheets twisted around me, my skin prickling, my heart restless.And then, I heard it.The faint creak of my door.My breath caught.“Zane?” I whispered into the dark.He stepped in, his silhouette sharp against the faint glow of moonlight spilling through the window. “Couldn’t stay away,” he murmured, shutting the door softly behind him.He didn’t come close at first. He stood by the foot of my bed like a man waiting for permission to step into a fire he knew would burn him. My palms were damp from the earlier storm of shame and anger; my cheek still stung where my hand had landed. I hugged my knees to my chest, studying him the way you study a wound, to know whether it will scar or fester.“I am so sorry,” he said, and the words broke out of him like they’d been choking inside for weeks. “For what happened