جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 300

~ JESSE ~I turned for the door to find Rake standing there staring at me, unguarded, and for a moment before his eyes shuttered, I saw everything he wanted—my safety, my comfort, my closeness… The yearning in his gaze made my stomach flip even as I blinked and shook my head, pushing myself towards the door, confusion and anger and fear and… just everything twisting together inside me.Rake’s eyes dropped to the floor, but his jaw set and he followed me. I could feel him coming up behind me, his long legs able to eat up the space faster than mine.As I stepped into the almost-empty hallway outside and he was right behind me, the urge was there to throw myself into his chest and seek reassurance, just like I al

~ JESSE ~I changed my clothes with shaking hands, asked Rake to take me outside—at which point he reminded me that they still hadn’t found whoever had shot Cazz and there was no chance in hell that he was taking me out of the Catacombs.Well, shit.“I need a space to just practice with this power, without hurting anyone.”Rake frowned. “We could go to the Den?” he said. “That’s the biggest space in the caves and no one will be there early in the morning. They closed hours ago and won’t open until lunch.”My skin crawled—but it crawled more at the idea of trying to compel Cazz without having more practice. And now that I’d woken those roiling snakes up

~ CASIMIR ~I sat in that frigid, dark chasm of my soul, my back to the side of the ravine walls, my knees drawn up to my chest. I was cold. Shaking.It felt as if I fought simply to stay alive. As if, the moment I let go, my body would fly into a thousand pieces and be scattered by this arctic wind.My mind ran loops—every word I’d said in anger, every action taken in cruelty or ruthless dominance. I was being flayed with my failure and couldn’t get my mind to stop repeating the message.Dark. Useless. Better off dead.Failure as a King.Failure as a Mate.Failure as a

“And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”- Hebrews 11:6*****~ JESSE ~I was in the den. His den.Cazz stood with his back to the barred door, his face stunned, and eyes locked on something ahead of him—something that wasn’t me.I knew before I even turned, but it still hit like a punch to the kidneys when I took in the sight of the beautiful she-wolf, quickly stripping off her clothes, her eyes alight and fixed on Cazz with anticipation and lust.

~ CASIMIR ~God, I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me. But I nodded.“I know,” I rasped, licking my lips and plowing on before she lost her hope. “And I’m telling you, if I could go back and only change one thing, it would be that. I’m sorry, Jesse. I am so fucking sorry.”“I know,” she said, but there was no relief in her. No softness. She said it like it barely mattered.“No, I don’t think you do,” I said, struggling to push myself up to sit again—but I managed it. As the effects of the power took hold, I was growing stronger, thank God. “Jesse… I’ve seen the truth. About myself. About life. About God. I’ve seen that… that I was wrong. And I’m going to d