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I growled, letting go of her, shaking my head to get it straight. I got to my feet, but she followed.
The softest brush of frosted moonflower tried desperately to loosen the last screw keeping my sanity together.
“Bite me,” she begged.
I growled.
I had to.
Needed to.
Couldn’t…
He would kill her, or me.
Another exhale echoed with a growl.
I couldn’t damn her like I’d damned myself.
Three and a half years before—The day of the switch.
I took the spiral staircase in my family’s mansion.
The huge estate that had been left for me by blood. I wished I could wipe it away like I was wiping Knox’s blood from my knuckles right now.
I’d left him chained down in that cell, bleeding and bruised.
I was angry. More angry than I should be, but for a short time after he’d fled, I truly wasn’t sure I’d get him back.
There was no good reason it mattered—he shouldn’t matter—yet the idea that he was gone…
My heart raced and there was still a furious tremor in my hand as I washed the blood from it with a rag and stepped from up the spiral stairs.
I was a fucking mess.
Alone. Packless. Afraid of real connection, I’d fled my family legacy, vowing I wouldn’t become them.
Except I had.
Once.
I’d become the monster I was raised to be, with instincts that ruled my life, treading on others like they were nothing.
He was it. A prize. The last tie I hadn’t been able to cut. Claim Knox, walk away, and no one would look any closer when I wasn’t involved with my family legacy anymore.
I hadn’t intended to keep him forever.
Not until I realised the instincts I’d been raised with had sharper edges than I’d ever imagined.
So I’d kept it to him—the only claim I was allowed, and in that, it was uncontained.
Discovering that he’d escaped almost drove me mad. And what was it he’d just threatened?
I couldn’t drag him back from hell?
Threatening to kill himself?
A low growl rose up my throat before I caught it, and I tossed the bloody rag at a dusty painting on the wall as I passed.
