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I decided I’d take a demon-blessed witch and a rabid werewolf over a jealous male right then. Both preferable over a jealous Dante and all the bullshit that came with him.

I laughed, though it came out as more of a grunt from the effort of carrying Colton. Dante wasn’t putting his back into it.

“I fought a WASP because you told me to get more hobbies,” I shot back.

Dante’s face was etched with quiet satisfaction. “Well, it doesn’t count if there’s not mud, and I’m not present.”

I gagged, though I was secretly happy to be in familiar territory with Dante. “Are you going to share your lead with me?”

Lungs working on overdrive and every inch of my body aching, we finally made it to Colton’s pickup, parked beside my car. He obviously knew who was there the second he parked. And he’d come with his gun drawn. Had he intended to shoot me or protect me? I immediately knew it was the latter. Despite my changed attitude and appearance, Colton didn’t have it in his wiring to comprehend that I was closer to the villain than the weak cheerleader these days.

It was Colton. He was always going to operate under the mistaken assumption that he needed to protect me.

Tonight, I’d seen it in his eyes—the change, the confusion, the hurt. It had stung just a little, but mostly it felt like a relief. To be kicked off the pedestal I could feel Colton was still holding me on. Yet now he wouldn’t remember it, so I’d have to do my darndest to act like an irredeemable asshole. Not that that was hard. Just tiring. I couldn’t stand the hurt and optimism in his eyes every time he looked at me.

Dante didn’t answer my question about the lead. Instead, he set Colton down, rifling through his pockets for his keys.

I watched with something that felt like anger swimming through my veins. It was a violation, having someone else’s hands all over him while he was unconscious, vulnerable.

Dante looked up at me, his eyes hard but a cruel smirk slashing his mouth. “Oh, do you want to do it?” He motioned to Colton’s pocket.

I scowled at him. “Only one of us gets a kick out of fondling unconscious people, and it’s not me.”

The keys jangled as Dante lifted them and unlocked Colton’s truck. “Oh, Hadley, you’ve had a taste. You think I need to resort to drugging anyone to sleep with me?”

“Fuck you,” I spat, unable to think of a witty enough comeback. My mind ventured back to the day in the spring, the electricity humming through my body, Dante’s lips on mine, my body wrapped around his. My nerve endings crying out for release, something deeper awakening inside of me, hungry⁠—

I forced my mind back to the present, watching as Dante lifted Colton’s prone body into the passenger seat of his truck with apparent ease, even though Colton had to be almost two hundred pounds.

And he’d been letting me do the lion’s share of the work, carrying him through the cemetery.

Asshole.

I was thinking this and regaining my breath, therefore, I didn’t take note that Dante had finished buckling Colton into his seat and was stalking toward me. I took one step back, against the door of Colton’s truck.

Dante braced his arms on either side of me, his body pressing into mine. I could’ve fought him. Kneed him in the balls. Put a weapon to his head. I was not a hostage in his embrace; I was more than capable of getting out.

But I stayed, looking up at him, panting for an entirely different reason than exertion.

“Have your fun with the quarterback,” he murmured, mouth inches from mine. “We both know he’s not gonna be enough for you.” His hand fastened onto my hip. “You’ll break him the first time you fuck him, and I doubt he’ll even make you come.” The hand slid upward, spanning my ribs and skimming the side of my breast.

My mouth went dry as I waited for my instincts to kick in, for my senses to recover the cold brutality I’d relied on all these years. Except I stayed still, waiting. Wanting. Dante.

“I’ll be here, waiting, ready to make you scream, to show you that you won’t break me, and I sure as shit ain’t afraid of breaking you.” He gave my ribs a not-so-gentle squeeze, lingering inches from my mouth for a moment more before he let me go and sauntered off.

“How the fuck am I supposed to get him out of the truck and inside his house?” I called to his back, my voice thin, shaking.

“You’ll figure it out.”

Asshole.

As I drove an unconscious Colton home in his truck, I couldn’t rid Dante’s words from my mind.

fifteen

Having someone knocking on my door at godforsaken hours of the morning seemed to be a trend in Dreadwood Falls. One I hated.

Especially when the people knocking on the door were members of the Hughes family.