Stranger to know she’d found her way there, too.
Found her way. Sage frowned. The words were too active for her passive participation. She’d been sold by her asshole of a father to an even bigger bastard of a lion, taking away the last bit of agency she’d possessed. Her escape, too, fell on the shoulders of others. She’d still be locked in a bedroom, dreading every turn of the doorknob, if Kyla hadn’t stubbornly refused to give up on her.
She flicked a glance to Kyla deliberately lowering her hand away from her mouth and her laugh. Skies above, it felt good to see her best friend happy. Reconnecting with her brother was a close second, but Kyla? They’d gone through hell together. Fate owed her the happy ending she’d found with Lindley.
She also knew she didn’t fit in with them. How could she? They were so solid while she felt like she was fading away.
The dismantling was a long time in the making. She’d lost her mother and her brother in one night, then been fed lies about what really happened. Her days teaching and practicing at the local dance studio were numbered when her father decreed all females stay in the territory for their protection. Protection, as it turned out, meant serving the whims of an increasingly paranoid and controlling alpha. Even the escape she’d planned blew up in her face when he announced he’d found her a mate.
She’d been stripped down and burned to a crisp. Nothing of her old self remained. Her father stole the life she’d tried to build, but Jasper, her supposed mate, stole what was left of her confidence.
Thirteen days of freedom, and she still didn’t know what to make of it. She knew Lindley and Kyla just wanted her to be happy, but how the hell did she leave all the horror behind?
Movement startled her, but it was just Dash. Even with his eyes squinted and watering, he jabbed a finger at the table, then pumped his hands in the air. “Fuck you, I win!” he boasted in a pained voice.
Lindley tapped his fingers against his palm in a bored golf clap. “You look like shit, so I don’t know how much that counts as a win.”
Dash bared his teeth in response and wiped away the water from his cheeks. He rubbed the heels of his hands against his eyes, then froze. An agonized groan left his chest. “Fuck me.”
He jumped to his feet to a chorus of laughter and fists thumped against the table. Sage followed his mad rush across the dining room and behind the bar. The bartender let off a startled squawk when he ripped the soda gun out of her hands.
The laughs turned to wheezes as Dash sprayed water all over his face.
Sage’s smile was short lived as the back of her neck prickled. She glanced up and swept a look around the table, finding everyone’s attention still on Dash.
Everyone except Rhys.
Her stomach dipped and twisted as he cocked his head. Silver swirled in the deep blue of his eyes, slowly brightening to the unnatural glow she’d watched days before. His focus felt too big. Too demanding. Her breath quickened and her heart raced, but she couldn’t bring herself to look away.
Fur brushed against her mind, stronger than ever. She reached for her inner lioness, but the creature only howled before disappearing into the darkness.
The air felt hot and heavy, pressing down on her. It was hard to breathe under that silver-eyed look. Hard to think, too, or ask questions like why and what did he want. Or if he was okay.
Instead, she stayed frozen, locked in his gaze, until he slowly blinked and turned his face.
“Hey,” Lindley said, leaning forward to tap a finger against the top of her hand. “You okay?”
Sage drew her hand back and forced a smile. “I’m fine.”
The word even tasted fake.
Chapter 3
Rhys sat on his porch steps and turned a hunk of wood over in his hands. He’d always wondered why his grandfather and old man spent their days working at a useless hobby, but he’d taken it up when Hailey told him to find a way to keep his hands busy and off the throats of the others. It didn’t make him any less annoyed, but it did keep him from lashing out as much as his inner lion wanted.
Staying completely sane and under control was out of reach.
He slashed a look across the yard to Trent and Hailey’s den. His alpha had released him from the cave that afternoon and sent him home like a toddler being told to go to his room. He’d tried to stay inside his den and contemplate the shit he had to tell the others when they rolled up at the end of the day, but that, too, was out of reach. His lion prowled inside him, twitching his tail in disgruntled agitation, urging him out the door. Sitting on his porch was the compromise.
He hadn’t always been a fucking mess. There’d been a time when he could count himself among the good. The years without Hannah poisoned him from the inside out. Trying to murder his way through the pride for the third time in as many weeks pointed pretty conclusively to his head fuckery.
He glanced up again in time to see the curtain twitch back into place.
Rhys narrowed his eyes as his lion shoved forward. It was that new girl, Sage, who held his attention. Lindley’s little sister, not that it mattered. She was off limits. Anyone he spent more than a day with was off limits. He didn’t do relationships or bonding or regular fucking friendships. He couldn’t. Not when he snapped and spoiled everything he
