Chapter 281
Chapter 281:
Despite the blood, despite the violence radiating off me, her nose twitched. She inhaled the scent of rain and cedar that poured from me.
“Dallas…” Her voice was a broken whisper, but it shattered the silence.
She didn’t shrink away. She didn’t look at Braydon. With a trembling hand, she reached out toward me. It was instinct — the mate-bond recognizing its other half.
Braydon froze. I saw the exact moment his heart broke. He stared at her hand reaching for me, realizing that even in her delirium, she didn’t want him. She wanted the monster.
His grip on her loosened. His shoulders slumped, the fight draining out of him like water from a cracked vessel.
“Fine,” he choked out, his voice hollow.
I didn’t wait. I crossed the distance in two strides and scooped Adella out of his arms.
𝘚𝗁a𝗋𝖾 y𝗼ur 𝘧𝘢𝘷𝘰r𝗶𝘵𝖾𝘴 𝖿𝗋o𝗺
Mine.
The moment skin touched skin, the sparks erupted. A jolt of electricity coursed through us both, soothing the jagged edges of my rage. Adella let out a soft sigh, burying her face in the crook of my neck, right over my pulse point.
“I’ve got you, little wolf,” I murmured against her hair, inhaling the scent of moonflowers that finally calmed Ragnar.
I turned toward the elevator, ignoring the carnage behind me, and projected through the mind-link, my mental voice sharp. “Car ready. Clear a path. No witnesses p>
“Done,” came the immediate reply.
As the elevator doors groaned open — the metal still bent from my entry — I paused and looked back over my shoulder.
Braydon was standing amidst the wreckage. He wasn’t looking at us. He wasn’t looking at the unconscious Rogue on the floor either. He was staring at his phone, his thumb hovering over the screen.
The devastation on his face was gone. The jealousy was gone. In their place was something colder. Something calculated.
He looked up, meeting my gaze for a split second. His eyes were dead, emptied of the emotion that had ruled him just moments ago. He looked like a man who had just decided that if he couldn’t win the game, he would burn the board.
I narrowed my eyes and filed that look away for later. Right now, the woman in my arms was the only thing that mattered.
I stepped into the elevator. The doors slid shut, sealing us away from the blood and the ghosts of the past.
Adella
Consciousness returned to me in slow, heavy waves. The first thing I registered wasn’t pain, but a scent — crisp rain, deep cedar, and the ozone tang of a brewing storm. It was a smell that vibrated in my very bones, chasing away the lingering phantom stench of Jarred Volkov’s cheap cologne and blood.
I forced my heavy eyelids open. The harsh fluorescent lights of the hospital room assaulted my vision, but a large, dark shadow instantly moved to block the glare.
“Easy, little wolf,” a deep voice rumbled, vibrating through the mattress and into my spine.
Dallas.