Page 170 of Drown My Sorrow

“You were moving too slow, and my Lia needs me.”

I rub my hand over my face, and I guess the guy in the article would be this one. Wait, dad? Oh, I see it now.

I feel sick at what they are insinuating.

Fuck sake. What is wrong with these people?

Nat hobbles in and looks at Lia. “Is he the one she’s supposedly fucking? He’s too ugly to be part of Mirakill.”

Valen snorts and eases closer to Nat. “I like this one.”

“You can keep her,” I snap.

Kelly marches into the giant foyer with Ezy on his heels. But the others, my Daane, stay quietly watching from the walls.

I know what’s going to happen.

I can see the promise in their eyes. We can only delay their retribution for so long before they lose it, before they take the wheel. Nobody knows them like I do, but I can see the signs that Daane are losing their patience.

Beau’s eyes are fairly flaming, and Keagan has gone cold. But Shale’s rage pulses off him in waves of aggression that call to me like a moth to a flame.

We just need to ask. We just need to call for them.

This isn’t their world nor their fight, but they’ll finish it.

There’s a knock on the door, and I edge closer and pull it open while everyone’s busy.

A man stands on the other side. “Are you Aspyn?”

“I am.”

He smiles. “You fucking whore.”

The box he throws on me is too liquidy. I have a moment of regret, and then I’m covered in something that has me heaving. It drips down my face and through my hair.

I hear my alphas roar, but I slip on the wetness, and I go down hard.

I scream.

I forget about the smell, the grossness.

I forget everything but the white lightning that is running like a current through every nerve in my leg.

I arch, twisting in agony, unable to stop the contortions. I hear photos going off, and then Shale arrives. The rage of my alpha cocooning me in safety.

“Kelly, get them out or I’ll kill them all.”

Kelly thunders a command.

The pain ebbs, and, instead of screaming, I roll on my side and curl up tight in a ball and sob.

“Fuck!” Beau whispers. “Come on, Cher. Let me pick you up, we can go get in a nice warm bath, and I’ll dope you up on your painkillers and kill anyone whoever looks at you sideways.”

“I want to go home!” I wail.

Beau’s hand pauses on my shoulder. “I know, but you’ve got this. You’re so strong. You just need a little love right now.”

“No, I want to go home. I hate it here. It hurts.”

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