Page 174 of Blood and Ruin: The Complete Series

“Look, we just need your help. You’re welcome to stay here as long as you want afterward. We just want Kiarra back. Weneedher back.” I put as much emotion behind my words as I can, knowing she’ll sense the truth and desperation behind them.

Jazmyn frowns, focusing right on me before doing the same to Jax. I know she’s searching us both for any deception we might try to keep from her, but she won’t find any. We’ll do whatever it takes to get Kiarra back, but we wouldn’t send her friend to her death to do it. I give Jax a side eye. At least, not all of us would.

Jazmyn loses the frown before returning to her tough act with more attitude than before. “It’s for Kiarra, right?

And he’ll be able to see if Kane is okay?” “In a roundabout way, yes,” I tell her.

“Then I’ll do it for them,notyou.” She narrows her eyes on us both, daring us to push her on this, but since she was agreeing to help, I didn’t care about the why.

“Fair enough,” I tell her.

She turns and walks away, hopefully towards her room to pack.

I turn to Jax just as he speaks. “That went well.”

I release a harsh breath, the morning already feeling like it was dragging out longer than it should.

“As well as can be expected.”

“Think this will work?” Jax asks, a glint of hope in his eyes.

“It better,” I tell him.

I need Kiarra back with us more than I need to fucking breathe. If we didn’t get her back soon, the old demons wouldn’t be the only thing the guys would have to worry about.

They’d have a crazed shadow wolf on the warpath too.

CHAPTER 9

KIARRA

Luka’s wide eyes as he reaches out to grab me follow me through the dark. The harsh lights above me blink on, making me wince. My eyes burn from the brightness, scratched raw from what feels like hours of crying.

It was just a dream.A beautiful, cruel dream. One that shatters my heart all over again.

Now that I’m lying here awake, with reality crashing around me, all I want is to go back to them.

Take me back.

I squeeze my eyes shut, begging my mind to let me succumb to the dark once more. To see each of their faces again.

I’d take them in whatever form I could have them, whether it was just a dream or something my mind conjured up. I don’t care.

I needed to see them, to hold them, to hear each of their voices.

My body is fully healed, but my heart hurts, and I don’t know what to do to make it stop.

I don’t want to let any of them go. To move on from them.

They’re home—myhome—but by the time I realized that, it was already too late. And now they’re gone, and I don’t know what to do or where to go. I don’t know who I’m supposed to be.

They told me before that I was strong for what I had lived through, but they were wrong. I’m not strong. I’m weak. And now without them, I’m lost along with it.

I just want to close my eyes and sleep. I want to be numb to the pain inside me. I want to—

“Hey! Hey!” the voice from the room beside me shouts, shaking me from my downward spiral.

I didn’t have the energy to answer him, so I stay quiet.

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