Page 125 of Untamed

Every drop of air rushes out of my lungs, and I take a step back like her words physically hit me. “No,” I whisper. “No, that can’t be true?—”

“It is, Jordyn.”She grabs my arms, holding me still. “It is. Enzo told me everything. And that’s why you need to stay away fromAres. He’s not just dangerous, Jord. The man is unhinged, and he’s part of this,all of it.”

But I shake my head, hard. “No, B, stop. You don’t—you don’t know him, all right.”

“Neither do you, Jordyn.” Bianca’s voice cracks, trembling with something close to panic. “You have no idea what he’s really capable of. Luciano didn’t raise him to be a man. He raised him to be aweapon. From the time he could walk, Ares was trained to take orders, to kill without hesitation, to suppress anything that made him human. Emotions weren’t allowed. Only pain. And love?” Her voice turns bitter. “Love was weakness.”

She steps closer and swallows thickly. “And when he takes a liking to someone…” Her eyes flicker to mine. “It turns dark, Jordyn. He becomesfixated. Obsessed. Possessive in a way that isn’t romantic, it’s dangerous.”

I stare at her, but she keeps going. “The last girl that got tangled up with him. She ran. Fled the country to get away from him. Not the island, thecountry,Jordyn.”

Her hands press against my arms, her tone now barely a whisper.“And now he’s looking at you the same way and repeating the same pattern. And I’m terrified, Jordyn. I’m terrified he’s going to do to you what he did to her, or worse.”

The silence stretches between us, thick and suffocating like a heavy fog that refuses to lift. My heart is pounding so fiercely against my ribs that I’m afraid it might stop altogether. That’s a lot of information for one person to process in a couple of minutes.

The names…Ares, Romano, the crash, the girl who supposedly vanished across borders because of Ares, and the Russos beingpart of the Mafia. Each word echoes in my mind, a cacophony of chaos.

My throat closes around a thousand words I can’t bring myself to say. But it all makes sense now, why Ares has been pushing me away, why he keeps referring to himself as a monster. One by one, everything starts to fall into place.

I draw in a shaky breath, swallowing down the storm rising inside me.

“I need to go,” I manage to say, my voice barely steady. Bianca’s eyes soften, concern etched into their depths, but the worry never leaves them.

“Jordyn—”

“Please,” I insist, my voice trembling as if on the verge of breaking. “I can’t...do this right now. I need time to process everything. My head is a mess. I need to be alone, to clear my thoughts.”

I gently pull away, feeling her hands slip reluctantly from my arms as I turn and walk away, each step heavy with uncertainty.

What am I supposed to believe here? Do I trust my instincts, which tell me that beneath Ares’s darkness and icy demeanour, he’s a good man, or do I heed my sister’s warnings, insisting he’s a heartless killer who will inevitably hurt me? How can I believe that when all he's ever done is save me and push me away because he’s convinced himself that he’s a monster, undeserving of my affection?

Christ. How can something feel like the truth and still make no fucking sense at all?

My mind is a mess of sharp images and louder voices, Ares’s hands on my skin, gentle where they shouldn’t have been. The way he looked at me like I was something fragile. The way heheld back. That can’t be the same man Bianca is describing. That can’t be the same man who someone had to run from.

But it is.

Ithasto be.

Because if it’s not, then what the hell am I even doing?

My chest aches with the weight of it all. The pieces don’t fit. None of it fits. And yet it’s all pointing to the same truth I don’t want to face.

Ares was raised in darkness. That’s what she said, and he’s confirmed it himself many times. And now I’m standing here with blood on my hands I didn’t spill, and I still want to run back to him like he’s the only place I’ll ever be safe.

What does that say about me?

What kind of girl falls for the monster right after he crawled out of the pit?

I shake my head, trying to dislodge the panic creeping up my spine.

I can’t do this, not here. Not with Bianca staring at me like she’s watching me fall apart in real time.

I have to know the truth. Not her version. Not Enzo’s.

His.

My mind is in a state of turmoil as I continue to walk.

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