Page 129 of Untamed

She’s not soft.She’s stronger than you’ll ever be.

My fists curl at my sides. Every word out of his mouth is another match dropped onto dry kindling.

He talks like he still owns me. Like Seraphina was proof that I can’t love without destroying. Like Jordyn’s already halfway to breaking, and he’s just waiting for it to happen.

But he’s wrong—so fucking wrong.

I stare him down, pulse pounding like a jackhammer in my throat.

“You’re wrong about one thing,” I say, voice razor-sharp. “I haven’t forgotten what I am.” I pause for a beat. A breath. “But you old man, you’ve clearly forgotten what I’m capable of.”

I turn and walk halfway toward the door, then pause, just long enough to twist the knife. “If you try to force this marriage, if you so much as hand Giana a fucking ring—” I glance back at him, eyes cold. “—I will burn down every alliance you’ve ever built. Brick by brick. Name by name. And I’ll start with the Mancini’s.” he doesn’t answer…knows better by now.

Because we both know I mean every word.

I yank the door open and walk out, leaving him choking on the smoke.

I’m done playing by his fucking rules.

The bag swings and rattles on its chain like a pendulum between sins.

My fists connect again. And again. Knuckles split beneath the wraps, blood smearing across the vinyl like something holy and rotten all at once.

My shoulder is screaming, white-hot fire threading down my arm with every strike, but I don’t stop.

I don’t feel it. Not really. Pain has always been easy. Familiar. Something I can name, hold, and punish.

It’s everything else I can’t reach.

Congratulations.

That single word plays on repeat, over and over, louder than the thud of fists hitting leather. It wasn’t a toast. It wasn’t even a goodbye.

It was a fucking blade, and she knew it.

I punch harder.

Luciano’s voice chases hers.

Do I need to remind you what happened the last time you let a girl close?

I see her. Not Jordyn.Seraphina.

The girl who looked at me like I was made of ruin and still kissed me like I was something worth saving, until she realised what I really was.

And ran.

It didn’t matter what I said, how much I tried to convince her that I would never hurt her, I couldn’t erase the look of fear in her eyes. She wouldn’t ever look at me any other way. So, I drove her to the airport myself.

Didn’t say a word.

Didn’t look back.

Because I knew. Iknewthe second she got out of my car and left, I was never going to get another chance to be anything but this.

But then Jordyn happened.

That day I first saw her, barefoot in my garden, light in her eyes like she didn’t know where the fuck she was or who she was looking at, it did something to me.

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