Page 235 of Untamed

She sat curled in the passenger seat, arms wrapped around her knees, her face turned to the window like she needed to keep something inside from spilling out.

I took the SUV, and Dante’s following close behind with my bike.

When we pull up to the villa, she gets out before the engine finishes humming. Her steps are unsteady, but she doesn’t stop, doesn’t look back.

I let her go. She heads for the stairs, toward my bedroom. Her safe place. The one corner of the world I made hers.

I don’t follow.

I stay by the door, rubbing the dried blood from my hands like it’ll change anything. I need to give her space, space to breathe, to unravel, to try to make sense of everything that just happened.

I should’ve listened to my gut and gone with her.

Because then I hear it. The scream. Raw and ripped from her throat.

It slices through me like a blade.

Before I can breathe, my gun is drawn and I’m running before I even realise, I’ve moved.

Up the stairs. Down the hall, I burst into the bedroom and,Fuck.

The copper stench hits first. And my heart drops out of my chest.

Then I see Jordyn, on the floor, folded in on herself, her hands over her mouth, her breath coming in shattered pieces.

And the bed. Blood-slicked sheets. Grey fur matted dark.

Ladro.

Slaughtered like a warning and laid out like an offering. My stomach turns. I stare, silent and still, even as my fists curl. But it’s the wall that steals the air from my lungs.

Above the headboard, painted in Ladro’s blood with cruel, deliberate strokes.“One pet down. One lover to go.”

I don’t move for a second.

Because if I do, I’ll destroy this entire fucking house.

Jordyn lets out a choked sob, and it rips me out of the trance.

I drop to my knees beside her and pull her into me, tight, grounding, fierce, because I don’t know what else to do. Because I should’ve been here. Because he had the balls to walk straight into my world.

Into my home.

Intomy fucking house.

He stepped past my walls, my alarms, my guards, like they were nothing. LikeI’mnothing. He killed our cat. Not because he hadto. But because hecould. Because he wanted to send a message not just to her… but tome.

Nicolai didn’t just rattle the cage.

He stepped inside and pissed on everything I love.

I stand at the window, staring out into the dark, the city humming low in the distance.

Behind me, Dante pours a drink neither of us really wants. He sets it down untouched on the table between us and exhales through his nose.

“She’s safe,” he says. “Shaken, but no physical harm. Meds are wearing off. She’s resting.”

I nod once. The tension in my chest doesn’t ease.

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