Page 239 of Untamed

His jaw locks, but he doesn’t look away. “I know, and I’m going to make him pay for what he did to him, for thinking he can just walk in and take you from me.”

I nod, but my lip trembles, and I hate that I can’t stop it.

“He said I’d choose him.”

Ares goes still.

His brows knit together, a shadow slicing across his expression.

“What?” His voice is low. Dangerous.

I swallow hard, throat burning. “It’s not just here.” My voice drops to a whisper. “He’s been inside the manor too, Ares.” His eyes blacken. “In my bedroom.”

The silence that follows is stifling. The kind that comes before a storm rips the world apart. “Yesterday morning,” I add. “I don’t know when he left it. It could’ve been while I was with you. Or… while I was speaking to Luciano.”

Ares stiffens like a gun just cocked.

“Wait. Hold on.” His voice cuts through the air, sharp and sudden.

“What do you mean you spoke to Luciano?”

I blink. “He...called me into his office. He said he wanted to talk.”

His eyes narrow, and I can see the muscle ticking furiously in his cheek. “About what?”

I hesitate. Part of me wants to lie. Wants to protect Ares from the part of his family still trying to control his fate. But it’s too late for that now. Too much has happened, and I don’t think it was just a coincidence.

“He told me your future isn’t mine. That if I really care about you, I’ll let you go and let you live out our legacy.” I pause, the ache behind my ribs growing sharper. “He said your marriage to Giana is inevitable and that you were always meant for something bigger. He said I’m nothing more than a distraction, something that makes you soft and that holding onto you might end up killing you.”

Ares exhales hard through his nose, turning away like he can’t trust himself to look at me without breaking something. “Of course he did,” he mutters. “Of fucking course he did.”

I take a step toward him, voice soft. “I mean, he’s right, isn’t he?” He turns back to me, eyes fierce. “He thinks loving you makes me a liability.”

“You’re not a liability, Jordyn. You’re the only thing that’s real in my world. The only thing that matters.”

I swallow hard, the weight of his words wrapping around me like a shroud. “But what if loving me really does make you weak?” My voice trembles, the vulnerability spilling over against my will. “What if Luciano is right? What if?—”

Ares strides forward, his hands framing my face with a tenderness that belies the fire in his eyes. His thumbs brush my cheeks, grounding me, silencing the storm threatening to spill from my lips.

“Stop,” he says, voice commanding but not unkind. “You listen to me, and you listen well, Jordyn. Loving you doesn’t make me weak. It makes me stronger. It gives me something they can’t take away. Something that isn’t about legacies or empires or expectations. You make me human. And if that scares them, let them be scared. Let them choke on their own fear.”

The intensity in his gaze steals the breath from my lungs, and I can't look away even if I wanted to. His forehead dips to mine, his breath mingling with mine in the charged air between us.

“They’ve spent years trying to control me,” he continues, his voice low, like the words are meant for me alone. “Trying to mould me into what they need. But you? You see me, Jordyn.Not the heir, not the name, not their pawn. Me. And I won’t let them take that away. I won’t let them takeyouaway.”

It’s fierceness wrapped in devotion, and the ache behind my ribs sharpens into something else entirely, something that feels dangerously like hope. I close my eyes, leaning into the warmth of his touch, letting it tether me to the moment.

“They’ll fight us,” I whisper, the truth of it undeniable. “They’ll do everything they can to tear us apart.”

Ares presses a soft kiss to my forehead, lingering there like he’s making a vow. “Then we’ll fight back...together. They can only tear us apart if we let them, bambina.”

I nod, the faintest smile ghosting my lips despite the chaos still swirling in my chest. “Together,” I repeat, the word a fragile thread of resolve that feels stronger when he’s holding me like this.

“Tell me about this note...”

Later that afternoon there’s a knock on the door. Soft and almost hesitant.

When I open it, Bianca stands there, pale and wide-eyed, clutching a coat she didn’t bother to button properly. Her hair is damp from the rain, her eyes glassy.

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