Page 269 of Untamed

My heart clenches in my chest. I cover his hand with my own, eyes stinging. A tear slips silently into the pillow. I soak up this precious moment. Burn it into my mind to remember later. The one and only time the three of us were together as one.

I don’t speak.

Because if I do, I’ll fall apart.

Outside, the world begins to stir. Birds hum like a warning. The air is heavy with something unspoken, like even the morning knows what today means.

His fingers trail down my arm, slow and steady, his touch leaving a line of goosebumps in its wake.

Eventually, he shifts. Muscles tense. Like a man who is suiting up for war.

My chest tightens. I’m not ready to let go...not yet. So, I reach out and wrap my fingers around his wrist. “Stay,” I whisper, the word catching on my breath. “Just a little longer.”

He looks at me, and whatever I see in his eyes nearly undoes me. Slowly, he lies back down and pulls me into him, burying his face in my neck as though he can hide there. Like maybe, if we’re quiet enough, time will stop and morning won’t come.

We breathe together in the dark.

When he moves again, it’s with reluctance. A kiss on my shoulder. A brush of his thumb down my jaw.

I hear him sigh before she speaks. “I’m sorry, bambina, I have to go, but I’ll be back before you know it,” he murmurs. “Dante and I are just checking the place one last time before your transfer. I want eyes on every door. No risks.”

I nod, not trusting my voice. I can’t look at him. If I do, I’ll start sobbing.

I watch him while he dresses. All black. Tactical. Lethal. Like the man who always walks towards danger when the rest of the world runs from it.

Just before he leaves, he leans over and brushes a strand of hair from my cheek. “Ti amo, bambina.”

I close my eyes. Soak up the gravel in his voice. The tenderness is buried deep beneath all that steel. Before he can pull away, I sit up on my knees, pull him back to me and kiss him one last time. Ares doesn’t hesitate; his hand comes up to cradle the back of my neck as he responds to the kiss with equal fervour.

When we pull apart, we’re both breathing hard. With our eyes closed, we stay in that moment for as long as we can before Ares reluctantly pulls back so he can look at me. And the moment he does, when our eyes meet, I feel a shift in his gaze...almost like he can sense that something is wrong.

“I love you, too,” I whisper.

Ares offers me a smile and presses a kiss to my forehead, and then he’s gone.

I wait until the growl of his Ducati fades into the distance before I move.

The floor is ice beneath my feet. Every step feels like it might collapse me, but I keep moving. Like some part of me already decided this. Like I’m just following orders I carved in my bones.

I go to the dresser. Slide open the top drawer.

The envelope is still there.

Bianca’s envelope. IDs. Cash. A plane ticket. But tucked just beneath it, something else catches the light. The test. The one I should have thrown away, but couldn’t.

I pick it up with shaking fingers and stare at the single word printed there like a brand.Pregnant.

A jagged breath leaves me.

He doesn’t know. And now, he might never.

Slowly, I move to his nightstand and slide the test into the leather journal he thinks I don’t know he writes in. The one he touches after nightmares. The one he keeps locked beside the bed like a secret.

It feels right, leaving it there. Quiet and hidden. A truth waiting to be found. Maybe if he finds it in time, it will give him something to hold on to, something to keep fighting for. He’ll know that I have a piece of him with me.

I dress in silence. Jeans. His hoodie. Trainers. No makeup. Nothing to draw attention.

Just a girl running errands.

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