Page 33 of Bonds of Pain
Poe shrugs, completely unbothered by my jab. That’s the thing I like most about Poe, even if it also drives me crazy. He has never denied what he is or what he does. No guilt, no shame. Just acceptance of his role.
And Maya had been the best I’ve seen her in days when he brought her back to the apartment.
Something twists in my gut. Jealousy? Fuck. I don’t want to examine that too closely.
“How’s she doing, anyway?” I ask, trying to sound casual. “After the bonding and everything.”
Poe’s eyes narrow slightly. “Surprised you care, Ares.”
“Why, do you?” I fire back.
The question hangs between us for a moment. Poe doesn’t answer right away, which is an answer in itself. I study his face and see something I’ve never noticed before—a softness around his eyes when Maya’s name comes up.
“Holy shit,” I breathe. “You actually care about her.”
Poe looks away, clearly uncomfortable with my observation. He shifts his weight, the only tell he ever gives when something’s hit too close to home.
“We’re all supposed to care,” he finally says with a half-hearted shrug. “She belongs to the pack now.”
That should be that. Logan bonded Maya. She is a permanent part of our pack now.
So why does everything still feel somehow wrong?
I feel my jaw tighten. “Tell that to Logan.”
The words come out sharper than I intended, but fuck it. The tension in the apartment has been unbearable since Maya’sunexpected heat. Logan’s keeping her locked up like some kind of prize he’s afraid we’ll steal.
“You’ve noticed it too,” Poe says, not a question.
“Hard not to. He’s acting like we’re the enemy.” I lean back in my chair. “That’s not how pack works.”
“No,” Poe agrees quietly. “It’s not.”
We sit in silence for a moment, both of us contemplating what this means. Logan’s always been possessive, but this is different. This feels like a fracture in our foundation.
“Something’s off with him,” I mutter. “With all of this. The way he’s acting with her, the way Cillian’s always lurking around…like there is always something going on they haven’t bothered to tell us about.”
Poe’s expression darkens. “I know.”
“So, what are we going to do about it?”
Poe doesn’t answer, but his silence speaks volumes. We both know something has to change, and soon.
I gesture for him to move behind my chair. “Let me show you something.”
At first, I planned to keep this little discovery secret. Partially because I want to believe it does mean anything, but mostly because I’m worried about just how much it might actually mean.
There are cameras in every room of our apartment. Unlike the rest of the palace, the apartment’s security system is supposed to exist on a closed circuit. Impossible to hack because the recordings and backups only exist locally on this very terminal.
I don’t make a habit of tracking my pack brother’s activities. Less for any illusions of privacy, than that watching them jerk off or take a shit isn’t particularly interesting viewing for me.
But when Maya had emerged from that basement safe room, looking like she’d been thoroughly worked over and Loganpractically dragging her with him like a caveman, curiosity got the better of me. When Cillian trailed out after them, stone-faced and refusing to answer any questions, I just had to know.
Which is when I discovered that approximately twelve hours of footage from the basement camera has been erased.
“You sure it isn’t a glitch?” Poe asks as he leans over me to rewind the recording. The feed turns fuzzy with digital snow before the digital clock in the corner jumps back in time. “Or an outage?”
“No outage. Someone manually wiped the feed.” I tap the screen where the timestamp jumps. “See that? Clean break. If it was a power issue, we’d see degradation or complete blackout across all cameras.”
