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“What happened?” Selene asks.

I’d hoped she wouldn’t ask that.

“Benson is the one,” Mael says tightly. “I think.”

“What?”

“Benson is the one who did this to me,” Mael says in a pained voice. “I think. He knew of me being tortured. It has to be him.”

I want to soothe that pain by murdering the asshole who did it to him, but I need Selene safe.

Selene’s surprise is in the air. “Benson, as in my sister’s ex? He’s your Crimson Tiger?”

“It was the story you said. I recognised some of your description, and so we went to kill him, and we underestimated him. He just grabbed us before we even got close.”

Selene’s temper fills the air, turning the blueberry cobbler spicy.

“You didn’t think to talk to me about this?”

“You were about to be building a nest, Selene. No one wanted to take that away from you,” Kingston murmurs. “Besides, we were a bit heat drunk.”

That is the truth. We wanted her to have that, and we thought we could take care of it.

“It’s all right. I’ll take care of it now,” Selene says sweetly. “You just sit back and let me show you how it's done.”

I want to ask her more about it, but we turn into the neighbourhood, and Selene sits forward, looking for something.

“What are you looking for?” Kingston asks.

Selene just chuckles darkly. “You’ll see.”

I hear a car screeching its tires behind us and turn to look out the window.

“We’re being chased!” Edric hisses.

Selene leans forward even lower. “Floor it, lose him and get us to the park.”

Mael looks at her for a split second, then puts his foot down and sends this piece of shit car barrelling towards the park. In moments, we lose them, but Mael doesn’t stop driving. He keeps going around the neighbourhood a couple of times before he heads to the park.

“Straight out onto the oval.”

Mael doesn’t hesitate.

He drives out into the middle of the grass and parks the car. We climb out and walk into the headlights, standing there waiting.

It feels like the world holds its breath.

Chapter thirty-six

Kingston

Selene leans on thecar, resting her foot on it, and just looks as relaxed as is possible. Mael is completely still, Bailey is beside him, but Edric is on the other side of Selene, watching her.

“Selene? Want to share?”

She turns her head towards me and looks me up and down. The smell of blueberry cobbler gets viciously strong in the air. I bite my bottom lip to stop from going over there, flipping her round, and sinking knot deep into her right here in the middle of this park.

“Well, I might if I had a pack that was interested in communication and sharing. But I don’t have one of those.”