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“These are the last things you have of him. I know that’s hard for you to accept. But I won’t play, not now, not ever.” I waved my hands at them.

Covered in tiny, rebellious tattoos. A tapestry of an alpha desperate to escape the perfect vision my parents forced me to become. Before instructors, parents, and pressure hollowed the glow of playing and turned me into a machine instead.

Sometimes there was a relief, underneath the mountain of shame, of course. There was a time when the weight of my fingers on the keys didn’t drag my heart through a shredder. Playing felt like flying until it didn’t. The brief flight drugs gave me didn’t last either.

I narrowed my eyes to slits as my father worked himself up.

“You’re doing a fine job of sullying the reputation your mother and I worked so damn hard for. A pack at nineteen. We worked our way up from the dust. We came—”

“From nothing and built an empire.” I cut my father off with a laconic twist of my wrist. Ididn’t carewhat sacrifices they’d made. The blood in my veins was black acid, burning me with long-held hatred. “Do you give Ajax these same lectures, or is it just me who you care about having the Mythos name?”

Their bewildered expressions drew a bitter chuckle from me.

I’d breached the untouchable subject, the one we never spoke of.

Ajax.

I dangled my phone. “Maybe I should call him? Invite him to family dinner for once.”

Couldn’t they see he was the better option for their obsession? I was a poor investment.

“We’re not talking about Ajax.” My mother dabbed at her lips.

Mothers were supposed to be nurturing, weren’t they? The closest I’d gotten to warmth from my mother was the day I was accepted into PAMA, and the awkward side hug made my skin crawl.

Ajax didn’t even get that. The look on his face when they gave him that horrible book flashed through my mind. The cool slideof their judgment slipped under my skin and froze me.I hated it. Hated them.I was done with their cold control, their nagging, and intense need for me to be the star of this family while I rotted inside.

“Well, I am. He’s my brother, and you drove a wedge between us for years. You broke me, broke Ajax and I want nothing to do with you.” My throat tightened, and my whispers turned hoarse. “I have people who care about me, actually care, and they’re my family. Not you. This is the last time I’ll speak to you willingly.”

My voice was low, level, and my restraint impressed me. Oh, how I wanted to toss my plate on the ground like a grown-ass toddler. But I wouldn’t give them satisfaction, or the fodder for future lectures. They blinked, as if I had mentioned the weather. I slid an envelope across the table.

“This has a check inside. A repayment for all the financial outlay you wasted on me. If you need more, tell me. I want no debt between us.”

“I see. Another tantrum.” My mother offered me a tight smile, and I caught a scream of frustration in my throat.

“Your attitude is disturbing.” My father frowned.

They were unfeeling shells. It was like all their emotions leeched inside me and I became a hurricane of unregulated fury. I whirled on my heel and stalked through the restaurant before I truly lost my temper. My body throbbed with swollen rage as I passed over my ticket to the valet. I drove recklessly on the way home, weaving in and out of cars at high speed. The streetlights spun, blurry and unfocused. My breath came in uneven spurts. These feelings were bigger than me and I struggled to fill my lungs with the weight of them on my chest. In the past, I would have gone straight to the Barracks. Texted CJ and be half gone on SubduX by the time he met me there.

But the throb of something sweet cut through my blistering despair. The link between Tully and I radiated warmth, and Iflexed my fists on the leather steering wheel as it brushed inside me.

She made me feel hope. A literal anchor to reality. I hoped my emotions weren’t affecting her right now.

She had enough on her mind.

I slammed the door to the house, trembling with a need I couldn’t fill. I thought about going to Walden, asking him to put me on my knees and make me as small and pliable as SubduX used to.

The television blared from the front room, and I skirted past it. How was I going to explain what put me in such a temper? If I could just breathe for a moment, I could get a handle on myself. My shoulders caged my ears, but I heard the tinkle of piano keys.

What the fuck?

Everybody knew my piano was off limits.

Even if I didn’t play it, it was mine, and I was fastidious about keeping it in pristine condition. I stormed into the room and Tully let out a soft gasp as her wide eyes met mine. Her fingers splayed on the keys, and her back jerked ramrod straight. The room was thick with her perfect, sweet scent and my knees turned watery as I drank her down into my lungs.

Better than wine. Better than Subdux.

Walden cleared my nostrils with his sharp, crisp scent. But Tully was like tumbling into a nest. She was soft velvet,home. Tully was an addiction even my packmates could understand.