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He couldn’t even say it, but I knew what he meant.If Sean killed Dylan.

I tugged my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. Using me as a bargaining chip was one thing, but Dylan was just a kid. He didn’t deserve any of this. Part of me wanted to wake him up right now and get out of Lakeview, but…

“He’d follow you,” Steph said quietly, like he could read my thoughts. “It’s not safe for you to leave. I’m sorry, Harley.”

“How do you do that? How do you always seem to know what I’m thinking before I say it?”

“You have a very expressive face.” He tapped my forehead, right between my furrowed eyebrows.

I hummed and pulled away. “No, seriously. I know it’s more than that, Steph.”

“Comes with being fated to a dragon, unfortunately,” Steph said. “Don’t worry, I can’t read your thoughts.”

I slumped down, relieved to hear that. Dragon magic was full of surprises—who could blame me for wondering if telepathy was part of it?

“My dragon can sense you,” Steph explained. “Feel your emotions, in a way. It’s like empathy on steroids.”

“Why can’t I sense you? Is it because I’m not a dragon? Seems unfair that it only goes one way.”

“You would, if I claimed you. It solidifies the connection between us.”

His gaze flashed gold with sudden desire. Heat swirled through me, and even without a completed bond, I knew we were imagining the same thing. Me, spread out on his dark sheets with him above me, his lips on mine, his hands on my waist, my hips… Except this time, I’d have his bite on my neck. I’d feel the heat of his arousal swirling with my own.

He took my hands and smoothed his thumb over the back of my hand. “There are risks, too. The bond… It’s like a living thing.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Our souls are connected,” Steph said. “Our lives. If something happened to you, injury or…” He closed his eyes briefly, as if just saying these words hurt him. “Or death. The bond would die, too.”

“What do you mean,die?”

“It’s like breaking your legs,” Steph said. “It’s incapacitating. It changes your life, and even if you recover, you’re different forever. Weaker. You’ll never be the person—or dragon—you were before.”

The thought that something happening tomecould hurtStephlike that made my heart break. “That’s only if the bond is completed, though, right?”

“It’d happen to me even without me claiming you.”

“You mean, if something happened to me now, you’d feel that pain? The bond would die like that?”

He nodded, then he looked at me with golden, blazing ferocity in his eyes. “And I treasure this bond. I love this bond, the same way I love you. But Sean knows how these bonds work.”

My eyes widened in realization. “He wanted to hurt me to weakenyou.”

“I think so, but I’m not sure. He’s unpredictable now. I don’t know if he has any real plans left—or any goals beyond destroying the clan.”

“So, he doesn’t even want to be the alpha anymore? He just wants to ruin us all?”

“Honestly,” Steph said with a small shake of his head, “I have no ideawhathe wants. All I know is that I need to keep you and Dylan safe while I handle it. Even more so than we have been. Unless I’m with you, you’ll have at least two enforcers with you whenever you leave the clan premises. Ideally, it’ll be me, Hawk, or Striker.”

“Okay.” In the past I would’ve pushed back and said I could handle it myself, but now that I’d seen what Sean could do, how far he would go, I felt better knowing I’d have protection.

“You’re okay with that?” Steph said.

I laughed, but there wasn’t any humor in it. “At this point, yeah. I’ll stay locked up in this house until he’s dealt with if that’s what it takes to keep Dylan safe. And you, too.”

“It won’t come to that,” Steph said. “I’ll keep you safe, Harley, not trapped.”

His serious reassurance soothed the anxiety deep inside me.