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And because I had been shot, we had been trapped in Elena’s house when the Ragers arrived.

Killing Calax.

Tears burned my eyes, the mere memory equivalent to a knife twisting in my heart.

The world had ended, ravaged by natural disasters and zombie-like monsters, but Calax’s death had been the thing to endme.

Asher was saved from responding by the back door opening and closing.

“Kitten, it’s time for dinner,” a melodic voice said.

Ryder leaned against the porch railing, the epitome of calm.

The man was beautiful, sexy, with onyx black skin and cropped black hair. Tattoos lined his muscular forearms, currently bare with his red tank top.

“We’ll be done in an hour, then we’ll head in,” I said, turning back towards Asher. I heard Ryder’s heavy, resigned sigh.

“Addie, no.” Asher’s cadence, from his voice to his face, was stern. When he got like that, there was no talking him out of it.

Reining in my irritation, I snapped, “Fine.”

I knew I was being a bitch, a brat, but I couldn’t stop myself. Ever since that fatal night, when I had witnessed Calax getting swarmed by Ragers, my emotions were too raw. Too real. I was a semi-truck powering ahead at full speed, never stopping even with a brick wall fast approaching.

And Fallon and Declan...

The two of them had taken an improvised trip, but we had no way of getting in contact with them when we had to hastily leave. The one radio we had owned had been left behind...and destroyed.

We had waited for weeks in the town for them, but they had never arrived. Either we had missed their return, or something had happened to them. I prayed that it was the former.

Maybe they were fine. Maybe they had found another girl to love, to cherish, to protect. I would be fine with that, if it meant they were alive.

After the allotted time had passed, we had traveled to Nikolai’s house to try and find them. Instead of my lovers and little brother, we found a massacre of dead bodies and blood-stained walls.

Did it make me a horrible person that I felt relief when I realized not one of those bodies belonged to the people I loved?

It was on our way back, retracing the trail to Elena’s house and leaving cryptic messages for the guys to find, that we found the enclosed house with distressed wood and a dilapidated roof. Still, it protected us from Ragers and the elements.

Shouldering past Ryder, I entered the sparsely lit kitchen. There was no electricity, so we had to rely on candles.

Ronan’s broad, bare back was illuminated in the flickering flame. He had lighter skin than his half-brother, Ryder, a light mocha. He, too, was covered in tattoos, the most prominent one being a white unicorn on his chest.

His back was to me as he sung beneath his breath, dancing to a tune only he could hear. He poured something into a bowl and spun in a circle before reaching for a spice on the rack.

I watched him silently for a moment, aware that both Asher and Ryder were struggling to hold in their laughter. After a moment, I said, “You’re such a dork, Ro.”

He spun wildly, eyes widening, before a teasing grin crossed his handsome face.

“Yes, but I’m your dork, Princess.”

I hated when he called me that.

I may have been a princess in his eyes, but I wore a crown of prickly thorns and my kingdom was a graveyard.

Still, I flashed him the smile I knew he wanted to see before wrapping my arms around him. He hugged me back immediately, bending down to kiss my forehead with a loud, exaggerated smack.

“Gross.”

The deadpan voice came from behind me. I knew, without even looking, that it would belong to a man in his mid-thirties with dark hair and eyes that seemed to be perpetually amused.