Page 88 of Broken Souls

“Are there any other options?”

“No.”

Fuck. I want to tell him I’m not going to do it, but he’s already started the blood bond. If he doesn’t complete it, it will kill him. Unless I killed his girl.

And dear fucking gods am I tempted to go that route. To choose mine over his.

“So will you do it?” Khalid asks softly.

My jaw clenching, I turn and head over to the weapon’s rack and place my sword down. The thought of doing it is making me sick, but if I don’t participate, then Khalid dies.

It’s the same fucking scenario all over again: Khalid or Micha. Which one do I hurt?

She hates me enough to risk killing herself; I doubt she’ll care if I fuck another. The only person who does is me.

“I’m going for a run,” I say. “I’ll be inside the wards if Khalid asks.”

“Do you want company?”

“You asking?” I call over my shoulder.

“Yeah. I’m up for talking as long as you ain’t hitting me.”

Deciding I want to be alone so I can push myself as fast as I can go, I say, “I’ll pass.” As the door swings shut behind me, I hear a soft, “Thank gods.”

The house is still quiet. No one else is awake yet. Mother is normally up at this time to make us all breakfast, but the kitchen is empty. She undoubtedly needs her rest after what was done to her, but I’m of half a mind to drag her out of bed like I did Enoch. The bitch’s curse made me hurt my wife. No.Ihurt my wife.

I just can’t remember how because of her.

But as mad as I am at her, most of my anger is directed at me, and waking her up won’t do anything to help with that. So I head outside, dressed only in a pair of shorts. Despite the early hour, the Floridian day’s already packing heat.

The door closes behind me, and I take off in a jog, but as soon as I’m under the cover of the trees, I push myself as fast as I can go, riding myself hard, wanting to feel the burn of my lungs and the ache of my muscles. It’s a poor attempt at a distraction. My thoughts are all too easily keeping up.

She cut off her fucking tattoo.

Removed my mark from her skin and threw it away like it was nothing.Almost as if she’s given up on us.

Snarling, I pivot to the right, heading towards the edge of our property. The ward shimmers up ahead, crackling with blue energy. Rudy didn’t have any issues putting it back up. Talon didn’t use brute force to break it. He simply gave it the command to go down, which makes me think he has not turned against the Family. He’s just turned against me.

Because I killed his best friend?

My chest tightens.

Or because he knows I’m a hybrid?

Either way, I will not hesitate to put him down. I never do. Never give mercy.

Except when it comes toher.

My teeth grind together as my legs pump harder. What the fuck am I going to do with her now? If the reaper learns she tried to kill me, he’ll kill her regardless of my wishes. Her rage is a threat to this Family, and with us going to war, we cannot afford to be tearing each other apart from the inside. We won’t survive.

If she wasn’t pregnant, I might take Maddox up on his offer to help me break her and remold her, but his methods might trigger a miscarriage. So I only have two options.

Make her fall back in love with me – something I’m not certain I can do.

Or make her fall in love with this Family so she’ll never betray it.

She already likes Maddox. My eyes narrow as my chest burns with jealousy. But I force my thoughts to keep going, to form a plan –however much it fucking hurts– to get her loyalty to this Family. Despite being a little shit most of the time, my youngest brother can be charming if he wants to. He sweeps women off their feet, lures them into his trap so he can butcher them and throw their bodies into the cooler he has in his shadows. He needs their meat to be able to shapeshift into bigger bodies as magic still obeys the law of nature, and mass doesn’t come from nothing.