Page 168 of Ruthless Knot

A simple, genuine release of tension that I didn't realize I was carrying.

Kai is watching me.

His expression is unreadable, but I can see the question forming behind his eyes.

"Why aren't you going to jump on the rooftops?" he asks, voice carefully neutral. "Or mock me for losing?"

I consider the question.

Consider him.

Consider the careful distance he's maintaining, the walls he's built around whatever he's feeling, the way he's clearly waiting for me to gloat, to push, to be the enemy he's prepared himself for.

"A," I say, ticking off points on my fingers, "I'm kind of tired. That whole almost-dying thing really takes it out of you."

A twitch at the corner of his mouth.

Almosta smile.

"And B..." I trail off, searching for the right words. "You may be my enemy, but mocking someone who's hurting after someone they love betrays them is rather ruthless."

The words land harder than I intended.

I see it in the way his jaw tightens.

The way his eyes flicker with something raw before he shuts it down, forces it back behind the mask he wears like armor.

We stand there.

Two enemies in a pool room.

Surrounded by expensive furniture and the lingering scent of whiskey and the weight of truths neither of us asked to carry.

"What would it take," he says quietly, not quite looking at me, "to have an alliance with you?"

The question catches me off guard.

Alliance.

Not surrender.

Not submission.

Not the demand for complete control that I expected from an Alpha of his caliber.

Just... partnership.

A working relationship between two people who have every reason to hate each other but somehow keep ending up on the same side.

I shrug.

"I just don't want to be lonely anymore."

The words come out simpler than I intended.

Smaller.

Without the armor I usually wrap around my vulnerabilities.