Page 40 of The Shape of my Scar (The Unbroken #1)

T hane was beside her in a heartbeat. “Maro, back off,” he said sharply.

Maro looked stricken. His jaw clenched, and for a moment, a flicker of regret crossed his face. “I didn’t mean…”

“She doesn’t want to talk about it,” Thane snapped, his arm still around her.

“I’m not starting anything, but don’t act like you’ve got the moral high ground now,” Maro shot back, voice rising. “You’ve been obsessed with her since day one. I just said what we’re all thinking.”

Thane stood, slowly. “Keep talking…”

“Am I alone in this?” Maro demanded, looking around at the others. “Don’t pretend you haven’t felt it. She is special to every one of us.”

Zel closed his eyes and muttered, “Not again.”

“I’m not denying it,” Lirian said quietly. “But now’s not the time.”

“Exactly,” Maro said, still glaring at Thane. “And he’s the last one who should act like he’s got some kind of claim. He treated her like she was disposable.”

“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about!” Thane raged.

“Don’t I?” Maro stepped forward. “She was one of your ‘takeout girls,’ remember? Until you figured out who she was.”

The room went still like the quiet before the storm.

Thane’s hands curled into fists.

“Maro,” Zel said in a measured voice of reason. “Take it outside.”

“She’s not yours,” Maro said, ignoring Zel.

“And she’s not yours, either.”

“You don’t get to decide that.”

“I do now.”

The air cracked.

Chairs scraped. Knuckles cracked.

And then all hell broke loose.

They got a couple of punches in before Zel got in between and said, “She will get hurt. Take, It. Outside. Now .”

Not a word was exchanged as they stepped out into the deserted back carpark.

Maro rolled his shoulders.

Thane stretched out his neck.

Faolan followed, steps quick, eyes wide. “Are you serious? What are you, five?”

She moved to step between them.

Zel caught her wrist gently. “Let them get it out of their system.”

“But—”

“They’ll be fine. They won’t kill each other,”

She looked up at him, disbelief in her eyes.

Zel shrugged, one corner of his mouth tilting up. “We all had a version of this in our heads. What we’d do or say if we ever found you…even me.” He said it like a joke, self-deprecating, but there was something in his gaze—a flicker, too steady.

Then he looked at the others. “But Thane and Maro…they take it to another level.”

Then it began.

Fast.

Brutal.

Thane moved like a wolf, fluid and lethal. Maro fought back with blunt, overwhelming force. Blow for blow. Thane ducked under a swing, driving his fist into Maro’s ribs, but took an elbow to the jaw in return. Blood spattered the ground, the air sharp with sweat and breath and rage.

They were evenly matched. Though Maro was bigger, Thane was faster.

He fought differently.

When Maro finally stopped—panting, blood streaking his cheek—he gave Thane a macabre grin with bloody teeth showing. He just nodded once, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and turned away.

Thane stood still for a moment.

His teeth were stained red and there was a cut on his lip. One eye was already swelling shut.

Then he limped toward her, his chest rising like a storm trying to calm itself.

Faolan instinctively took a step back.

He froze.

“Don’t be scared of me,” he said quietly, desperately. “Please. Don’t be—” His voice cracked on the last word.

And that, more than the blood, more than the fists, broke her open.

Because she realized she wasn’t scared of the violence, knowing that neither of them would ever hurt her.

She was scared of how much she wanted to be his again.

Back upstairs, Faolan cleaned Thane up in silence.

She dabbed at the blood with antiseptic-soaked gauze with a little too much enthusiasm. He winced, but she didn’t apologize.

“I liked you better when you brooded and didn’t brawl,” she muttered.

“I didn’t start it.”

“I suspect you never start it.”

He tried to smirk, but it was ruined by the split in his lip. “But I always finish it.”

“You’re lucky I’m not taking you in for disorderly conduct.”

“I’m lucky you still speak to me. And I am all for you putting handcuffs on me…”

She didn’t reply, though her glare would have incinerated him on the spot.