Page 45 of Unlocked (The Alpha Group 3)

"I'm not worried about the ninety nine percent of the time things are going fine," he said. "I'm worried about the one percent that they're not." There was pain on his face now. "Everything that happened recently has made me realise a few things. I'm not sure I'll ever trust the group like I used to. Those men are my friends, and they'll remain that way, but they also swim in dangerous waters. You know that as well as anyone." He took one of my hands in his and raised it to his mouth, brushing soft kisses across each knuckle. "Maybe nothing like that will ever happen again. But I'm not willing to risk it. I'm not willing to risk you."

The look on his face, the fierceness, the fire, the love, it rippled through me. But still, this felt like too much. "I don't know, Sebastian. I mean, this is who you are, this is what you do. It may not make for an ideal relationship, but we can make it work. I never expected you to give up your life for me."

"This isn't me giving up my life, Sophia," he said. "This is me beginning it."

I could only shake my head and grin like an idiot as my heart melted into a puddle in my chest. "Well, how can a girl argue with that?"

He pulled me in for a kiss and, for a while, I lost myself in his lips. There was a strange sensation blossoming in my chest, one that took some time for me to recognise. Hope.

He was right.

Everything was perfect.