Page 18 of Wrapped in Their Arms

NO.Fuckingstop it!

He wasn’t that helpless kid huddled on the ground anymore.Hewasn’t watching from the shadows, too small and too weak to fight.

He was a grown male…a warrior.AfuckingDarkTwinKindred.Andthis time, he wasn’t alone—he hadBrightandNoelle.

He looked at the curvy littleElitethen—really looked at her.Hershoulders were shaking and her eyes were filled with the fear she was trying so damn hard to hide.

Something in his chest twisted painfully.

She andBright…they’re not going to die.Nottoday.Notlike my family.Iwon’t let it happen—I’llprotect them both, no matter what it takes.

The thought came with brutal certainty and he swallowed hard.

IfIhave to tear this ship apart with my bare hands,I’llget them out.IfIhave to bleed for them,Iwill.IfIhave to die for them?—

He didn’t finish the thought…he didn’t have to.

Burn turned away from the memories clawing at him and set his jaw, staring at the locked cell door and the cold bars surrounding them on three sides with cold determination.

Whatever happened next, he’d face it head-on.

And he’d make damn sure neitherBrightnorNoellesuffered the fate his family had.

They wouldn’t be hurt or taken from him—not while he still drew breath.

10

BRIGHT

The cold in theSkowprison ship wasn’t just physical…it was the kind of chill that crept under your skin and curled around your bones like vines made of frost.

Bright felt it in his gut—not just the cold, but the wrongness.

He couldn’t help noticing the tightness inBurn’sshoulders…the way his best friend’s head was bowed, and his jaw was clenched like stone.Henoticed the twitch of theDarkTwin’sfingers and the too-quiet breaths coming too shallow and fast.

Burnwasn’tokay.

AndBrightknew it—he felt it in that deep, invisible thread between them.Itwasn’t a bond—not yet.Butit was something that had always been there.Itmight not have been ordained by theGoddessat birth, but it had been forged by years of loyalty and trust.

And right now, that thread felt stretched thin, fraying at the edges.

He’s spiraling,Brightthought grimly.Whateverthis place is bringing up for him, it’s bad.Worsethan what’s happening to us now—and that’s saying something.

The cuffs around his wrists hummed and buzzed when he flexed his hands, and when he reached—instinctively—forBurn’sshoulder, they crackled with warning.

“Shit,” he muttered, jerking back as a thin blue arc of electricity sizzled between the manacles.Hewas able to touchNoellea little bit, but apparently the cuffs didn’t want him touching another person also wearing cuffs.

Burn didn’t even flinch…didn’t look at him.

TheDarkTwinjust stared straight ahead, shoulders rising and falling like he was breathing through a battle.

Bright clenched his fists.

Talk to me,he wanted to say.Justsaysomething, brother.Letme in.

ButBurnwas a fortress when he got like this—he always had been.

Bright had tried, once or twice, to get the story out of him.Abouthis family…about what happened before they met on the training field back onTwinMoons, both too young and too angry to speak.Burnhad scars—visible and invisible—andBrighthad always known they ran deep.