_Ryker’s pov_Damn it.I ran a hand through my hair, gripping hard enough to hurt as I paced the length of my room. My chest was tight, breathing ragged, the walls pressing in on me like they wanted to crush me because of just how stupid I was.I had overreacted.I knew it the second I saw the look on Arianna’s face. The second she flinched. The second she stuttered out an apology she didn’t even owe me before rushing out of my room like she couldn’t get away fast enough.I had overreacted. And then I had made it worse by shutting her out after that.I should have said something. Should have gone after her instead of avoiding her like a goddamn coward. But the truth was, I didn’t trust myself not to make it worse. One wrong word, one sharp edge to my tone, and I could’ve snapped. I could’ve proven her right—that I was something to be afraid of.And I couldn’t handle that.But now she was gone.And it was a terrible fucking mistake.I pulled my phone out for the hundredth time and dial
_Arianna’s pov_I froze.The catcall had already sent a chill down my spine, but it was the voices that followed that truly made my stomach twist.“Well, well,” one of them drawled, his tone thick with amusement. “What’s a pretty thing like you doing all alone at this hour?”I turned slowly, my pulse hammering.Two men stood under the dim glow of a flickering streetlamp. Both were tall, broad-shouldered, in a way that made my heart drop. The one on the left had greasy, slicked-back hair and a twisted grin that revealed yellowed teeth. His eyes were sharp, predatory, drinking me in like I was already his. The other man was bulkier, his head shaved, a jagged scar cutting through his eyebrow. His arms were covered in ink, the designs crude and dark against his pale skin.They weren’t just looking at me. They were sizing me up.My fingers curled into fists at my sides as I forced myself to turn away.Just ignore them. Just walk away.“Hey, sweetheart.” The greasy-haired man took a step fo
_Ryker’s POV_I couldn’t see anything but red.Even as their bodies lay in shreds at my feet, the rage still burned inside me, hot and insatiable. I could have torn them apart again, limb by limb, made them suffer longer, made them beg for mercy they didn’t deserve.But they were already dead. And it wasn’t enough.Nothing would ever be enough.The scent of blood was thick in the air, mixing with the sharp, pungent stench of piss—their last act of cowardice before I ripped them apart. I didn’t care what the town would think when they woke up to find the remains of these worthless bastards staining their streets. I didn’t care if they feared me, if they whispered about the monster lurking in the shadows.Let them.They had no idea what real monsters looked like.I turned, breath still heaving, my skin sticky with their blood. My gaze locked onto her.Arianna.She was curled against the wall, her body trembling so violently I could feel it in my bones. Her arms were wrapped around herse
_Ryker’s POV_Arianna had calmed down. Or so I thought.But I couldn’t have been more wrong.“Please,” her soft plea reached my ears like she was trying to nip at every crack in my composure.It was already so difficult having that conversation with her while we were both naked, but having her beg me like that took the thing to a whole new level.My arms were still wrapped around her, so she pushed her tits into my chest and I cursed loudly and pulled her back.But she was undeterred. Arianna kept begging me. Her voice was raw with desperation, her fingers trembling as she reached for me again. I caught her wrists, my grip firm but gentle as I shook my head.“Arianna, stop,” I murmured, my voice strained. My entire body was on fire, every nerve ending screaming at me to just give in, but I couldn’t. Not like this. Not now.She wasn’t thinking clearly. I knew that. She was still reeling from what had happened, from the violation she had barely escaped. Her body was seeking comfort, som
Arianna’s POVThe first thing I felt when I woke up was warmth.A strong, steady warmth that wrapped around me, that made me feel a type of safety I hadn’t felt in years. For a brief, blissful second, I let myself sink into it, my body relaxing against the firm heat at my back. But then—It hit me.Like a crashing wave, like the kind of nightmare that didn’t stop even when you opened your eyes.The alley. The rough hands. The mocking laughter. The way they’d pinned me, trapping me like an animal. My own screams, swallowed by the night. The terror, the helplessness.I gasped, my entire body seizing up in panic. My breath came too fast, too shallow, my vision blurring as I realized there was an arm locked around my waist—strong and powerful. A body behind me. Someone was holding me down—No. No, no, no—A strangled sound tore from my throat as I started thrashing, my body desperate to get free. My heart pounded so hard I could hear it in my ears, drowning out everything else. My skin wa
Ryker’s POVI could’ve stayed buried inside her forever. Fuck, I wanted to.Her body still trembled around me, twitching with aftershocks of orgasms I hadn’t meant to drag out so long—but fuck, she made it impossible to stop. Every time I felt her tighten, every time I heard that breathless little gasp of my name fall from her lips, it only made me hungrier. Made me want to ruin her in the best ways possible. And I had.The sun had shifted across the windowpane more times than I cared to count, but I hadn’t felt a drop of exhaustion. Not even a flicker of it. All I felt was her. Her skin on mine. Her scent in every breath. Her legs tangled around my waist, her nails digging into my back, her breathy moans echoing in my ears long after they’d stopped.I couldn’t stop touching her. Even now, long after the last wave of my last orgasm had crashed, I kept my arms around her, one hand lazily brushing over the swell of her hip. She was completely spent, her body soft like melted butter in m
Arianna’s POVIt felt good.God, it felt so good.The way he moved inside me, the way his hands gripped my hips like he was holding on for dear life, like I was the only thing keeping him from floating into space. The way his mouth had claimed mine, his breath tangled with mine, his voice whispering my name like it meant something.But at the same time—It felt so, so bad.Now, curled up on my bed in the dim light of my room, my body throbbed with a dull pain—every nerve raw, every inch of my skin burning from his touch. The ache between my thighs still pulsed from the relentless hours he’d spent buried deep inside of me, but that wasn’t what hurt the most.What hurt was the way he looked at me when I said those things.Like I’d ripped something out of his chest.I could still see it—that moment his eyes darkened, not with anger, but something else. Something worse. Like I’d broken him. And I had.But I’d had to.Hadn’t I?Because I knew how it would’ve gone. I knew that if I didn’t s
Arianna’s POVEverything changed after that night.I don’t know how or why, or what triggered it, but Ryker wasn’t the same. And neither was I.Maybe it was the way I’d broken down in his arms, the way I let myself be vulnerable for the first time in… God, I didn’t even know how long. Or maybe it was him, and something in him had shifted too. But after that, nothing between us was the same.He became someone else—someone soft.I didn’t know what to do with soft Ryker. I didn’t know how to react to the way he reached for my hand when we walked together, or the way he watched me eat like he was checking to make sure I liked my food. Or the way he paused every time I sighed, tilting his head and asking quietly, “What’s wrong?”I wasn’t used to it. I wasn’t used to being treated like I mattered.And it terrified me.Because I knew how quickly people changed.I kept waiting for the moment he’d turn cold again because deep down, I knew it would come. I kept preparing myself for that switch
Arianna’s POVMy heart was pounding like crazy.For a second, all I could do was just lay there, trying to remember how to breathe.I was sprawled across Ryker’s chest, my hands gripping the fabric of his sweatshirt like it was the only thing keeping me from completely losing it. His scent, the same one that made my mouth water, wrapped around me in a way that made my head spin.It was too much. He was too close, and my heart was beating way too fast I knew he could feel it on his chest.I squeezed my eyes shut, willing my racing heart to calm the hell down, but it was useless. His arms were around me, his body was under mine, and it felt like no time had passed at all. Like nothing had changed. Like we were still… whatever it was we used to be.Slowly—so slowly—I opened my eyes.And there he was.Ryker.His face inches from mine.God, he was sinfully beautiful.All sharp jawlines, furrowed brows, and those deep, stormy eyes that had ruined me more times than I cared to admit. His dar
Ryker’s POVIt was getting harder to breathe lately.Not because of the workouts or the endless hours at the office, but because of her.Every damn day, it was the same. I’d wake up, go through the motions, drag myself to work where I barely got anything done, then come back here—where she was.So close.Yet so damn far.Arianna.I could feel her presence before I even opened the door most days. Her scent would hit me first, always soft and delicate and a little sweeter when she was nervous, and it would gut me every single time.My wolf wasn’t any help either. He made it worse, clawing and pacing and howling inside of me like an animal trapped in a cage. Every second we spent not touching her, not holding her, he punished me for it.But what was I supposed to do?Every time I looked into her eyes now, all I saw was that night.The way she stared at me like I had broken and betrayed her.She didn’t only call me a monster, but she saw me as one too. And that… that hurt more than anyth
Arianna’s POVEvery day after that felt the same. It was like we had fallen into a routine. Me trying to catch Ryker’s eyes, and Ryker pretending I didn’t exist.That was the absolute worst because it hurt way more than anything else he could have done. It hurt more than having him yell at me, and even more than if he punished me.The silence was worse, and nothing could have prepared me for the way I felt. It was almost like that private island never happened. Each time he just passed by me in the hallway like I wasn’t even there, it felt like I had imagined that week on that island, and none of it had been real.At first, I tried harder. I knew he was mad, but I felt it wouldn’t take long for the ice to thaw.I would walk a little slower in the hallways when I heard his footsteps and then I would pretend like I was just “coincidentally” going the same way as him.I timed him. I knew what time he left for work in the morning, and what time he went for a run on weekends. And at that t
Arianna’s POVHe didn’t even look back at me.I stood there, frozen on the stairs, staring at the door he’d just walked through. My heart thudded against my ribs, like it was trying to break free from the guilt that was already curling tighter around my lungs and just like it had been happening in the last few days, I couldn’t breathe.Did I really expect him to forgive me just like that?The question bit into my chest and I swallowed hard, willing myself not to cry again. I’d cried enough already. Three days locked in my room, no food, no sleep, just me and the fear of Claire’s death, but now, it was all amplified by every hateful word I’d said to him.Monster.Murderer.I hate you.God.He was right. I didn’t hesitate. I didn’t even try to ask for the truth. I let Claire draw the picture and I colored it in for her.And now he couldn’t even stand to look at me.I sank down onto the bottom step, my hands trembling in my lap. I felt raw. Like someone had peeled back every layer of me
Ryker’s POVI didn’t go far when I left her. I couldn’t. My legs barely carried me past the threshold of Claire’s room before the weight in my chest forced me to stop walking. I gripped the edge of the hallway wall, my knuckles white and my jaw clenched so tightly it ached. Her voice still echoed behind me, and I could still feel his broken it was.“Please, Ryker. Please. I didn’t mean to…I didn’t know—”I closed my eyes.I had to keep walking.But when I finally made it back to my room, it was like I’d entered a tomb. The silence wasn’t comforting. It wasn’t peaceful. It was suffocating. Every inch of space seemed to squeeze the breath out of my lungs.My wolf was pacing inside me, agitated and very unsettled. He didn’t understand. Or maybe he did, and it just hurt too much to accept.She believed everything.His voice growled low inside my head. She chose her.I ripped the shirt from my back, needing something, anything, to tear apart. The fabric split under my hands, but it didn’t
Arianna’s POVI couldn’t breathe.The natural act of breathing suddenly became too difficult with the heavy scent of lavender—Claire— that was still permeated in the air, or the pictures laid bare and staring straight at me. My heart beat like it was trying to break through my ribs. My hand hovered over the photo of myself with the red X slashed through it, trembling so violently I had to ball it into a fist just to stop it. I didn’t even realize when I’d reached the photos.I turned to him.Ryker hadn’t moved. He stood like a statue beside Claire’s bed, his eyes fixed on the collage that had just shattered what was left of my sanity.“Say something,” I said but my voice came out as a hoarse whisper.He didn’t say anything. Just kept looking at the raised bed.“Please,” I begged, the word tasting like blood in my mouth. I honestly didn’t want to believe what I was seeing.And then he looked at me. It wasn’t just a glance, he looked at me like he wanted to search deep into my soul. His
Arianna’s POVI wasn’t sure.Not about him. Not about myself. Not about anything anymore.My hands were still trembling, my fingers cold despite how warm the room was. My lips tasted of salt and copper from chewing them too hard. My legs felt wobbly beneath me, and I wasn’t entirely sure if it was from the three days without food or what Ryker had just said.Claire… leading me to rogues?No. No, she wouldn’t. She couldn’t.But his voice echoed in my head. He didn’t sound angry or defensive. He just sounded very certain. “If you want to see who the real monster is… follow me.”I stood there long after he’d left, staring at the door like it would open itself and swallow me whole. My brain screamed at me to stay. That this was a trap. That I couldn’t trust him, not after everything.For all I knew, he could be luring me out to kill me and finish what where he’d stopped with Claire. Tie up the loose ends because if there was only one thing I knew about Ryker, then it was the fact that he
Arianna’s POVThree days.It had been three full days, and I still couldn’t believe it.Everything felt surreal, like I was suspended in the middle of a nightmare I couldn’t wake from. Time had stopped moving the second Claire’s body hit the ground. My mind kept looping back to that exact moment; her eyes wide in shock, her mouth parted like she was going to say something, the blood that burst out of her head and splattered across the wall behind her.And then the silence.I couldn’t comprehend it. No matter how many times my thoughts circled around it, it just didn’t make sense. Claire—who had held my hand. Claire—who had whispered instructions into my ear. Claire—who told me to run, to live, to never look back.Dead.Shot in the head.By him.I hadn’t left my room since. I hadn’t spoken a word to anyone except when absolutely necessary. I hadn’t eaten. I hadn’t drunk even a drop of water. Not that I hadn’t tried. I had. But everything felt like sand in my mouth. Everything tasted li
Arianna’s POVI let out a strangled breath the moment I saw her.“Claire,” I whispered, stumbling forward, barely able to believe she was real and standing right in front of me. My legs moved before my brain could catch up and I nearly collapsed into her arms, all of my thoughts throughout the last hour crashing over me like a wave.“God, I thought—” My voice broke. I clutched her sleeves. “I thought something happened. You were late. You said ten. I waited. I waited, Claire, and I thought he found you, or—”“I know, I know.” She wrapped her arms around me, pressing her face to my shoulder. Her voice was hushed and hurried. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I had to make sure no one was watching. I couldn’t risk it. Alpha has eyes everywhere and I had to make sure nobody was suspicious.”“No kidding,” I muttered, a little shakier than I meant to sound.She pulled back and looked me over. Her eyes were wild, darting around like we were already being hunted. “Are you okay? Did any