I knew the truth and my place in this whole thing as well. I knew my reality.
Wolf squeezed my shoulders, and it took me a moment to realize something.
He was keeping me standing.
My buddy had his hands on me, and the only reason I wasn’t falling was because he was keeping me eye level with him. He swallowed. “We’re going to make this right, D. I swear to God we will.”
I shook, no words.
He scanned my eyes. “We’re going to all do this together, and I promise you we won’t have to be monsters to do it.” He shook his head. “We don’t have to lose our humanity, and I refuse to let you lose yours. Not while I still have a breath. I won’t. Sorry.”
My throat constricted, his hands leaving me.
He stared out the window.
“We’ll find another way,” he said, and I stared out the window too. There weren’t a lot of times Ares was wrong. He was brilliant, completely owned school academically, and was like my god dad in that right. They were both incredibly brilliant men, but my buddy was wrong tonight. He couldn’t keep me from losing my humanity.
Because I already was.
Chapter Thirty
Dorian - present
“Where’s Ares?” I’d driven too fast over to Windsor House.
It was necessary.
I’d stopped by Wolf’s place first, but his parents had said he’d gone to Windsor House, the meeting place of the Court and where those of us affiliated liked to unwind. Basically, it was a place for Court members to get away from our parents. Older Court members, like my father, never came to Windsor House unless there was official Court business going on. This made the aged building always a nice place to release for the younger generation.
Apparently, Wolf had wanted to get away.
Tucker, another Court guy, directed his finger across the clubhouse. This particular area of Windsor House was where the boys of the Court liked to mostly dick around. Women were allowed, but they never came in here. They had their own places they liked to do shit around the old castle. Us guys mostly played video games, billiards, and whatever in here.
Wolf sat in front of the fireplace.
I stalked over in a red haze, still soaking fucking wet from physically jumping into Murphy’s Lake. Tucker and the other guys in the room eyed me along the way, and I found Wolf working his hands. He stared aimlessly at the fire, his hands moving restlessly. He didn’t even hear me come up.
I shoved him off his chair.
He hit the floor, his chair with him, and I tossed it out of the way to get to him. He threw his head back. “Dude—”
I socked him, right in the goddamn face, and the follow-through sprayed blood from his mouth like an ocean spray. He roared, grabbing for my fist, but not quick enough.
I hit him. Again and again, I hit him. I didn’t stop, determined to make his other eye match the one Sloane’s brother had done a good job on. Wolf’s first black eye had, again, been from his own antics. He’d tried to embarrass Sloane that night.
I slugged him once more, blinded, but Wolf anticipated my swings this time. Wolf got my wrists. He struggled with me until he got me off him enough to look at me. His eyes twitched, his lip busted from where I’d hit him. He shook his head. “D, what the fuck?”
I’d come at him so hot he apparently hadn’t been able to take in who his assailant was until now.
Fighting his hold, I attempted to hit the son of a bitch again, but we were equal strength. He had height where I had muscle, but for the most part, my best friend and I were evenly matched. I threw his hands off me while guys shouted around us.
We apparently had an audience.
I’d been so focused on Wolf’s ass I hadn’t cared, and currently, some of them were using the break in our fight to cut in. Two grabbed me. Others were on Wolf pulling him away.
“What the fuck is wrong with you!” I shot, fighting both the guys until they got their fucking hands off me. They weren’t evenly matched with me, and no sooner had I shoved them off than I was back on Wolf. I pushed at the guy holding him until I got my buddy’s shirt in my hands. I got in his face. “You trying to fucking kill someone? Huh? Are you?”
Because he could have. Bruno Sloane could have died tonight and would have had I not saved his ass.