What Grows Dies Here

I would love him to the end of my days, I knew that. But this was the end of us.

KARSON

Wren’s father found me as I was just about to leave. Just as I got the intel.

His hand clapped on my shoulder to get my attention.

Touching me was dangerous lately. He didn’t know that, of course. But it was a battle, a fucking battle to not turn and harm him.

Wren did not need her father in a hospital bed.

I expected him to flinch when I met his eyes. I’d morphed into something else as soon as I got the call. I could feel it. The animal inside of me scratching at its cage. I’d unlocked it, so I was no longer the same person. Even men like Wren’s father, rich men who hadn’t seen the dark underbelly of this world, even those men saw it. Evolution hadn’t erased that instinctual knowing from us.

But he didn’t flinch.

Because this was not the man I’d met at the charity dinner. The one with the manicured hands, strong grip and easy gaze. This was not the man who immediately saw me as the alpha in love with his daughter and backed down, not challenging me. Not because he saw that I was tougher than him, a fuck of a lot more dangerous. It wasn’t because he didn’t love his daughter.

Anyone could see he loved her.

But he‘d been able to tell that I loved her. Mostly because I hadn’t hid it from him. I’d showed him that I would protect his daughter. That anyone who challenged me for her would be sorry. Anyone who hurt her would rot in a shallow grave. That I’d die before I’d let anyone close enough to hurt her.

That ended up being pure fucking bullshit.

The man I’d originally met was nowhere to be seen. This was the steely face of a father whose child had been hurt. Another being entirely.

“You know who did this.” Not a question.

He’d been watching me, it seemed. I hadn’t noticed. I’d been too focused on Wren. Too focused on locking myself down. Too focused on fucking hating myself.

I replied with a tight nod, not seeing the point in lying to him.

“You’re going now, to kill them, him. Whoever did this.” Again, not a question. “That’s the only reason you would leave my daughter’s side.”

Though he was entitled to it, there was no blame in his tone. No hatred in his eyes. Just a thirst, one I recognized. For blood.

Again, I nodded because I didn’t trust myself to speak.

“Take me with you.”

Even though I was little more than a monster at this moment, this took me by surprise. He wasn’t just offering because he felt he should, he was serious. He craved vengeance as much as I did.

We didn’t involve civilians in this shit. Jay had strict rules. I abided by them. Enforced them. Civilians who got caught up in our shit were lucky if we relocated them far away, with warnings about what would happen if they came near us again. The unlucky ones didn’t go far, weren’t long for this earth.

Involving Nicholas in this shit would make it even messier. Would leave loose ends. I did not leave loose ends.

Instead of telling him that, I nodded and started walking. He fell into step with me. We both knew he was walking toward death, and I for one craved it.

My wolf was finally going to get to feast.

Jay did not say a word to me when we arrived at the warehouse where we were holding the four responsible. His eyes had lingered on Nicholas for a second, weighing the risks of him being here, measuring things. Then he looked to me and gave an almost imperceptible nod.

Approval.

Stella had changed Jay. Fundamentally. Humanized him. Like Wren had me. Which was our weakness. What the four men on their knees in front of us had been ordered to exploit.

I handed Nicholas the gun first. If he had to wait for me, we’d be here a while. I did not plan on using a gun. There was a knife on the table beside the men—that was my instrument of choice—and some pliers if I felt like changing things up.

Although I had brought Nicholas here, to witness the reality of who I was, he didn’t need to see me in action. No one needed to see that.