Chapter 185
Chapter 185:
We lived in the same den, yet we were separated by an ocean of ice. He slept in the guest room. He left for Blackstone Tower before I even woke up. The only proof he still existed in my life was the lingering, storm-laced scent of ancient cedar clinging to the penthouse furniture.
I touched my fingertips to my lower lip. It still felt bruised. It still burned with the phantom heat of his mouth. The raw, undeniable hunger in his kiss had terrified me — but what terrified me more was how desperately my dormant Inner Wolf craved to feel it again.
I closed the budget folder, my chest aching with a heavy, confusing numbness. I was falling for a man who was only using me as a shield for his Beta, and his silence was slowly tearing my heart to shreds.
Kira POV
The Long Island Expressway blurred past the windshield of my white convertible. On the passenger seat, my phone screen glowed with a blinking red dot. The GPS tracker I had secretly installed on Jase’s McLaren showed him exactly ten miles ahead of me.
My hands gripped the leather steering wheel so tightly my knuckles had gone white. My father had banished me. My trust fund was frozen. If Jase made it to the Hamptons and had time to think, he would officially break the engagement. I would be left with absolutely nothing.
I needed him to stop thinking like an Alpha and start reacting like a savior.
I picked up my phone and typed a message, making sure the tone was perfectly pathetic.
𝗥𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗼𝗻
I came to apologize. Please don’t be mad. I can’t live without you.
I hit send. Up ahead, the highway curved sharply, bordered by a steep, rocky embankment and a metal guardrail. The perfect stage.
I took a deep breath and braced my body against the seat. As the curve approached, I didn’t touch the brakes. I violently jerked the steering wheel to the right.
The convertible slammed into the guardrail with a deafening crunch of metal. The world spun into a chaotic blur of sky and asphalt as the car launched over the embankment and rolled down into the ditch. The airbags exploded, punching the air from my lungs. My left wrist snapped against the steering column with a sickening crack, sending a blinding flash of real agony up my arm.
As the car finally settled in the dirt, thick black smoke began to pour from the crumpled hood. I lay back against the deployed airbag, cradling my broken wrist, and waited for my hero to turn around.
Jase POV
My phone chimed on the dashboard. I glanced down at the screen and read Kira’s desperate text. My jaw clenched. I was so tired of her manipulation.
I looked up to check my rearview mirror before merging left.
My blood ran entirely cold.
Rising from the sharp curve I had passed just minutes ago was a thick, ominous plume of black smoke.
My Inner Wolf let out a visceral, agonizing howl that tore through my chest. The metallic tang of pure, unadulterated terror flooded my senses, suffocating me. The text message. The smoke.
Not again.