60. Sina
Rafe and I entered the foyer and were met with a deafening silence.
“Where is everyone?”
I fought a shiver of unease. Something felt off.
“Probably in Nik’s office.”
I glanced back at Rafe, about to ask where that was, when something crashed from above us. I was already moving, sprinting toward the stairs.
“Sina, wait,” Rafe called after me, but I didn’t slow. “You don’t know what you’re walking into.”
By the time I reached the second landing, my breathing was hard and uneven. Then I heard shouting above me. Real shouting, sharp enough to raise the hair on my arms.
The third floor. Near my room.
I didn’t give myself time to think about the fact that Nik’s office was on the same damn floor as my room. I took the rest of the stairs two at a time, my legs burning, Rafe on my heels. I stopped just outside my bedroom door, muffled voices bleeding through the wood across the hall.
The realization hit hot and sharp.
His office wasn’t tucked away somewhere else in the house. It was right across from me. He had been that close the entire time.
“ Fucking asshole ,” I muttered through gritted teeth.
I didn’t have time to dwell on it, Kiron’s rage boomed through the thick door. “If anything happens to her because of your piss-poor leadership, I’ll end you, Nikolai. Alpha or not. You know my beast is more dominant than yours. I’ll win.”
Beast. That word hit wrong.
I’d heard Harlow call himself a monster, but never a beast. This felt less like a vampire losing his temper and more like another thing I didn’t know.
Rafe had drawn Nik as a wolf too. All of them were starting to piss me off.
I was so tired of being the only one without all the pieces to this fucked-up puzzle.
“Sina,” Rafe murmured behind me.
“ Shh ,” I hissed, barely breathing as I leaned closer to the door. He was on my shit list too, even if he didn’t know it yet.
“I would rather burn under your dragonfire than live another minute if something happens to her.”
Nik. My stomach dropped.
He was asking for death?
Something inside me cracked at that thought. I braced my hand against the door, grounding myself. I couldn’t imagine a world without him in it, no matter how rocky things between us had been.
Death by dragonfire.
My heart started pounding harder, blood rushing so loudly in my ears it nearly drowned everything else out. Dragonfire wasn’t said like a threat or a joke.
Dragons weren’t fucking real.
Were they?
“If you fail her, Nik, I won’t grant you the mercy of swift death.” The depravity in Kiron’s voice made me flinch. I glanced back at Rafe. His expression wasn’t confused in the slightest. It was strained. Guarded .
“Fail who? Me?”
I knew I was right. The guarded look in Rafe’s brown eyes confirmed it. He hesitated, then nodded. Careful. Reluctant. Like he didn’t want to lie but didn’t want to answer either. I grimaced. I didn’t have time to unpack Rafe right now.
My thoughts spun as I tried to make sense of the conversation I was eavesdropping on. I’d known they weren’t telling me everything. I just hadn’t realized how big everything was .
Kiron was a fucking dragon.
That was the only explanation.
Was it just him? Or all of them?
“What aren’t you telling me, Rafe? Is Kiron a dragon?”
Rafe winced, confirming my suspicion, but Kiron’s voice boomed again, cutting off whatever truth or lie he was about to give me.
“You’ll wake up every day knowing exactly how you failed her. How you failed us.”
That was it. I wasn’t staying outside another second. I shoved the door open and gasped at the destruction inside. Shelves torn from the walls, glass shattered across the floor.
On the far wall, rows of monitors flickered with live feeds. One snagged my eye. My apartment. My couch was shredded. My bed flipped. My stomach rolled with unease.
And beside them stood a man with curly dark hair and familiar kind hazel eyes. I sucked in a sharp breath.
What the fuck was he doing here?
I didn’t have time to deal with it—let alone process whatever the hell was happening.
Kiron had Nik pinned by the throat.
I rushed forward, grabbing Kiron’s arm, trying to force his grip loose.
“Kiron, don’t hurt him.”
His hold only tightened.
“So don’t fucking fail her. Be the alpha she deserves.”
Harlow hovered just behind Nik, caught between stepping in and holding back. My gaze bounced helplessly between them, my heart hammering as too much crashed together at once.
Dragons.
Vampires .
Keith as the rogue.
And the man in the corner of the room I abso-freakin-lutely refused to acknowledge.
Kiron growled something else, but the panic clawing up my chest made the words blur together.
“Someone tell me what the hell is going on,” I demanded, shoving Kiron hard. “Stop. Right now, Kiron. Or I swear I won’t forgive you this time.”
He released Nik and stepped back at my fury.
I shoved him again. He took another step back, only moving because he didn’t want me to hurt myself. There was no fucking way my small ass actually moved a wall. Which somehow just pissed me off more.
I glared at each one of them in turn. My heart hammered so fast I knew every predator in the room could hear it. I took a steadying breath, brushing strands of hair from my face, then planted my hands on my hips.
“Well?”
I raised a brow at each of my men, doing my best to ignore the man in the corner. I’ll deal with that later. Though I could practically feel his gaze burning into my back.
When no one spoke, it snapped the last thread of my patience.
I pointed at Harlow. “You said you’d never lie to me.”
His jaw flexed as he shifted around Nik, taking a step toward me. “We were just trying to keep you safe, darling.”
“Don’t treat me like glass. That goes for all of you.”
“Little vixen—”
The pet name landed wrong this time. My stomach dropped as the realization hit hot and sharp. I didn’t even want to hear him speak right now. I lifted a hand, stopping him cold.
“Don’t.”
I felt stupid for not seeing it sooner .
Harlow was Ghost.
The hurt in his eyes nearly broke me, but I shoved that sensitive shit down and forced myself to focus. I couldn’t afford to stand here pretending I didn’t know more than they’d told me.
“You’re all standing here like I didn’t just hear words like dragonfire and beast. So let’s try this again.” I turned fully on Kiron. “Are you a dragon?”
The room went still. No matter how insane it sounded out loud, it made too much sense. I looked up at him, waiting for him to deny it.
“Oh shit,” Harlow murmured. “Sina came in choosing violence.”
My pulse thudded in my ears as the truth settled heavier with every second he didn’t answer.
“Tell me,” I said, deadly calm. “Am I standing in a room full of monsters?”
“Yes.”
“Yes what , Ki? You're a dragon or I'm standing among monsters?”
“Both.”
Fuck.
I sucked in a sharp breath and nodded once. “Noted.”
I wanted to ask Harlow about Ghost, but it was hard enough to picture Kiron actually transforming into a monstrous beast. I wasn't sure if I was ready to hear what everyone else turned into.
Kiron took a careful step forward, slow like he expected me to flinch away.
I didn’t. He was still my prickly biker.
His heat was radiating from him, his dragon pressing close enough that I could feel it against my skin.
He cupped my cheek with the same hand that had been wrapped around Nik’s throat.
I bristled instantly at the reminder. “Stop touching me Kiron. I’m still mad at you. At all of you.”
His face fell. His hand dropped from my cheek. I missed the warmth immediately, which only pissed me off more .
I shoved the feeling down and fixed my stare on Nik.
He looked wrecked. Pale. Stripped bare in a way I’d never seen before. Gone was the composed alpha.
I reached up and took his glasses off, needing to see his eyes properly—they were the darkest shade of blue I’d ever seen, rimmed with exhaustion, his brows pinched low like he was bracing for a blow—I set them down on the now bare desk, the contents of it spilt all over the floor.
“You’d really die for me, Nik? But you won’t actually give this a chance between us?”
His throat worked. He didn’t look away. Didn’t try to soften it.
“Yes.”
The simplicity of it hit harder than any speech ever could have.
“That might have been the first time you’ve ever given me a straight answer.” I lifted my hand and pointed toward the man in the corner, my gaze never leaving Nik’s. “Just tell me one more thing. Are you keeping your distance from me because of him ?”
“No, little mate,” he licked his lips as he spoke. “You’re wrong. Elias has pushed me to give you a chance. Just like everyone else in this destroyed office. Don’t blame Eli. Whatever you’re feeling right now, that’s on me.”
My heart sped up when he confirmed my suspicions.
“I’m just meant to accept that?”
“I’m the one who kept my distance. That was my choice.”
Silence stretched between us, thick with everything he wasn’t saying.
Then Harlow snorted. “I didn’t have you pegged as Harley Quinn, brother. Though, you did pose as a therapist just to get our mate’s attention, so I guess it fits.”
For a second, the tension cracked. A laugh burst out of me before I could stop it. I shot a look at my goofball of a mate. I was still mad at him for keeping things from me, but the humor loosened something tight in my chest. He winked at me like he’d done it on purpose.
He probably had.
“Does that make me the Joker?” I asked.
Harlow grinned instantly. “If you’re the Joker, I’ll be Batman.”
Kiron snorted. “ Hell no. If anyone in this scenario is that crazy fucking clown , it’s you Low.”
“ I’m Batman ,” Harlow said in a mock gravelly voice.
“You’re unbearable,” Nik muttered, shaking his head.
“What?” Harlow scoffed. “I can’t be the Joker. You and I do not sword-cross. Seeing your cock is one thing, but I will not be touching it.”
He shuddered dramatically.
My laughter faded as quickly as it came, the reality of the room settling back over us.
I met Nik’s gaze again. Harlow’s stupid joke had given me just enough courage to ask.
“What do you want, Nik? A cookie? You don’t get to stand there and tell me you’d die for me and then admit you were too scared to actually choose me, while I’m standing right in front of you.”
“I know,” he said hoarsely.
“No, you don’t . You’re not allowed to die for me. Not you.” I flicked my gaze to Harlow, then Kiron, then Rafe who stood in the doorframe like he wasn't sure if he should come in. “Not any of you can leave me. Do you understand?”
Everyone nodded or gave some form of agreement.
Finally, my gaze shifted to the man in the corner.
My heart squeezed.
“Not even you, Dr. Bloom.”