75. Sina
Mashed potatoes cooled on my plate, butter congealing into pale streaks that I kept pushing around with my fork. I hadn’t taken more than two bites. The food smelled good, but my stomach felt tight and wrong, like it knew something I didn’t yet.
The ache in my chest pulsed again. Low. Insistent.
I rubbed at it absently, fingers pressing just beneath my ribs, like I could soothe the sensation away if I ignored it hard enough.
Across the table, voices drifted in and out—Keith’s name, speculation, strategy—but none of it stuck.
All I could think about was the empty chair.
Kiron’s chair.
My fork scraped porcelain as my hand stilled.
Then Nikolai’s phone rang. The sound cut clean through the room. Everyone froze. Nik glanced down at the screen, jaw tightening before he rose from the head of the table. His chair pushed back with a soft scrape as he turned away, answering the call as he crossed toward the window.
“Kiron, where are you?” he said quietly.
I didn’t mean to listen.
But the bond in my chest flared—sharp enough to steal my breath—and suddenly every word mattered.
“… slow down ,” Nik murmured. His shoulders went rigid.
Elias’ hand slid to my knee under the table, grounding, steady. Rafe shifted closer on my other side, his thigh pressing lightly against mine like silent reassurance.
Nik turned his back to us.
“ No ,” he said flatly. “That doesn’t make sense.”
The ache in my chest spiked—hot, sudden. I sucked in a shallow breath and set my fork down. It hit the plate with a soft clink that felt far too loud in the silence .
Harlow leaned forward, bracing his elbows on the table, eyes locked on Nik’s back now. Alert. Ready.
“…the bluff?” Nik repeated into the phone.
My stomach dropped.
I pushed my plate away slowly, appetite gone entirely. My palms flattened against the table as I waited, heart hammering, every instinct screaming that whatever was happening was already moving too fast.
Nik turned back toward us, phone still at his ear.
“…I hear you,” he said, voice cold. “We’ll meet you there, Kiron. Don't do anything stupid. You don't even know for sure if he has them."
He was quiet for a moment, his shoulders ridged before he finally ended the call. For half a second, no one spoke. Then Nik exhaled and straightened.
“Jackson and Danielle are missing,” he said calmly. Too calmly. “Keith left a trail. We're meeting Kiron at the bluff.”
The ache in my chest went incandescent. Kiron's brother was in trouble because of me .
“Are we sure Keith actually took them?” I asked, the words ripping out of me before I could stop them.
Nik’s gaze snapped to mine. “No, but Kiron thinks so, and he's already headed to confront him.”
I was already on my feet.
“Let’s go then. We don’t want Kiron ending up there by himself.” I headed toward the hall closet. “Let me grab my jacket.”
“No.” Nikolai moved fast as he stepped around the table, stopping directly in front of me. He planted his hands on the tabletop on either side of my hips, caging me in without touching me, his presence heavy and unyielding. “You’re not going, little mate.”
I blinked at him. Once. “I’m sorry—what the fuck do you mean I’m not going?”
“You’re staying here,” he clarified, like that helped.
A sharp laugh burst out of me. “Okay, walk me through that logic, Nik. Slowly.” I gestured vaguely toward the windows, the night beyond.
“You’re all going to the bluff. Where Keith might be.
And your brilliant plan is to leave me here.
Alone .” I lifted my chin, daring him to contradict me.
“What if the bluff is… I don’t know. A bluff?
Leaving me to fend for myself sounds like a stupid idea. ”
“It’s safer here,” Nikolai insisted.
“For who? Because it sure as hell isn’t safer for me. You think I’m more protected sitting in an empty house, wondering if someone’s going to come through the door and murder me, than I am with all of you?”
“No one can enter the manor without me knowing.”
“Oh okay. That’s great. You’ll know when I die then.”
I crossed my arms over my chest.
“That’s not what I meant,” he growled, straightening and yanking his glasses off to pinch the bridge of his nose.
Harlow snorted softly. “She kinda has a point, brother.”
“Shut up,” Nik muttered. “I don’t need your commentary, Low.”
“I’m just saying,” Harlow went on, eyes flicking to me. “Leaving her behind while we poke the hornet’s nest isn’t exactly a genius level strategy.”
“We may need to split up,” Rafe added carefully.
“No.” Nik and I said at the same time.
At least we agreed on something.
I was shaking my head when I continued, “That’s a worse idea than leaving me here. We are a hive. We don’t split up like a bad horror movie.”
Rafe’s mouth twitched. “Whatever you want, honey.”
“You pushover,” Nik grumbled .
I grabbed Nik’s button up and tugged, forcing him to look at me. The ache in my chest throbbed hard now, a constant reminder that Kiron was out there—alone.
“You don’t get to decide that I’m safer without you,” I said quietly.
“When you’re the reason I feel safe at all.
I won't sit here waiting. If something happens out there and I’m stuck here doing nothing, wondering if you’re alive—” I shook my head.
“That’s not protection. That’s torture. Please don't leave me here.”
Harlow whistled low. “Damn. Looks like Rafe isn't the only one you have wrapped around your pretty little finger, Sina.”
Nikolai studied me for a long moment, ignoring his brother's taunting. Finally, he exhaled.
“If you come, you do exactly what I say, little mate. I mean it. Exactly . You don’t deviate from my plans. You definitely don’t try to play the fucking hero.”
I lifted my chin. “ Fine .”
“And if I say we leave, we leave.”
“Okay, fine .”
His eyes narrowed. “You’re enjoying this power play aren't you?”
“A little. But mostly I’m just not letting you sideline me.”
Rafe nodded once. “Then we move together. All of us.”
Harlow clapped his hands. “Look at that. Communication. Growth. Love that for us.”
Nikolai shot him a glare.
And despite everything twisting tight in my chest, I smiled. Small victories and all that. And it was easier thinking about that than the fact I was about to see the monster that has haunted my nightmares after all this time.