Chapter 26
Ivy
The room is soaked in the soft blue-grey of early morning and the kind of quiet that feels unreal. As if maybe the world outside never ended.
Breathing in deep, I take in the masculine scent of the room. A strange sense of comfort washes over me despite the sparse layout. Just a bed, a nightstand, and his hunting gear hung like armour on the wall.
Zane’s heat radiates beside me. My cheek on his bare chest, one leg wrapped around his. Our bodies are tangled under the sheet as if we're trying to hold on to something neither of us can name.
I’m not sure when he took his shirt off, but his skin is so warm against mine. A warmth I’d forgotten existed. I’ve seen him shirtless a lot, but his skin is softer than you’d expect.
It’s as though he’s revealed a new side of himself to me. Vulnerable. Intimate. And our bond has strengthened this week, a trust solidifying between us.
A sense of peace rolls over me in waves. I don't think I've ever felt this safe before.
And that terrifies me more than anything else.
Because I know what happens when things feel too good—how quickly they can be taken away. I’ve learned not to trust peace. It’s usually just the quiet before the storm.
But right now… with Zane, I want to.
He's still asleep, breaths even, one arm curved protectively around me, the other draped across the mattress.
As I shift slightly, the oversized button-up shirt twists around me, Phoenix’s shirt. The reminder of what happened last week makes my stomach churn.
He gave it to me before everything spiralled. Before Myles looked at me like I’d betrayed him. Before I hid myself away in Zane’s room for a solid week.
My period came the next day, so it was a great excuse to stay in the comfy bed, only going downstairs to shower while Zane guarded the door. I half expected my cycle to be thrown off by all the stress, but it’s still like clockwork.
Part of me was scared to face Phoenix and Myles. Because I don’t regret what happened with any of them, but I can recognise the part I played in all of it.
Zane didn’t push me to interact with them but allowed them to come in here freely. And they found all kinds of reasons to talk to me.
So another part of me is starting to feel guilty. They’re not blaming or punishing me, they’re trying to win me back.
My gaze moves up to Zane’s face… he’s relaxed, but still guarded even in his sleep. His jaw is sharp, black hair hanging over his forehead, lashes dark against his tanned skin. He looks nothing like the monster I thought he was when I first saw him.
Although the scars that cover him tell a different story than the gentle side he’s shown me. My eyes trace the jagged scar along his ribs, the ones on his muscular arms and shoulders. Then the strange circular one on his chest, seared into a shape I don't recognise—a brand.
But I don't need to know what it means. I can feel what it is. Cruelty and punishment. I know it well.
Reaching out without thinking, my fingers brush the mark. Just feeling the heat of it with my breath held tight.
Zane's breath shifts. His lashes twitch and one pale-green eye peeks at me.
“I didn't mean to wake you,” I whisper softly.
“You didn't,” he murmurs, voice still sleep-warm. He shifts, curling around me and squeezing me into his arms tightly. “I’ve been up for a while… just couldn’t bear the thought of leaving you.”
My face presses into his chest now, right next to the brand on his pectoral muscle. “These scars… did they all come from after the Collapse?”
His gaze follows mine to the brand, and something flickers in his expression. Not shame, not exactly.
More like, a painful memory.
“Most of them,” he says before swallowing. “Some are from hunting. But others… from people.”
He props himself up on one elbow, his other arm still holding me close. “I wasn't always with Phoenix and Myles. Before them, I was part of the group that started flesh trading.”
Horror rolls through me, as my stomach drops like lead. He’s like the men who took me? Am I in bed with a flesh trader!
A cold sweat breaks out on my skin, bile rising up my throat. I start to pull away, but he notices and clutches me tighter.
“I didn’t want to join them. They forced me, Ivy,” he says urgently, pleading in his eyes. “Please believe me. I never wanted to be part of any of it.”
I want to believe him. He’s nothing like the men who kidnapped and trained me. But my skin prickles where his hands are still on me.
With bated breath, I wait for him to continue.
“It was hell. They believed keeping people ‘entertained’ was the best way to control them. If you didn’t play along, you were punished. The worse part was... they often used me… as that ‘entertainment’.” He says the word through gritted teeth, as if it makes him angry to even use it.
My anxiety eases slightly. I know those games well. The kind designed to chip away at your conscience. Conditioning your mind and twisting your own will against you.
“I stayed too long.” His voice dips into a deadly tone. “But I thought I had no other choice. I used to think I was like them. For too long.”
He turns his face away as if he doesn’t want to see my reaction. As if he can’t bear to look in my eyes as he confesses who he was.
My throat tightens seeing him like this. He’s always been the kindest of the three, and hearing what he’s been through, makes my heart hurt in a way I wasn’t expecting.
“When I finally tried to leave… they made sure I'd never forget it,” his deep voice rumbles.
I swallow hard. “What happened?”
“…Lots,” he sighs but doesn’t elaborate.
“But another group raided us, shortly after I was recaptured. The leaders scattered. Then Phoenix and Myles showed up to pick off the rest. They found me in one of the cages, beaten within an inch of my life. If they’d been a few minutes later… ” he trails off.
“You'd be dead?” I finish, something lodging in my throat.
He nods, like it's just a fact. But it lands in me like a weight.
Wrapping my arm around his ribs, I feel the steady, calm beat of his heart under my palm.
Then his gaze sharpens on me. “What about you?”
My body locks up.
“You were sleeping in that car when we found you,” he says, quiet but direct. “Terrified. All alone. A girl like you? Alone? There’s gotta be a story behind that.” His eyes bore into me and his brows knit together.
Avoiding his gaze, I sigh. “I spent some time with traders too. They sold me to my last group after a year of their ‘training’.”
Zane doesn't flinch or push me to say more. He just waits. And as much as it scares me to admit, some part of me has already decided that these monsters are safer than Bennett and his men.
“I didn't get away until right before you guys found me,” I continue. “We’d been planning it for months. After… one of us died. We were waiting for the right moment. But I had to go alone.”
His brow furrows. “We?”
A hollow feeling grows in my chest, guilt creeping in like smoke. “Just one person. A girl. She was supposed to follow me… when she could. We… we had a plan to meet in the nearest town but I—” my voice breaks.
I don’t want to say it. To accept what it would mean. “I was supposed to meet her a week later,” I whisper.
His jaw tightens and I feel his hand ball into a fist at my back. “And we locked you away.” Zane shifts closer, his voice low and steady. “How long were you with them?”
“Around two years.” I shrug one shoulder.
He breathes in, then lets it out slowly and shakily like he’s trying to calm himself. “What kind of people were they?”
Hesitating again, my fingers fidget with the edge of the bedsheet.
“The kind who enjoyed hurting women. They’d punish us for all sorts of things, but they were convinced they were ‘cleansing’ us,” I say, focusing on the fabric between my fingers.
I take a deep breath, the reality of it seeming so obvious now.
“They tried brainwashing us. The leader even called us his wives. They lied to us about what was outside the farm,” I continue, brows pulling together as bitterness fills those memories. “I actually used to believe them.”
The truth feels shameful now. How stupid I was to believe anything that came out of the mouths of people like them.
Zane’s eyes darken, his body stiffening like stone. “And they’re still out there.”
It’s not a question, but I nod anyway.
He sits up straighter, tension rolling off his shoulders like storm clouds gathering. “Do they know you got out?”
Nodding again, I look up at him through my eyelashes.
There’s no way Bennett didn’t notice his prize possession is missing. “And if Jade was caught trying to follow me—” I can’t finish the sentence.
I still hear her screams every night when I close my eyes. I don’t even know if she made it out. Or if he caught her. I should’ve stayed. Should’ve insisted we leave together.
That guilt is something I’ll carry with me forever.
Zane’s hand finds mine, firm and grounding. “You think they'll come after you.”
I don’t need to nod. He knows it as well as I do.
Taking a shaky breath, I stare at our hands, locked together. His, steady and warm. Mine, trembling.
But for once in my life, I feel anchored. Even with the weight of our confessions, everything in me wants to stay in this moment.
“I think being here with you is the only reason they haven’t found me yet,” I say finally.
Zane leans forward, pressing his forehead to mine. His voice is gentle, but it carries steel beneath it. “If they come, no one will touch a hair on your head. I swear it.”
Something in his tone makes my heart crack open. I believe him.
But part of me still aches for the girl I left behind. Guilt and fear mingle with the awful thought that I might have escaped just in time to lose her forever.
Zane pulls me closer, curling one arm around my back as he strokes my hair gently. “You don't have to tell me everything,” he murmurs, voice full of understanding. “Not right now. But I’m gonna need to know what we're up against.”
His words are simple. But one word stands out from the rest.
We.
Not you.
We.
It makes my throat tighten. I nod against his chest as Zane holds me.
This moment—it feels so safe. Quiet. Peaceful… but it feels stolen. Like I’m on borrowed time. And I don’t know how to hold onto it longer.
Only that I want to.
To stay here. Like this. With him.
Before the world outside remembers I exist. Before someone comes looking and I lose everything I’ve found here.
Before I have to run again.