𝐀𝐔𝐑𝐎𝐑𝐀
Rafayel's jaw worked, a muscle jumping beneath skin stretched too tight. His golden eyes flickered between his brothers, emotions warring behind them—rage, desperation, and calculation all bleeding into one another until I couldn't tell where one ended and another began.
The silence stretched.
Finally, he spoke, the word tasting like bile by the way he twisted his mouth. "Fine."
My heart plummeted.
No.
"We claim her together," Rafayel continued, his voice hollow and reluctant. "Equal shares. Equal responsibility. Equal ownership."
The words landed like stones in still water, rippling out in waves of horror.
Zayne's smile sharpened. "Wise choice."
Kaleb and Cyrus moved forward without hesitation, flanking Zayne as they approached me.
I scrambled backward on instinct, my hands slipping against marble still warm from the pack-bind severing ritual.
"No," I tried to force the word out, but only a strangled sound emerged. "No, no, no—"
