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Before any of us could react, Ezra crossed the kitchen and closed in on Raelynn, backing her against the wall, slamming his hand over her head.

She recoiled, staring up at him with wide eyes.

“Ash,” I cautioned, already moving in their direction.

Ezra’s shadows wrapped around his legs.

He’d never lost control in front of me, but right now, I doubted he had any. Even when Raelynn got on his nerves, I never thought he’d actually hurt her on purpose.

His shadows, though? Different story.

When she compared him to his father, something snapped in Ezra in a way we’d never seen before. If he’d lost control over his shadows as a result, I wasn’t sure what would happen.

Zeke moved behind me, easing closer. “Ezra?”

Ezra’s head lowered, and his low growl rumbled through the kitchen. “Why must you test me?”

Now that was a sentiment I understood all too well.

Raelynn had a knack for pressing all the right—and wrong—buttons that stirred the most unpredictable parts of someone, igniting both chaos and desire with an electric intensity that made you feel both alive and terrified of what you’d do with those feelings.

Fuck, I loved her.

I shook my head hard.

“I’m not doing anything,” Raelynn mumbled, not moving as Ezra’s shadows writhed in the surrounding air, not touching her but obviously agitated. At her or him, I wasn’t sure.

“Ezra, you need to calm down,” Ash said.

None of us could intervene without provoking his shadows. If they felt we threatened Ezra, they’d kill us without hesitation.

Ezra lifted his head to peer down at her. “Why won’t you let me protect you?”

Protect her?

Now it made sense.

In Ezra’s fucked-up way, he knew complying with his father’s demands kept Raelynn safer than letting her roam around where anyone could take her away from us. He just had a terrible way of expressing himself.

The irony wasn’t lost on me. I didn’t know shit about expressing myself in healthy ways, but at least I tried… now, that is.

He’d claimed we weren’t being led by reason, but he needed to open his eyes and realize Raelynn was deep under his skin too. He wasn’t acting the way he would in any other circumstance.

Raelynn closed her eyes and took a steadying breath. When she finally opened her eyes, she whispered, “Why do you even bother? You don’t want a bond with me, anyway.”

Ezra’s hand fell from the wall, and he stepped back, staring at her.

He wouldn’t say it. He wouldn’t tell her he wanted the bond, like we all knew he wanted.

The self-sacrificing bastard would allow his father to steal something he wanted so badly that he couldn’t even command the shadows he’d spent a lifetime exercising perfect control over.

When he kept staring at her without saying a word, she pushed off the wall and hurried out of the kitchen.

Fuck that.

Ezra might not take a chance on what he wanted, but I sure wasn’t letting another opportunity pass me by now that we had her home again.

I glanced at Zeke, who already looked two seconds away from running after her.