Riven’s knuckles split. Blood splatters across the grass and Matthew goes limp. It’s still not enough because Riven’s knee drives into his gut. One more punch. Then another. Then a kick to the ribs that makes something snap.

Still, he doesn’t stop.

“You should never have touched what’s mine!” Riven finally speaks, and it’s a guttural yell, like he’s finally able to say the words out loud.

And I should be horrified, but I’m not. I’m absolutely electrified.

Every instinct screams that this is wrong, that I should tell him to stop. Run.

But I don’t, because this is for me.

He’s doing this for me.

No one’s ever protected me like this. No one’s ever been this brutal. This devoted. This mine.

When he’s too exhausted to inflict anymore damage, Riven doesn’t say anything. He just pushes up to stand next to me, soaked blood, chest heaving. His shoulders rise and fall, and for a second, he doesn’t even look human. He looks like something that crawled out of the dark to destroy anything that touches me.

He wipes his bloodied hand on his jeans, slow and deliberate. Then he lifts his gaze.

His eyes find mine. He’s so fucking beautiful, even when he’s covered in someone else’s blood.

Something inside me snaps tight because I know without a doubt that Riven has never looked at anyone else the way he’s looking at me right now. He walks toward me like I’m the only thing anchoring him to the earth, and I truly feel the same way. I don’t think I was meant to be in this world without him by my side. It would hurt too much, feel too empty.

His boots crunch slowly over the dirt, but his eyes never leave mine. There’s no hesitation. No second-guessing. Just a focus so intense it makes my lungs freeze.

He’s looking at me like I’m it. The beginning and the end. Like I’m the only thing he ever needs to see again in this lifetime.

And I can’t move. My feet are planted, breath caught in my throat. There’s no space left in the world except for him.

When he finally reaches me, he stops just inches away. His bloodied hands hover near my face. And then gently, reverently, he cups my cheeks, his thumb brushing along my skin like he can’t believe I’m real.

“Do you have any idea what you do to me?” he whispers, his voice hoarse. “I need you to know that I came back to Castlebrook because I couldn’t breathe without you.”

I have literally no words as his thumb traces the edge of my jaw, slow and careful.