After Waylon pushes me in here, it takes a long time for him to come back. Hours. I have no way to account for the passage of time, but the dark outside the window becomes even inkier when he finally returns to the room.

He doesn't say anything when he first walks in, just locks the door behind him.

My stomach flips at the grave look on his face.

I don't want to know, but I feel I have to ask, “How did Hades take it?”

“He wants you punished,” Waylon answers in that frank way of his. “And I agree.”

He comes to loom over the bed. “You better believe me for all of time when I tell you how much I fucking love you.”

I do…I do believe him.

I’d been following my guidance counselor’s plan for so many years. Get the practical degrees, snag the good husband, move to the suburbs and live a nice, normal life that will make up for everything that came before me achieving responsible adult status.

But that was just a list that someone else made up.

These are the things I truly wanted in my heart: Someone who would claim me. Someone who would make me truly belong. Someone who would teach me to be me. Someone who would always take my side, even when I was on the opposite side from him.

I had no idea when I met him, but Waylon was exactly what I wanted—not just that…. What I needed. And I put him in a bad position with Hades.

I can't be sorry for helping Stephanie, but I get why he’s standing in front of me with this pissed-off version of his love.

I still can't believe he did it. Looked straight at Stephanie, then closed the door and told me, “Come on.”

He kissed me hard on the mouth, grabbed me by the arm and dragged me out of the hotel room to the parking lot where he announced to the rest of the bikers that it was just me. He told them that Stephanie had already left on a bus but didn’t tell me where she was going.

After that, there came a long ride on the back of a bike he’d borrowed to meet up with Hades at the roadhouse.

Waylon locked me in this room, saying in a low voice that he wasn't sure if he could control the situation if Hades laid eyes on me.

And now he’s standing over me, pissed off at me for doing this. Probably pissed off at himself for falling in love with me in the first place.

So, it feels like an act of courage when I stand up and wrap my arms around the pissed-off predator to tell him, “I know. Especially now. I love you too. I love you so much. Thank you.”