That guilt comes through tenfold when I see the pain in his eyes. A man who has never so much as explored the probability of emotions, yet I’ve just stolen them from him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I just—I didn’t know where you were or what I would say to you.”

“You and I both know that is bullshit!” he snaps, his fists clenching at his sides as he paces down the long hallway. He stops outside the door that leads to where his bedroom used to be, right across from mine. The room where we slept together for the first time ever.

I follow him as Poppy slips behind me, and before I can tell her not to wake Wolf, his door is closed. Sighing, I continue to where Wicked stands, his back to me and his arm resting on the doorframe of his old bedroom.

“I agree I didn’t handle it the best I could. But I didn’t know how else to do it. Papa died”—I quote the word died with an eye roll—“and I had to quickly step into his shoes. I didn’t know where you were or if you even got out. Wicked, the last fucking time I saw you, you kidnapped me and let people drug me in a fucking maze!”

He snaps, his hand is on my throat and I’m being shoved against the wall. He peers down at me, and I watch as his eyes harden. Gone is the pain I saw moments ago, and hello wrath. “You could have told me as soon as you saw me tonight.”

I level my eyes on him, unwilling to give him the pleasure of showing pain. “Who’s to say that I wasn’t going to?”

“Oh, I don’t know…” He squeezes further and I feel my cheeks inflate. “Maybe the fact that you tried to run.” He shoves me backward, pointing at me with his finger. “He is mine as much as he’s yours, and from now on, Ruby? That’s exactly how this is going to play out.” He storms down the grand stairs as I massage my throat, leaning back against the wall and breathing through the will to bite back. My eyes rest on the bedroom in front of me, seeing it exactly as it was all those years ago. The familiar bed he fucked me on, the desk—sheets even. I growl out and grab the door handle, slamming it closed.

Shutting off not just those memories, but the pain that comes from them.

I didn’t know how I was going to break it to Wolf when he grew up anyway. Oh hey, buddy, so your father is too fucked up to know. I knew that wasn’t going to work because I’m just as fucked up as Wicked.