Page 130 of Chasing Ruin
“I told you I won’t use my sister as bait,” Wolf grits out, his voice shaking despite the fury behind it. “I FUCKING TOLD YOU!”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Tudor shift slightly. Protective. Positioned between Mihai and the storm that’s about to break.
“Wolf,” Mihai says, infuriatingly calm. “Nothing will happen to Charlotte. She’s invaluable to them. So is your VP. They won’t kill her, I promise you.”
Wolf drags a hand through his hair, pacing like a caged animal. His breaths come sharp, uneven—rage barely leashed.
I know that feeling. It’s clawing through me, too. But I lock it down. Force it into something controlled. Something usable.
“Why did you—how did you fucking know to call off your men?” Wolf roars, his voice splintering at the edges. “FUCK!”
He’s not really asking, but I have the answer anyway. “It was my fault,” I rasp, and every head snaps toward me. “I suspected Joe and Heath. Tudor knew.”
My gaze lifts—lands squarely on the burly fucker. “I’m guessing you told your boss and let this night play out?”
He just shrugs, like this is nothing. Like isn’t burning us alive from the inside out. Burning me.
“What?” Wolf snaps, rounding on me. “Why didn’t you fucking tell me?”
I drop my gaze, jaw tightening. “I wasn’t sure, Prez. I needed more time to confirm it. And I wasn’t going to just t-throw accusations out so—”
That hits him. I see it. Understanding flickers.
But it doesn’t erase the anger or the doubt. And the damn question I know that’s coming.
“But you told—”
“I did,” I cut in, forcing myself to look back at Tudor. “I told Tudor.”
Silence thickens. I can feel it—what’s coming next. Sitting heavy on my tongue. Bitter. Painful.
He knows it too. It’s in the stillness of his face, the way he watches me without a single flicker of concern.
I exhale slowly, the weight of it carving something hollow inside my chest. “I told him in confidence,” I say flatly, “after he fucked me in my bed last night. Then he went and told Mihai.”
I catch a twitch, barely there.
And still—no reaction. No denial. Nothing.
I ignore Mihai’s amused grin that he throws at Tudor.
I ignore the stares of my brothers because they didn’t know this part of me.
Now they do.
Their silence is heavier than the accusation. I let critical information slip through me because I was thinking with my dick.
I can’t bring myself to look at them. So, I just stand there. Stuck in the quiet, crushing realization of what I’ve done. Not just to the club but tomyself.
Those stolen moments over the last few weeks? I naively let myself believe they meant something.
Look at how easily he used me. How cleanly he turned my trust into a weapon against my own people.
And he’s still standing there, un-fucking-bothered. I probably meant nothing at all to him
I finally look at Wolf. His face is wrecked—shock, fear, anger—all tangled into something raw and unsteady. “I made a mistake, Prez. I’m sorry,” I say quietly. “But you don’t have to worry.” My gaze flicks back to Tudor, cold now and empty. “This will never happen again,” I add.
Before anyone can respond, I step back out of the circle. Out of the suffocating weight of their eyes.
