Chapter 102 Where is your rage?

Chapter 102 Where is your rage?
COLE

I said nothing for a long moment.

Nate, Damon, and I had grown up believing we were at the very top of the world. We were strong, untouchable, feared—and above us, there had only ever been our father. And now that he had turned his back on us, now that he had become the predator hunting in his own house, there was no one left above him. There was literally no one in the world to protect us.

I looked at Iris, keeping my voice as steady as I could. "My brothers and I... We can take care of each other. That's not your responsibility, Iris."

She gave me a sad, tired smile. She might have known the burden wasn't hers by right, but it was like she physically couldn't stop herself from carrying it anyway. She had gone so far as offering herself up to our father's twisted hands just to keep the three of us breathing.

I wanted so desperately to tell her that she didn't need to. That I would gladly crawl right back into that freezing dungeon, starve, and let Ernest torture me until the end of time if it meant he never laid a single finger on her again. I would shatter my own wrist in a heartbeat just to sit beside her in the infirmary bed again. There was no threat of pain, blood, or death that could ever terrify me into backing down from protecting her.

But there was no point in saying it out loud. She already knew. She just refused to accept my sacrifice.

And in that quiet, shadowed space beneath the rusted steel, a single, undeniable truth settled into my bones: I loved her. Not just because of the fractured mate bond, and not out of some twisted, guilt-ridden obligation.

I was actually, truly, madly, deeply in love with her.

"Soon I'll be married to Christian Harlow," Iris murmured, breaking the silence as she stared down at the gravel between her sneakers. "If everything goes as planned, he won't be around much, and Ernest... will eventually leave me alone. Nate will be stuck with Jessica, which is... genuinely tragic for him. Damon will be away at medical school... What about you? What are you going to do?"

I stayed quiet for a beat, letting a faint, crooked smirk touch my mouth.

"I'm going to crash your wedding," I said. "Beat the shit out of the groom, throw you over my shoulder, and kidnap you right off the altar. Then I’ll take you anywhere in the world you want to go so we can start over. That's my plan. What do you think?"

A breathtaking, genuine smile broke across her face, lighting up the dark hollows under her eyes. "Anywhere I want? Really?"

"Yeah. It's your call."

"What a polite kidnapper you are," she laughed softly, the sound wrapping around my chest like a warm blanket. "Well... You can pick the coordinates. But I want to be held captive in a beautiful house. Huge windows. Lots of natural sunlight. Somewhere green, where we can listen to the wild wolves howling at night... And slip outside to join them whenever we want. A library, obviously. And a garden—maybe a pool, but that’s optional. Dogs. Not guard hounds, just... A couple of golden retrievers. And children laughing all around the yard..."

I tilted my head, struggling to keep my breathing even. "Am I going to need to kidnap these kids, or...?"

"No," Iris said softly, a faint blush warming her cheeks. "I think we can manage to get them in a different way."

I had to force my hands to stay still against my knees, desperately pretending that what she had just said didn't send an electric shockwave straight through my veins. I wanted to kiss her so fucking badly. It was reckless as hell—people cut under the bleachers all the time to smoke, make out, skip class... Or plot their father's assassination, who knows? Someone could round the corner at any second, but sitting there, listening to her describe a future with me, all I wanted was to pull her onto my lap and taste her lips.

Iris turned to me, her expression softening into something raw and vulnerable. "Thank you... For every single time you stood up for me. It took twelve years, unfortunately, but... I hope you know how grateful I really am for everything you've done. I just wish things were different."

"Things will be different, Iris," I whispered, holding her dark eyes. "Soon."

"Promise me you won't do anything stupid," she said suddenly, the gentle warmth vanishing into sharp anxiety.

"Iris—"

"Promise me!" she urged, reaching out and wrapping both her hands around my wrist. "And make Nate and Damon promise, too!"

"What the hell do you want me to promise, Iris?"

"That you will stop trying to save me," she pleaded, tears welling up on her lower lashes. "That you won't try to attack your father again..."

"Look at what you're asking me!" The words tore out of my throat, raw and jagged. "You're asking me to be a fucking coward! You're asking my brothers and me to just sit back on our hands and watch him—"

"I'm asking you to stay alive!" she cried, her fingers digging desperately into my jacket. "If Celeste manages to cast that veil, I’ll be fine! I'll have my strength, I'll be able to protect myself, and everything will be okay!"

"And what if it doesn't work?!"

"Then I'll figure something out! Just don't—"

The suffocating helplessness and terror inside me finally snapped.

I shoved myself up off the dirt, towering over her as I paced the narrow strip of gravel, running both hands violently through my hair.

"Where the fuck is your rage, Iris?!" I yelled, my fists clenching tight at my sides. "Where is your anger? Your revolt? I know you're terrified, I know he probably instilled the fear of God in you, but there is no fucking way you can just roll over and accept this! There is no way you can look me in the face and ask me to give up on killing the man who wants to rape you! I don't give a fuck that he's my father—Ernest Crawford deserves to die! How can you not see that?!"

Iris scrambled to her feet, her chest heaving, tears spilling over her lashes and cutting clean lines through her makeup.

"I know he deserves to die!" she screamed back, the sound vibrating against the metal beams above us. "What I don't want is for you, Nate, and Damon to walk around with blood on your hands! I don't want you three sentenced to death by the Council for patricide! I don't want you dead in a ditch while he walks away untouched, because he's the fucking Alpha and one doesn't become Alpha by being easy to kill! That is all I want, Cole! I just want you to live!"

I stopped pacing, the wind whistling through the rusted bleachers as I stared at her through the deafening ringing in my ears.

"Sometimes," I rasped, my voice shaking with bitter, broken agony, "I feel like you don't even want a way out of this."