It’s been a year since the day that I confessed who I was to Paige.

I walked into Dax’s club, Inferno, not realizing my whole life was about to change. Sitting in the front row and seeing my feisty Phoenix stepping onto the stage, I was completely and utterly floored. She’d matured in the most beautiful way.

When I left her in Caged, I knew she’d flourish and survive the nightmare. But when I saw her again after all those years, I knew I had to claim her.

There was no way I was going to let her go again.

I was a coward, it took me six months to confess who I was. I did it while I was deep inside her body. When she looked at me with anger, elation, love, frustration...every emotion tumbled around in those emerald orbs. And all I could do was wait for her to finally let out all of them and find the one that mattered most.

Love.

Her love for me.

She needed to know I wanted her. She needed to let me into her heart and mind. Not that I ever left, but with years of pent-up anger at me leaving, I was bound to have to fight my way into her life.

She never recognized me. I’d changed since I left Caged. My body was inked, my hair was long, and I grew a beard. My voice had changed after the months of torment my father put me through. I went back for her but she’d gone. He didn’t appreciate his disowned son showing up.

He had me tortured for three months. Three men took turns beating me daily, I’d almost lost the will to live. My voice had cracked, changed, from the screaming I’d done. They’d cut my flesh for a confession on how I’d allowed her to escape. What got me through was the fact that I knew she was safe outside those walls.

When he released me again with a warning that if I ever came back he would kill me, I ran. It was only years later I found the strength to move back to New York. To find Axel and start a life close to my sister and Dax.

Axel inviting me to Inferno was a turning point. I’d found my long-lost Phoenix. Then I almost fucked it up again. The memory of that day still makes me shudder. If she had said no, I’m not sure what I would have done.

“It’s your Wolfe, my sweet Phoenix,” I murmur. Feeling her heart beating wildly in her chest, which thrums against mine. Recognition, shock, and anger swirl in her emerald eyes, piercing me with daggers. Straight to my heart. I did this. I hurt her again. She stares into my eyes, and she sees it. She sees me finally. She would never have recognized my voice after the torture my father put me through. It’s huskier, deeper, I almost don’t recognize it myself.

“It is you,” she whispers in shock and awe. “How? Your voice, it’s not the same. This doesn’t make sense. Get the fuck off me!” she hisses angrily. “Now!” I obey, moving off her warm body, I watch her pace the room. When she stops and turns to me, she scowls. “Tell me the truth or get out!” She punches me in the chest. Her fire burning bright at my confession.

It’s been five years since I last saw her. Since I left her in hell. Now I’ve finally found her and I’m not letting her go. My soul is in my hands. But my heart, it’s in hers.

“Tell me, Kael!” Her voice echoes around us. Her body vibrates with controlled rage. I don’t blame her. Those eyes I’ve missed looking into pierce me with a mixture of love, confusion, and anger.

I close the distance between us until I’m inches from her. “Listen to me, Phoenix,” I murmur, hoping to calm her. “I need you to hear me out.” I used to love when she begged me, now I’m the one pleading for her.

“Why the fuck should I listen to you? You lied!” I knew she’d be angry, so I wait. I don’t move because she needs to hear me out. “Kael Wolfe?” I nod in response. “Jesus, I’m such an idiot. I should have figured it out.” Her hand reaches for her panties, and I watch her tug them up her slender thighs.

“Paige, listen to me, I need you to just calm down.” Lifting my hands in surrender, I try placating her, but she’s having none of it. She shoots daggers at me with those beautiful eyes, and I don’t blame her. For months I’ve been in here, making her feel, making her fall, and now that she has, I drop a bomb on her. It doesn’t help that I’m still hard as fuck for her.

“Why the hell should I even give you the time of day?! Do you know what you did to me? Do you realize the pain you put me through for five long, agonizing years?” she retorts, spitting her words like venom. I deserve everything. Each word. The fury she pins me with slowly tightens my chest and breathing becomes difficult.

“I know—”

“No, you don’t fucking know!” Her voice carries as she paces back and forth with her gaze flitting between me, the floor, and the window that overlooks the city. “You…” Her voice trails off, and she glances out the window. She’s silent, and I think she’s calmed, but when I take a step toward her, she spins on her heel. And that’s when I see them. Tears. They stream silently down her cheeks, and they burn me like acid racing through my veins.

“Paige.” My voice is a pained whisper, but her gaze doesn’t meet mine.

“Fuck you, Kael Wolfe! You made me love you!”

I take another tentative step toward her, reaching for her hand, but she doesn’t gift me hers. Instead, she rears her hand back and punches me in the chest, then the face. Her tiny fists fly left, right, left, and I let her. It will be the one time I ever allow a woman to hit me. Once the fight leaves her, she peeks at me.

“I hate you,” she hisses, and I don’t doubt she means every word.

“I love you.” My confession has her laughing wryly.

“You don’t love me. You didn’t love me when you walked out and left me in that fucking hell.”

“I loved you more then than I ever did. Paige, I never stopped loving you.” This time, I reach for her and she allows me to hold her. To touch her. Pulling her into my arms, I inhale the scent of her, of us. It hangs heavy in the room. “These years without you have been the most difficult I’ve ever had to endure. Not having you close by, I felt as if I’d been crushed. My life stopped when I walked out, knowing I couldn’t take you with me.”

“You hurt me more than I ever could have imagined. I gave you everything, Kael. My heart, mind, my body… God, you were etched into my soul. Every breath I took was for you. Was because of you.” Her words pierce me, slicing deep into my heart. Leaving me flayed at her mercy.

“Look at me, Phoenix.” The words come out as an order, and as much as she should tell me to fuck off, she doesn’t. Instead, she glances up, meeting my eyes with hers. “You’re made for me. When I first saw you on stage here at Inferno, it felt as if I was alive again for the first time in years.” Taking a deep breath, I search her gaze for hate, or anger, but I come up short. All I see is affection.

“Kael—”

“I walked in here asking for you every night knowing that if you knew it was me, you would hate me for what I put you through. But our time in that hell was real to me. When I felt your body mold around me, when I saw you come apart below me, when I watched you soar above me, those were the moments I’ve held on to all these years.”

Her head drops into her hands, and she sighs. I want to go to her. To hold her. But I know I need to give her space. “The time with you was never a distraction. I gave you all of me because I loved you.” Her words are sincere and I can take the distance no more. I stalk toward her, leaving no space between us. Nodding, I reach up, stroking my knuckles along her cheek, and she leans into my touch.

“Loved?” I question with my heart beating wildly in my chest.

“Yes, I loved you, but now…” Her words taper off, and emotion threatens to choke me. “This is more, Kael. This is so much more. I don’t have words for it. I’ve always prayed you’d find me. I just…” She tugs free from my grasp and steps back. Her gaze never leaving mine.

“Paige, please, I need you. I can’t live without you. Now that we’ve found each other, you can’t tell me you don’t want this? Us?” I implore her. I’m not averse to begging because I will if that’s what it will take. There’s nothing more I need in my life but her. Those eyes, her smile, those beautiful tits, and her incredible body. But most of all, I covet her heart. I always have. It was the one thing I was forbidden to want or take, but I did it anyway.

Now, as I stand here a free man, it’s the only thing I’ll accept.

She’s silent for a long while, too long, in fact, before I close the distance between us. “Please, Paige,” I ask again, my hands fisted at my sides, not wanting to force her hand, but needing to touch her. The ache is palpable.

I can see her mind racing with thoughts, her breathing is rapid, her chest rising and falling as everything crashes down around us and it feels like once again I’m burning in her blaze. She engulfs me in her heat, scorches me like a flame, consumes me like a wildfire.

And finally, when I’m seconds from losing the wavering grip I have on my sanity completely, she throws me an olive branch. It isn’t much, but to me, it’s everything.

The nightmares are our past, my dreams are our future, but right here with her stepping into my arms, this is my present. My gift from the only woman who’s ever held my heart. And as she wraps her arms around me, tears falling from her eyes, I breathe for the first time in five years.

An ending.

A beginning.

She raises those emerald orbs in my direction, still red from tears.

And she smiles.

Now that I have her, I’m never letting her go again. That same day, I went to Dax and told him I was taking my woman. He didn’t have a choice because I didn’t give him one. She was mine, and I wasn’t leaving without her.

“Dax,” I call the man who not only threw me out of my own home when my father disowned me, but who also helped my woman escape. He turns to me and piercing gray eyes meet mine.

“I never thought I’d see you in my club, Kael,” he holds out a hand and I gladly shake it. If it weren’t for him and my brother, I don’t know where Paige would be.

“Neither did I. After everything that’s happened, I didn’t want to come in here. I didn’t know what you did until she told me today.” He nods. As much as anger kept me away from this place, it’s love that brought me back.

“She’s a special girl,” he says with a smile.

“That she is. And that’s why I’m taking her. She’s no longer your employee. I won’t have her in here dancing for men. I won’t have her in those rooms doing something she escaped from.” He glances at the girl I love as she makes her way over to us.

“I agree, Wolfe. I wouldn’t want Theia up there either. I’m fine with her leaving, but the choice is ultimately hers.” He’s right. I know he is.

“Hey, are you two talking about me?” Paige sidles up to me, and I cocoon her with my body. She’s still a waif, but she fits perfectly in the crook of my arm.

“We were. I was telling your ex-boss that we’ll be leaving for Chicago soon.” Her body stills, her gaze is trained on Dax, but he nods with a smile.

“Good luck to you both. Don’t be strangers. You’re welcome anytime.” He leans in, pulling her into his arms, giving her a brotherly hug. “Look after this big asshole, would you?” He chuckles, slapping me on the back in a friendly gesture.

“Always,” she whispers with a smile so bright, it’s all I can see.

I helped her pack her bags and we moved to Chicago. I didn’t give her a chance to say no. All she could do was relent. I know she misses the girls at Inferno. Over the almost five years she spent with Dax and Theia, she grew to love them, but I know there’s one little lady she misses more than the others.

Dakota.

That was her only worry about leaving, their friendship.

Our lives in Chicago have given us a fresh start, and even though I miss my best friend, I know Axel will be here soon with his girl. He’s claimed the feisty little kitten, Dakota.

Life has taken on a routine, one I’m enjoying. I work on my painting contracts and she teaches dance classes at the local studio downtown, which she’s been renting with an option to buy, while studying. Her focus has been on getting a Business Management degree, which I’ve paid for. Now that I’m in her life, she doesn’t need to worry about a thing.

When I moved back to New York I got a surprising call from my sister. Apparently, a lawyer had contacted her with news for each of the Wolfe offspring. My mother had set up a fund for each of us, which they didn’t find until much later.

We were meant to receive it when we turned eighteen, but something happened to the documentation, which I suspect had a lot to do with my father. My nest egg is big enough for us to live a comfortable life, and there’s no concern about money. We can afford vacations, her schooling, and even the occasional five-star restaurant.

With my mind on dinner, I push open the door to the study. Before I step inside, I glance into the bright space and find her sprawled out on the sofa on her stomach, her legs bent at the knee. I get a small peek of red panties between smooth, creamy thighs.

She’s deep in thought, reading an article on her new MacBook, and hasn’t heard me enter. Her hair is pinned into a messy bun, strands of long red waves tumbling from the clip, teasing her neck and back.

The air in the room slowly heats as I lean against the doorjamb, arms crossed with my eyes fixated on her.

“Are you going to stand there all day?” she quips playfully, rolling over to regard me. The short white T-shirt she’s wearing rides up, and I’m greeted with not only her intense emerald eyes, but also the bright red lace panties that cup her sweet, little pussy.

“You going to taunt me with those all day?” I lift my chin, gesturing at her sheer panties. Her green gaze darts down and she giggles.

“I figured you’d come home after a long day and need a distraction?” She shrugs innocently, but I know there’s nothing innocent about her. As much as I’d love to take her, I decided today we need to have a long talk before anything else.

I want her to tell me about the events that took place after I left. We’ve not had the talk about what she went through. When I did bring it up a month ago, she froze and told me she wasn’t ready to delve into those memories. So far, I’ve decided to give her time. We’re still learning to be with each other outside of the hell we met in.

“I do need a distraction, Phoenix, but not in the way you think.” Her face falls and I see the worry etch itself all over it. “I think you know what we need to do.” My no-nonsense tone is enough to have her biting down on that plump lower lip.

“I know,” she sighs. Scooting over, she watches me under dark lashes. As soon as I’m settled on the sofa beside her, she crawls into my lap. Her body molds to mine, fitting like we’re two intricately designed pieces of one mosaic. All our colorful and broken fragments come together, making one beautiful glass canvas, completely transparent, and yet so fragile.

“Tell me, baby. I’ve got you. I’m never letting you go again, but you need to tell me what happened. Or I’m going to find my brother and kill him.” Since I walked out on him, I hadn’t looked back once. But when he called asking for help with his girl, I knew I had to put everything behind me and go to him and that was the last time we spoke. It was over a year ago and now Freya and Sam are together, happily living their life.

“No, Sam saved me, Kael.” Her words ring true to what Dax told me. “He… I guess for you to understand, you’ll need to hear it all.” She sighs, and I tug her closer. My thumb circles the smooth skin over her shoulder as she starts her story. She begins to re-live her horrific past at the hands of my father and the “clients.” How she would shut herself off just to survive. Just to deal with the pain of having lost me. At one point, she shudders in my arms, and I feel my self-control slip.

The need to hurt someone, to kill someone runs rife through my blood like poison.

“Baby—” I murmur, but she cuts me off and continues.

She turns her head to regard me, planting a soft kiss on my cheek. She reaches up to stroke my beard. Her normally emerald eyes are dark, reminding me of the color of leaves from an oak tree.

With a deep breath, she starts again. “One night, Sam stumbled into my room. I thought he was drunk. He climbed into my bed and I waited on the pain, but none came. I waited for him to touch me, or fuck me, or something, but he didn’t. He just lay there for what felt like hours in the dark, in silence. When I finally rolled over to regard him, his blue eyes met mine, and we spoke. He told me about growing up with you, about how he begged Harlan not to let you get into that life, but it was in your destiny or whatever. He told me the truth about how he wanted me that night, but he knew I was yours. He wasn’t a monster, he was hurting. When you left, he changed. Something inside him snapped, the next day he came into my room and told me he was going to get me out.”

Jolting upright, I grip Paige to me, lifting her and placing her on my lap so she’s straddling me. “Dax told me most of that, but I needed to hear it from you.”

She nods. “Samael and Dax helped me escape. I worked at Inferno until you walked in and found me. I know you’ve not spoken to him since you helped him with Freya, but I think it’s time we went there, or just called them.” Her gaze drops and I know she’s hiding something. “I don’t know, Kael, I feel as if I owe him my life. He…”

Her words taper off and she fidgets with the hem of her T-shirt. I realize she’s still not telling me everything. “Baby, look at me.” It’s a command and she complies. “Good girl. Tell me what you’re hiding.”

Emotions blaze like wildfire in those teary pools. “I don’t think—”

“No, you shouldn’t. I’d like you to tell me.”

“Before Sam could get me out, I… I had a client. Although, he wasn’t a client…” She falls silent. The tension radiating from her body has me vibrating with rage, and I don’t even know why yet. “He came into the room one day, Sam, and he told me to get ready. He didn’t look happy and fear crept in. When I asked him why, he only uttered, ‘I wish I could have saved you from this, Firebird,’ and then he left. An hour later, I was dressed and had just finished my hair when he entered my room. As we walked down the hallway, I knew. Something deep in my gut slowly chewed at me. Sam looked at me before he opened the door to a room I’d never been in and whispered in my ear to ‘remember where your heart lies’ before he ushered me into the wolves’ den.”

Those final words send me reeling. My body stills, tenses to the point of pain, and my heart thuds. It fucking fights its way out of my chest, and I tighten my hold on her so much that I hear her gasping for air. Agony slices through me, my blood boils, and torment rattles my bones when I realize what she’s telling me.

“Paige, tell me what happened. Now.” Each word is annunciated like a threat. A vow. I would kill him if my brother hadn’t already taken the initiative. I wouldn’t need weapons because I’d rip him apart. Easily, I’d tear off his skin with the whips he used on us as children, and on the women he abused. I wish I could see him bleed out before me. “Tell me, Paige.”

I shouldn’t ask.

She shouldn’t tell me.

But she will. She must.

I must know.

“He... Your father was there. But there’s something else that not even Sam knows.” She blinks, and I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut. Tears stream down her flushed cheeks. “Harlan took me that night. There was a video recording of it. He told me he’d break me for loving you, for making you act out and for making you covet a whore. But there was another man with a mask. They both…”

“Jesus, baby. Look at me please.” She does, gifting me with those big green eyes. Those precious gems that sparkle with emotion. As much as I want her to hate me, hate my family, I don’t see that emotion anywhere on her face. All I see is love. For me.

“They broke me. For twenty-four hours, both fucked me violently. I was choked and whipped.” Her words are strangled as she gasps for breath, recalling what those sick, vile monsters did to her. “They forced themselves inside me before I was ready. I bled so much, I thought I’d die. Since you were gone, I wished for death.”

Those words gut me, they fucking slice through me like a blade opening me to her.

“Every day. I just didn’t feel like I could live and in that moment, I prayed for it. My fight was washed away by the tears they ripped from me. My body became nothing. My heart, as much as it longed for you, it shattered. And my soul, it filled with darkness. This here...” She lifts the hem of her top and stands until I finally see the marks hidden by the ink. I wondered why she was always so quick to hide her tattoo from me, but I never examined her properly. I didn’t see the scars below the Phoenix tattooed on her hip. The W, which my father must have carved into her skin.

“Jesus, Paige,” I bite out the rage fueled words. “I came back for you too late. I was too fucking late.” My heart constricts at the memory of entering the property and finding four guards waiting for me. Of my father laughing, telling me she’s gone.

Her gaze snaps to mine and she gasps. “You came back for me?” Meeting her gaze, I nod. “And I had already left. They’d gotten me out.”

“Yes, you had been gone for about a month already. I didn’t realize it because as soon as I got onto the property, I was captured. I’m lucky to be alive. I didn’t even get to talk to Sam or Dax so I didn’t know where you were.” I realize that all these years I was angry at my brother, but all he did was save my girl.

“He told me he didn’t know where you were. But he said if you knew about his plan, it wouldn’t work. He planned my escape with Dax, who in turn, gave me a job when I got out. I did all those things at Inferno because I was angry at you. I didn’t know you came back, I thought you didn’t care.”

“I’m so sorry I didn’t come back sooner. I was a mess.” My frustration that I wasn’t there to save her from the torture I know she endured rings clear in my words.

“For too long my life wasn’t my own and when I lost you…”

“Kael,” she breathes my name, leaning in until her lips are an inch from mine. “I was a young girl who didn’t know much about love. But when I let you in, it wasn’t only into my body. You claimed every part of me. When you walked out of that house, you had my heart. You’ve always had it.” Her confession stills me before I close the remaining inch between us and I claim her mouth. Out tongues duel, they dance with more than just a kiss. I consume her breaths as she steals mine.