"What do you want me to do?" His voice was hoarse, low, laced with frustration and humiliation. "Just tell me, what will it take for you to stay?"
That sentence was like a burning bullet, piercing straight through my chest. For a split second, I saw the Brian from three years ago—the proud, towering Alpha who had pulled me out of the hellhole in Brooklyn.
Now, he looked like a total wreck. Those blue eyes of his swirled with a chaos I'd never seen before, and maybe... a hint of pleading. He reminded me of a lone wolf, lost and wounded in a forest fire—battered all over but still stubbornly standing upright, growling one last desperate sound with whatever pride he had left.
That mangled, shattered heart of mine couldn't help but ache for a moment.
I had loved him so much.
I
