Ava’s POV
“Steve!” I yelled, my throat raw and dry, as I tore through the woods away from those rogues, their grotesque forms swarming him like scavengers on a kill. There was no chance I’d let anyone go down on this trip, not Steve, not after everything we’d been through—Liam’s revelations, those vivid flashes of his hands all over me, us going at it fierce and urgent, his rumbles right in my ear, all tainted now by Lucy’s bullshit stories of me banging Steve smack in the middle of everything to tear me apart.
Steve’s strength was fading fast, trapped beneath the rogues, their talons poised to end him. His fighters were just starting to stir, still groggy from that dark energy blast, leaving me as his only shot. My claws extended, keen and ready, and I hurled myself at the one about to
