Maddox’s POV:
“Hello, brother.”
I looked up from the screen to see my stepbrother, Damien Velric Thorne, swagger into the dining hall with the grace of a prince as if he owned every inch of this packhouse.
Resisting the urge to roll my eyes at his smug grin as he took the seat across from me, I only nodded in response.
Right on his heel came my stepmother, Darla, the woman who wore pearls like trophies and smiles like masks.
Throwing me a bright, fake smile, she cooed, “Oh look who has finally graced us with his presence today.”
I clenched my jaw. Of course she’d noticed.
I’d been skipping dinners lately. Too caught up in Iliana, too consumed by her shadow in my mind and by the maddening urge to be near her. Slowly and gradually, my nights had started to belong to her now.
But at t
