Love, After Dark

Chapter 46

BRICE

Three hours. Three hours of sweat burning my eyes. Three hours of metal clanking. Three hours of trying to outrun something that wouldn’t leave me alone. The home gym smelled like iron and frustration. My shirt was soaked through, chest heaving as I drove another rep upward, muscles screaming. Wynter still wasn’t answering my calls. Luke hadn’t responded to a single text. Chris left me on read. And Siri…

I found her account on IG. Took me longer than it should have. I told myself I just wanted to make sure she was okay. That was a lie. I wanted to fix it. I sent her a message. Tried to explain. Tried to apologize. She didn’t yell. She didn’t curse. She just cut clean. Called me a coward. Said I stood there and did nothing. Said she wouldn’t be used in my sick game. Then she blocked me. At first, I was angry. Then I replayed it. The kitchen. The punch. Her eyes meeting mine. She wasn’t wrong.

I racked the bar harder than necessary and paced the room, dragging a hand through my hair. I hadn’t been trying to make Wynter jealous. I hadn’t been playing games. But intent didn’t erase impact. And now both girls had tears in their eyes because of me. The weight of that sat heavy in my chest. So, I did the only thing I knew how to do. I trained. I hit the bag until my knuckles burned. I ran sprints until my lungs felt like they were ripping open.

I pushed weight until my arms trembled. Harder. Faster. More. But the harder I went, the worse I felt. My wolf stirred restlessly beneath my skin. I could sense he was agitated and upset. You ruined it. “I didn’t ruin anything,” I muttered, grabbing a towel. A low whimper echoed in the back of my mind. That was all he’d given me all day. No words. No guidance. Just the occasional, pitiful sound of disappointment. He couldn’t see past the mate bond. To him, there was no confusion. No gray area. There was only her. “So you’re just going to shut me out too?” I asked internally, breathing hard. Another whimper. Silence. I slammed my fist into the punching bag. “Unbelievable.”

“Damn,” a voice drawled from the doorway. “You trying out for the Olympics or are you just working through your latest heartbreak?” I didn’t turn around. “What do you want, Hunter?” I snapped, more venom in my tone than I meant to use. Hunter leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, grin wide. “Three hours, big bro. At this point you’re either training for war or avoiding a girl.” “Not now,” I growled. “Go bother someone else, you menace.” He smirked. “Hey, not my fault you got dumped.” My head snapped toward him so fast my neck cracked. “You little s**t—” But he was already backing down the hallway, laughing.

“Mom said be up for dinner in ten minutes!” he called over his shoulder. “Try not to scare anyone with your rage vibes!” I grabbed the towel off the bench and threw it at the doorway. It hit the wall uselessly. Silence filled the room again. I leaned over, hands braced on my knees, breathing hard. Dumped. That’s what it looked like. Wynter wasn’t speaking to me. My friends barely were. And the girl I couldn’t stop thinking about wanted nothing to do with me.

I closed my eyes. Siri’s face flashed behind them. Red punch dripping from her hair. Humiliation in her eyes. Disappointment when she looked at me. My wolf shifted again. Restless. Yearning. Begging for me to fix it. “I don’t even know how,” I admitted quietly. Because every move I made lately only made it worse. And unlike most of the problems I face, brute force wasn’t going to solve this one.