Chapter 35. Trigger You

Colton sighs, pulls me close by the waist, and brings my face back to his so that he can move in and rest his forehead on mine. I don’t relax into his touch but stay like cardboard and refuse to melt into him or succumb to his power over me. The kind of intimacy you would expect from a mate, and I have to remind myself that we’re not anything close.

“I was shy, and you were this fearless, confident girl who walked around with her friends, oblivious to any of us. Boys were dumb, and you all liked to make a point of avoiding us at all costs.” He points out with a smile, reminding me a little of memories gone by, so well buried to save my heart from the pain of losing my family that I almost blocked them out completely. A time when the packs lived in proximity but kept to their own. A time when the Santo boys were just ‘that bunch of idiots from the south side’ and had no authority over the rest of us.

It feels like a million years ago when life was normal, and I had a real