Chapter 109: Change Of Heart Or?

Draven’s POV

The party was about to start and we were all set. Everything had been arranged and put in place. What I did to Jade ... I wasn’t sure it was right, but a part of me believed she deserved it. I was angry at what she was doing to me. Maybe that was why the real people in her life had left without any romance. She was too focused on something trivial to see what was standing right in front of her.

And I planned to punish her even more at the party that night. I was going to make her so jealous she’d beg for mercy.

We still had Rex on our hands.

He was still a threat. Carlos’s men were probably scattered by now ... their leader was dead and gone ... but Rex was different. Rex was still very much a problem we had to deal with. But in the meantime, we were going to party.

The party kicked off and drinks were everywhere.

They were fire ... and I meant that literally. They tasted like fire, burning all the way down my throat. I thought my tongue was about to melt off.

"It’s nothing, Draven. You’ll get used to it," Lucas said.

He didn’t understand. I wasn’t just drinking. I was trying to impress somebody and get back at her for not loving me.

Jade walked in later, and she wasn’t looking her best. Her eyes were slightly puffy ... she must have cried before coming out. But she’d cleaned herself up well. Or maybe I was giving her too much credit, because the Jade I’d come to know was the type who could get through anything without flinching or feeling remorse. She acted like feelings were a luxury she couldn’t afford.

We weren’t on speaking terms.

I acted like I didn’t know her. She did the same.

She stepped up beside me and reached for a drink. Trying to show me she could keep up. I didn’t even glance at her.

Then the male wolves started coming.

One by one, they approached her, saying God knows what. I couldn’t hear the conversations from where I stood but I didn’t need to. The thought of any of them taking her anywhere near a room made my jaw tight.

It was time to play my own game.

The music shifted and the dance floor filled up. I stepped in. I’d never claimed to be a dancer ... didn’t think I had any business on a dance floor ... but the hot drink was doing something to my body. I moved, and I shocked myself. I was actually good. Better than I’d imagined.

Some female wolves gravitated toward me ... tight shorts, curves in all the right places. Two of them came at once and I didn’t turn them away. I rocked both of them on the dance floor, my body pressed against theirs, and I made sure Jade had a clear view of everything. My hips slid against their asses as they bounced against me, and I felt nothing except the burning satisfaction of knowing she was watching.

I pulled away after a while and hunted down another drink. Another crowd. Another round.

I grabbed a different female by the waist and kept moving. The alcohol had cranked my confidence all the way up. I felt untouchable.

Then Lucas called for the games session.

"We’re starting with Truth or Dare," he announced.

We gathered in a circle. I made sure not to sit near Jade. She kept stealing glances at me but I refused to give her eye contact. I was too angry for that. Too hurt.

Lucas noticed. Of course he noticed ... because the first dare he threw out was aimed directly at the two of us. Subtle as a brick through glass.

"Draven," Lucas said, grinning like the idiot he was. "I dare you to grab Jade’s ass for fifteen seconds."

I played it cool, acting mildly shy for the audience. Jade’s expression didn’t change ... not even a flicker. But I wasn’t about to let anyone see that we were fighting. I didn’t have the luxury of explaining our situation to a room full of people, so I just did what I had to do.

I walked toward her. The crowd started chanting her name.

Jade. Jade. Jade.

I grabbed her ass and held it for the full fifteen seconds. When the time was up, she lifted my hand off herself without a word. Calm. Controlled. Like it meant nothing.

They didn’t know that just a few hours before this party, I had been buried inside her. Grabbing her ass in a game was the least of what we’d done.

When the games wrapped up, I slipped away to the bathroom. The drinks were hitting differently now ... my vision was slightly off and my body felt loose in a way I couldn’t quite manage.

I pushed the bathroom door open and stopped.

Jade was already in there.

"What are you doing in a men’s bathroom?" I asked.

"I can go anywhere I like," she said flatly.

"Whatever." I turned to leave.

She grabbed my arm and yanked me back ... hard, like I was a rag doll.

"I didn’t say you could leave."

"Excuse me?" I snatched my arm away. "Don’t touch me like that again."

I moved for the door a second time. She grabbed me again and before I could react, her palm connected with my face.

The slap rang through my skull.

I stood completely still for a moment. I hadn’t seen it coming. At all.

"What the hell do you think you were doing out there with those wolves?" she demanded. "Were you trying to make me jealous?"

She grabbed my collar next, fingers twisting into the fabric.

"Answer me."

Something snapped.

I grabbed her back, wrapped my arms around her and lifted her clean off the ground like she weighed nothing. I slammed her back against the wall and drew my fist back ... held it there for one second, two ... then let my arm drop. I wasn’t going to hit her. I wasn’t that man. But I needed her to see that I wasn’t someone she could put her hands on without consequences.

She was shaken. I could see it in her eyes ... that brief flash of something that looked almost like fear.

"Who told you that you own my life?" My voice came out low and controlled, which was somehow worse than shouting. "I can do whatever I want. It’s my life."

"Leave me alone, Jade. Don’t ever question me again."

I let her go and stepped back.

"Is it because I didn’t tell you I love you?" she asked before I could reach the door.

"I don’t care anymore. Love who you want."

I meant it ... or at least I was trying to.

She ran after me and grabbed the back of my shirt.

"No one can fuck you like I do," she said. "And you know it. You just had me this afternoon."

"And who told you I’m looking for someone to fuck?" I turned to face her. "Jade. Let me go."

"You can’t leave." Her grip tightened. "You belong to me. Only me."

"Fuck you, Jade." The words came out tired more than angry. "I wasn’t yours all this while. So now ... now you want to claim me? I have important things to deal with."

I pried her fingers off my shirt.

"Don’t do this to me, Draven." Her voice cracked. "Okay ... I love you."

She shouted it.

I didn’t turn around.

I walked out and left her standing in that bathroom with those three words hanging in the air between us.

I didn’t look back because I didn’t trust myself to. Only her eyes would’ve told me if she meant it ... and I wasn’t ready to find out either way.