Break Me (Brayshaw, #5)

by Meagan Brandy

A Brayshaw just kidnapped me. And I straight-up let him.

Maybe that’s twisted, maybe I’m twisted, but I never claimed to be the sane one, that’s Captain. Maddoc is the angry alpha, and me, I’m the fuckin’ wild one.

The time bomb. Unpredictable and admittedly, unhinged.

Like the North Star in a dark night’s sky, he burns too bright to hide.

Because while the sun and the moon light our lives with a single glance, to feel that light is rare, and something that can’t be robbed from you before it should. Because a feeling comes from the inside, not the out.

Brielle Bishop. Tiny. Feisty. In for a fuckin’ ride.

I’m the odd man out now. The leftovers.

Do you. They’re gonna judge you either way.”

Impulses of a boy, manners of a man.

Don’t underestimate what you don’t know, and once you do, tear it to pieces or tip your fuckin’ hat.

I’m a loner, a lost boy.

“So which is it, Playboy, you want me to play the lamb or the lion?” My muscles flex beneath my shirt. “How ‘bout my lamb, the world’s lion?”

Trying a wolf isn’t smart, but caging a fawn isn’t either.

“I want to be the guy a girl closes her eyes at night and sees. The one she wakes thinking about ‘cause she wants to fuck me or fuck with me, fight with me. And not because she wants to gain something or prove something, but because I’m all that she can see and she feels blind without me, even if she wishes she didn’t sometimes. I want to be her light and dark and, yeah, sometimes her fucking nightmare. A fucking king in her eyes and she’d be all those things right back, the queen in mine. Of mine.”

I want him to kiss me again, to devour me. I want him to break me. It’ll be worth it.

Royce kisses me slow, lazy, and long. And somehow, this kiss is more than the ones before. It’s honest. It’s an apology. It’s us. It’s him. It’s more.

“My little Tink,” he rasps. “Help me fly...” An unquenchable tingling stirs low in my stomach as he brings himself closer. “Help me fly, ‘cause this lost boy is on his way down, baby girl...”

“Holy shit! The fuckin’ baby!” And then Maddoc passes out.

“I love you, best friend. So, so much.”

Like a lonely boy. Like a lost boy. I could take away that pain, if he’d allow it. After all, lonely recognizes lonely.

“For the record, as far as I’m concerned you were already mine, and baby girl... know that I’m yours.”

She’s soft, but not in a weak way. Kind but not to trick. Generous but not for clout.”

“Loyal but without hatred, trusting but not blind.”

“I love her more than anyone has ever loved a soul. So much so I don’t even own mine anymore. She does. She said she’s inside me, and she was right. Every fucking bone in my body aches for her. I ain’t afraid to admit anymore that I will be nothing, fucking nothing,

“We have power, we have schemes, we have knowledge, what we don’t have are gentle hearts. She does. She’ll round us out, and we’ll all be better leaders because of it. Because of her.”

“I love you, Brielle Bishop. More than the stars love the darkness, and you love me, too.”