Page 282 of Boys Who Hunt

“Group hug,” she muses, making us all laugh.

“I’m glad you’re back, sis,” I say when we’re all done squeezing each other to death. “You missed a shit ton of stuff.”

She raises a brow. “Oh? Well, then, tell me all about it over dinner.”

“There’s just one more thing I have to do,” I say, walking to the bathroom.

“Cool, I’ll see you in there,” Cece says, wrinkling her nose when she smiles.

I head to the nearest toilet and pull out my bottle of pills.

The one bottle I’ve been carrying with me all this time because I wondered if I would need them again. But that’s just it. I don’t think I do.

These feelings I’ve been numbing are allowed to exist, no matter how dark or sad or how incredibly overpowering they get. Nothing is too difficult to deal with that it will ever make me want to hide again.

Because I have them now.

Ivy and Max.

And the loneliness will never again take hold of my heart.

I open the lid of the toilet, pour out the bottle's contents, and stare at the pills for a few seconds before I flush them down.

And it feels like a giant weight has been lifted off my shoulders for the first time in a long while.

Max

I pullout a seat for Ivy and let her sit down first before I sit beside her.

“So … who’s that lady over there?” Atlas asks, running his fingers through his wolf-cut hair.

“She’s taken already,” I say, putting my arm around her shoulders.

“Relax, I was just asking.” He chuckles. “I have better things on my mind than girls.”

“I haven’t seen you before,” Ivy says, holding out a hand. “Ivy Clark.”

“Atlas Torres,” he says, shaking her hand. “Pleasure to meet you.”

“You aren’t at Spine Ridge U yet, are you?” she asks him.

He shakes his head. “Not yet. I’m planning to go there next year. If it all works out.”

“Wait, I’m confused. Are you Levi’s brother?” Ivy asks Atlas.

“No, Apollo’s,” I explain. “I know, it’s confusing. Levi is my half brother. Atlas and Apollo are Crystal and Ares’s kids. He’s the youngest of the two.”

“Youngest, but not the dumbest,” Atlas says, snorting.

“If you say so,” I reply.

“Don’t get all crummy on me, Max. That’s not your style.”

“Max has style?” Elliot Fletcher muses as he sits down beside me, and he punches me in the shoulder. “Good to see you finally got the girl.”

“Hold on, he’s sharing,” Heath says as he sits down across from us together with Cecelia. “With me and Silas.”

“Three boys from our family?” Sunny Reed suddenly comes to sit beside Ivy. “Damn, girl. I don’t know anyone who’d have the stomach for that.”