CHAPTER 5

Grave's POV

I built the Iron Revenants on spilled blood and a name no one dared whisper twice.

By forty-two, I had buried more men than I could count, and trust me, didn’t lose sleep over it. If anything, I slept better with each one gone. That’s what happens when your reputation walks into a room before you do.

Loyalty keeps you alive in my world.

Disloyalty? It will get your face smashed into the pavement before your mama can cry over your bones.

I don’t pretend to be a good man. I am the man that good men send for when things get dirty.

And right now?

I am about ten seconds from dragging my own son outside and reminding him why this empire was built in my name, not his.

I missed his wedding, Killian’s big day, because some dipshit crew out of Phoenix thought they could start flexing on my turf. Took me three days to remind them how I handle threats through silence, fire, and bullet holes.

By the time I got back, the vows had already been exchanged, and the party was over.

And now Lyra Kane, Vincent’s daughter, was sleeping under my roof.

She was twenty-four with striking green eyes, a sharp tongue and a body built for sin.

She moved like a threat. Eyes always watching, calculating. Like she knew she was deep in enemy territory and didn’t plan to die quietly. That girl had steel under her skin, and the second I laid eyes on her, I knew she wasn’t just a bride.

She was a goddamn bomb.

And yet... I couldn’t stop looking at her.

Every inch of her made me hard in a way that twisted something dark inside me. It wasn’t just lust, it was… obsession. I have had sex with more women than I care to remember, but none of them made my blood run hot just by existing in the same space.

But Lyra did.

And that made her dangerous because I wanted her.

Wanted her naked. Bruised. Claimed. Screaming my name with blood on her lips.

Unfortunately, she’s my daughter-in-law, my son’s wife.

It was a line even monsters like me aren’t supposed to cross.

Still, when I saw her last night—broken, drunk, unraveling—and she looked at me like I was something safe, something good?

It damn near snapped my spine in half.

I carried her upstairs, tucked her into bed, and spent the rest of the night hard as stone, thinking about the way her body fit against mine. Small, soft… trusting.

I should have been disgusted, but I wasn’t. Instead, I was hard as hell.

Still am.

A knock pulled me out of my thoughts.

“Come in,” I said, already knowing who it was.

Killian stumbled in like a drunk freshman. Eyes red. Shirt wrinkled. He smelled like coke, cheap perfume, and stale sweat.

Pathetic.

This is the man I’m supposed to hand my kingdom to?

He dropped into the chair across from my desk like he owned the place.

“You wanted to see me?” he slurred.

Didn’t even have the respect to ask before sitting.

I stared at him, letting the silence stretch long enough for his arrogance to start sweating.

Then I spoke quietly.

“Tell me about your wife.”

His eyes darted. “What… what about her?”

“How are you treating her?”

“Fine. She’s… adjusting.”

“She’s adjusting, huh,” I echoed, leaning back in my chair. “That what you call it when she walks in on you high as fuck, balls-deep in two whores you pulled from the clubhouse floor?”

His face turned pale. “What? No! Dad, let me explain…”

I slammed my palm down on the desk, the sound echoing through the room.

“Explain what, Killian? How you offered your wife a front-row seat to your drug-fueled gangbang? How you mocked her while your dick was down some whore’s throat?”

He shrank into his chair like the coward he was.

“She’s probably a spy,” he muttered. “You know Kane. He probably…”

“I don’t give a fuck if Vincent sent her here to light the whole goddamn clubhouse on fire.” I stood up slowly, letting every inch of me radiate threat. “You married her. That puts her under my protection now.”

He blinked and swallowed nervously. “You are siding with her?”

“I am protecting my empire and the woman you humiliated in front of half the compound happens to be wearing our name now. You wanna air out family business in front of club rats, go ahead. But don’t be surprised when your balls end up hanging from the front gate.”

I came around the desk like a predator circling a bleeding animal. My boots echoed against the hardwood, one sound for every sin my son had stacked against me.

“You humiliated her. Instead of making her feel safe, you threatened her life. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel?

“Dad, I…”

“It makes me want to put a bullet in your brain and start over with someone who isn’t a complete disappointment.”

The words lingered in the air like gun smoke, a silent threat. Killian had seen me kill. He knew I didn’t bluff.

“Everything you have… every dollar, every privilege, every breath you take… exists because I allow it.” I stopped directly in front of him, towering over the pathetic sight he had become. “And right now, I am questioning whether you deserve to keep breathing.”

His hands shook against the arms of the chair. “I am your son.”

“Barely.” My voice was pure disgust. “A real son would protect what belongs to the family. Would understand that when a woman takes our name, she becomes sacred. But you? You are too busy getting high and sticking your dick in anything that moves to remember what honor means.”

I leaned down until we were eye to eye, letting him see the animal under my skin. “Let me make something crystal clear. Lyra is mine now. You lost any claim to her the moment you disrespected her. Mine. And I protect what is mine.”

“She’s my wife…”

“On paper.” My smile was cold enough to freeze blood. “We both know you are not man enough to keep a woman like that satisfied. Hell, you can’t even stay conscious long enough to fuck her properly.”

His face burned with humiliation, but he didn’t dare look away.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” I went on. “You are going to clean up your act. No more drugs. No more whores. You are going to apologize to her, and you are going to start treating her with the respect she deserves.”

I straightened, looking down at him like the insect he was. “And if you don’t, I will strip you of everything and throw you out of this compound with nothing but the clothes on your back.”

“You can’t…”

“Oh, I can do whatever the fuck I want. This is my kingdom. You exist in it only because I haven’t decided to kill you yet.” I turned my back on him and returned to my chair, settling behind my desk like a judge passing a sentence.

“Twenty-four hours,” I told him. “Get clean, apologize to your wife, and start acting like a man. If you can manage that, I might let you keep your inheritance. But understand that Lyra is under my personal protection now. Anyone who threatens her, disrespects her, or causes her harm will answer to me. And that includes you.”

He nodded urgently, his bravado gone. He scrambled to his feet and bolted like the coward he had always been.

My pulse still thundered, not from rage. But because of her.

Lyra Kane Maddox. My son’s wife. My enemy’s daughter.

I had seen her strength last night. Seen the steel under her softness. Felt it when I carried her to her room, her body trusting me even as she slept.

I should have been thinking strategy. Instead, all I could think about was the way she smelled—whiskey and wildness, like danger I wanted to taste.

She had no idea the most dangerous man in Arizona had just claimed her.

But she would learn.

Because tonight, when the engines quieted and the house slept, I was going to pay Lyra a visit.

And nothing in this compound would ever be the same again.