Prologue
Blood. His blood, spreading across the white shirt, blooming like some terrible flower from his shoulder. Nathan stood in the doorway, gun steady despite the tears still tracking down his face.
"I can't let you keep her." His voice came out wrecked but determined. "Not again. Not after what you did."
"What I did?" Gabriel laughed, the sound wet and wrong. "I made her magnificent. You were preparing her for—"
The world went red.
I moved without thought, pure instinct driving my body toward threat. Toward Nathan. My scream wasn't human— of conditioning colliding with animal protective rage. He'd hurt my Daddy. Shot him. Made him bleed.
Nathan saw me coming but didn't raise the gun. Didn't defend when I hit him full force, momentum carrying us both to the ground. My nails found flesh, teeth seeking throat, every careful lesson in control abandoned for feral protection.
"Bunny, stop—" But his words meant nothing against the roar in my head. Daddy was hurt. Daddy was bleeding. This threat had to be eliminated.
I clawed at his face, drawing parallel lines of red down his cheek. My knee found his ribs, driving air from his lungs. The gun skittered away across the floor, but I didn't care about weapons. I had teeth and nails and pure killing intent.
"I won't hurt you." Nathan caught my wrists, holding them away from his eyes but not fighting back. Not really. "I won't—I can't—"
"You shot him!" The words tore from my throat, raw and breaking. "You shot my Daddy!"
"He's not your—" Nathan's voice cracked as I wrenched one hand free, nails seeking soft tissue. "Bunny, please. You know what he is. What he did to you."
"He made me his." Simple truth through the chaos. "His to keep, his to protect, his his his—"
My elbow caught Nathan's jaw, snapping his head back. I pressed forward, grinding against him in confused aggression, body trying to hurt and claim and destroy all at once. Could feel his chest heaving beneath me, the careful way he controlled his strength to avoid truly damaging me even as I tried to tear him apart.
"That's my girl." Gabriel's voice cut through the frenzy, fond despite the pain. "Look at her, Nathan. Look at what proper conditioning creates. She'd kill you for me, wouldn't you, sweetheart?"
"Yes." No hesitation, no doubt. Would tear Nathan's throat out with my teeth if it meant keeping Gabriel safe. "Mine to protect. Mine to keep safe."
"Bunny." Nathan's voice broke completely. "This isn't you. This is what he programmed you to be."
"Same thing." I drove my forehead into his nose, felt the crunch of cartilage. His blood mixed with Gabriel's on my hands, painting me in competing loyalties. "I am what Daddy made me."
Nathan made a sound between sob and groan, still not fighting back with real force. His hands caught mine again, holding them still but not hurting, never hurting even as I tried to end him.
"I love you." Quiet admission through blood and tears. "Not what he has trained you to be. You. The girl who sang in the shower and stole my hoodies and made bad jokes when she was nervous. That was real."
"Lies." But something cracked in my voice. "All lies for the sale."
"No." He shifted beneath me, not throwing me off though he could have easily. "There is no sale, whatever he told you is a lie Bunny."
"How touching." Gabriel had managed to sit up, one hand pressed to his shoulder. Blood seeped between his fingers, but his eyes stayed sharp, amused. "Nathan Cross, compromised by his own asset. Rather defeats the purpose of retrieval, doesn't it?"
"Shut up." Nathan's attention stayed on me even as he addressed Gabriel. "You did this to her. Made her into something that can't tell love from ownership."
"I made her perfect." No apology in Gabriel's voice. "You tried to make her ordinary. Which one of us showed more respect for what she could be?"
I snarled, pressing harder against Nathan's grip. He was distracted by Gabriel, guard dropping, and I used it. Twisted free and drove my fist into his solar plexus, putting all my weight behind it. He folded, breath exploding out, and I was on him again.
"Don't talk about him." Punctuating words with blows. "Don't look at him. Don't exist near him."
But Nathan caught my wrists again, rolling us so I was pinned beneath him. Not hurting, just containing, his weight careful even now. Blood from his nose dripped onto my face, and I opened my mouth to catch it. Taste of copper and betrayal.
"I'm not going to hurt you." He said it like a promise, like prayer. "No matter what you do. I'm not going to hurt you."
"Coward." I spat blood back at him. His blood, marking him with his own weakness. "Too soft to do what's necessary."
