Nathan's eyes opened, red-rimmed and wondering. His hand came to rest in my hair, not guiding, just connecting. I held his gaze as I worked him with all the skill Gabriel had drove into me, but none of the detachment. Each sound Nathan made, each tremor through his body, belonged to me now. Chosen instead of commanded.
When he came, it was with my name on his lips and fresh tears on his cheeks. I swallowed everything, then crawled up his body to settle in his lap, my thighs bracketing his hips.
"Now I hunt for me," I said, and felt the truth of it settle into my bones.
Nathan's hands found my waist, holding gentle even as understanding dawned in those green eyes. "Bunny..."
"Not Bunny." I pressed my forehead to his. "Not Lilah either. Something between. Something new."
"What are you planning?"
I'd spent three days thinking about it while the chemicals cleared and the conditioning settled into new patterns. Gabriel was out there, wounded but not finished. Behind him, an entire structure that had made me and others like me. The Institute, whatever shadow organization had funded the systematic destruction of women and men alike.
"They think they made a weapon," I said, rolling my hips slightly, feeling him harden again beneath me. "They're right. But weapons can turn on their makers."
"That's dangerous thinking." But his hands tightened on my waist, and I could see the part of him that understood. The thief who'd walked into places he shouldn't, taken things that weren't his. We were alike in that way—both of us living outside the law's protection.
"Everything about me is dangerous." I lifted up, then sank down onto him in one smooth motion that made us both gasp. "Might as well use it."
This coupling was different from our desperate collision on the bloodstained floor. Slower, more deliberate. I rode him with careful precision, watching his face transform with each movement. Nathan's hands mapped my body like he was memorizing me, learning the new shape I was taking.
"Tell me," he said, voice wrecked. "Tell me what you're planning."
I leaned down, lips brushing his ear. "I'm going to find them. Every handler, every trainer, every financial backer who thought they could craft girls into dolls." My nails found his chest, tracing patterns. "Going to show them what their creation can do when she's not leashed."
"That's not healing." But he was moving with me now, hips meeting mine in rhythm that felt like understanding. "That's revenge."
"Maybe they're the same thing." I bit his earlobe, gentle but with promise of teeth. "Maybe sometimes you have to burn something down to build something better."
My nails pressed deeper, drawing the shape I'd been planning. A rabbit—not cute, not sweet. Something with teeth and claws and the patience of prey turned predator. Nathanhissed at the pain, but didn't stop me. When I pulled back to look, thin lines of red marked him. My signature. My claim.
"Say it," I demanded, still moving on him, feeling the edge approaching.
He knew what I wanted. Could see it in my eyes, the need to hear truth spoken aloud.
"You're not his Bunny." His voice broke on the words. "You're mine."
The orgasm hit like revolution—violent, transformative, remaking me from inside out. Nathan followed, my name a prayer and a curse on his lips. We collapsed together, breathing hard, marked by each other in ways that went beyond skin.
Later, showered and dressed, we sat at his kitchen table with coffee and plans. I'd found his laptop, started researching. Three days of careful searching had turned up threads—shell companies, property records, medical supply orders that didn't quite match their destinations.
"The Institute isn't one building," I said, showing him what I'd found. "It's a network. Connected but deniable. Each node operates independently, but they share resources. Trainers, subjects, clients."
Nathan studied the screen, his mind parsing patterns. "Decentralized. Smart. Harder to take down."
"Unless you know how they think." I pulled up another file. "Gabriel trained me. Taught me to read people, predict behavior, understand systems. He never considered I might use that training to read him."
"What did you find?"
"Patterns." I smiled, and knew it wasn't a nice expression. "He has habits. Preferences. I have three years of data about where he goes, who he contacts, how he moves through the world. He thought he was teaching me to be perfect for others. Instead, he taught me to hunt him."
Nathan's hand covered mine. "This is dangerous. If they realize you're coming..."
"They made me to be invisible until I strike." I turned my palm up, lacing our fingers together. "Besides, I won't be alone."
"No," he agreed. "You won't."
We spent the rest of the morning planning. Nathan knew systems—how to break them, how to slip through cracks, how to make security work against itself. I knew people—how to read them, manipulate them, become whatever they needed to see until it was too late.
