I pull at a loose thread on my cardigan, my head swirling as I try to coax out what needs to be said.
“The day you found me in the pool was the day after I’d had a meeting with my father.”The words feel sticky, like they don’t want to be said, but I know I have to do this.He needs to know.“I knew it was something important because he called me into his office.”
Fenrir watches me carefully, his silence pulling more from me than any question ever could.
“He was behind his desk, his fingers steepled, his gaze making my skin itch.I felt like I was five years old and was being scolded for breaking a priceless vase or stealing cake from the kitchen.”I wrap my arms around myself, the heat from the fire suddenly disappearing.
“He told me I’d be married by my twenty-first birthday.That he was arranging it.”
Fenrir doesn’t flinch.But I know he’s listening—really listening.
“I asked him what he meant—if I’d heard him wrong.And then he told me there’ll be an auction.That I’ll be one of several women, and that he’s set a price for me.”I shake my head, bile rising along with the words.“He said my ‘beauty and purity’ would make me the most valuable.”
The fire suddenly feels too far away, the cold creeping up my arms.
“I couldn’t even respond at first.I just sat there, numb.And then I asked him, ‘My purity?’Because—what the hell, right?”I glance down at my hands.“That’s when he said he pays my bodyguards not just to protect me… but to keep me untouched.”
I can barely say the words.My voice cracks around them.
“He said purity adds value.That it makes me more desirable for the men who’ll be bidding.He called them buyers, not suitors.Not husbands.Buyers.”
I let out a slow breath.“There’s a whole schedule already planned—events, meetings.All of it just for these men to assess me like I’m some asset.A fucking product.”
I look back at Fenrir, my voice low, almost a whisper.“And that’s why I was in the pool that day.Because for the first time in my life, I truly understood what it meant to be owned.And I didn’t want to be.”
I’m his daughter.
His flesh and blood.
And he’s selling me to the highest bidder to keep his empire running.
“And do you know what stung the most?”I ask Fenrir, not waiting for him to answer because right now, he looks like speaking would hurt.“Just before I left his office, he told me not to fuck this up.”
My eyes lift to meet Fenrir’s once again.He hasn’t moved.I don’t think he’s even breathing.There’s a heat to his skin that I’m sure has nothing to do with the fire, as he looks to be seething, as if his anger is simmering on the surface.
“As you know, I don’t like to bow out of a fight, and his parting words felt like a red rag to a bull.So, I thought about how I could fight him, how I could make sure I wasn’t sold like a piece of meat to a guy I’d never met before and would have to live the rest of my life with.Even after my father’s death, I’d still be shackled to this life, to a man I don’t love, to a man I didn’t choose.To a man who thought it was okay to buy his wife and her fortune.To a man just like my father.”
Fenrir blinks.“So, you chose death.”
I hold his gaze.“I chose death.”
* * *
FENRIR
My jaw clenches so tightly I’m surprised my teeth haven’t shattered.It’s a good job we’re hundreds of miles away from Barrett Devall.If not, I’d hunt him down and put a fucking bullet right between his eyes.
I can’t promise I won’t the next time I see him, because this is unbelievable.Although, it isn’t.It’s exactly the kind of thing a man like Barrett Devall would do—isdoing.He’s a powerful man, and powerful men don’t get to where they are without doing some downright ugly things, some of which I’ve done for him myself.
But Hayami is his daughter, his flesh and blood, his legacy.Why would he do this to her?Why would he auction off her body, her life, her soul?
I’ve seen evil.Smelled it.Felt the lick of it upon my skin.But that man….Fuck.That man is on another fucking level.
“I thought death was the only way out.But then you saved me, and my father employed you as my bodyguard.Probably to keep me in line.I knew no one believed me when I said I was just floating in the water, and I know my father upped my security and alerted all the staff that I was to be put on suicide watch, so I had to come up with another plan.Some other way to get back at him.”
Something clicks in my head.
“That’s why you’ve been so calm about being here, because you’ve got away from him, away from whatever he’s planning.”
