If I had any doubts about whether I left Miko to stew too long, they vanish as soon as I lay eyes on him.
The thunderous scowl that buckles his defined brow says it all.
He closes the doors behind him with a little too much force, and they rattle in the frame as the room fills with deafening silence.
“Why didn’t you come down for dinner? Chastity said you didn’t have lunch either. Have you eatenanythingtoday?” he demands, his voice accusatory as he stalks toward me like a predator on the prowl.
The hairs on the back of my neck prickle at the anger in his voice. It triggers that icy adrenaline that used to flood my veins when Pyotr went on a rampage, and my muscles lock in place as I freeze like a deer in the headlights.
“What do you care if I’ve decided to starve myself?” I counter, my chin tipping up in a brash act of defiance. I don’t know what’s gotten into me.
Iknowbetter than to goad an angry man. Talking back only escalates a confrontation and paints a target on my mouth. Pyotr gave me more than my fair share of split lips before I managed to learn that lesson. And now, I’m about to learn it all over again.
I can see the fire that ignites behind Miko’s icy-blue gaze.
He takes a meaningful step toward me, his hands coming up as he closes the distance between us with frightening ease.
After a day full of agonizing over this moment—the moment when Miko would choose to act upon his growing frustration with me—my frayed nerves can’t take it.
I feel them snap inside me as my body goes numb.
He’s going to hit me.
I flinch, bracing for a backhand as the truth comes crashing home—then I pause, confusion clouding my vision when the blow doesn’t come.
And in the split second of stillness that follows, I panic. Before I have time to process what happened, my flight instincts kick in.
Barefoot and without a plan, I bolt for the door.
19
MIKO
Anika cringes from me with such blatant fear, it stops me in my tracks.
Her eyes pinch closed as she turns her face, bringing her shoulder up as if to brace for a slap.
It’s clear from her response that this isn’t about being scared of me. This is an instinctual reaction that can only be developed through experience.
Just like that, everything I thought I knew about my new wife shatters.
My initial assessment of what Anika must have been through fell far short of her reality.
And in the moment when time stands still, the truth comes crashing through me like a freight train.
Then, in a flash, she’s sprinting toward the bedroom door.
Damn, and I thought she was fast before.
She’s almost too fast now that she’s barefoot, and the realization that she might actually get away floods me with anxiety.
I tear after her, worried about where she might run if I don’t stop her.
Now that she’s mine, she has no reason to fear my men—which is why it was safe to give her freedom to move about the property.
But we have plenty of enemies outside those borders who would go after her to hurt me.
“Anika!” I call, sprinting down the hall as she slingshots herself around the corner of the stairs.
