She’d signed.
I’d known she would.There was never any other option, not with the debt I’d orchestrated, the pressure I’d applied, the careful web I’d spent years spinning.But knowing and experiencing were different things, and the savage satisfaction that had roared through me when Parsons texted the confirmation was something I hadn’t anticipated.
Mine.The word pulsed through me, and I didn’t know if it came from the wolf or the man.Perhaps both.
I stood at my office window, watching the afternoon light slant across the gardens without seeing any of it.Tonight she would come to me.Tonight the arrangement would begin.Tonight I would have her in my house, in my space, surrounded by my scent with nowhere to run.
The wolf stirred, pleased.Mate.Ours.Finally.
I ignored him.She wasn’t my mate.She was revenge made flesh, a pawn in the game I’d been playing since I was old enough to understand what my grandfather had done.What Richard Hughes had helped him do.The daughter was simply the most effective pressure point, and if I happened to enjoy breaking her, that was a bonus.
My cock twitched at the thought of her on her knees.Those soft lips parted.Those defiant eyes forced to look up at me while I fed my cock between them.
I let myself imagine it.The way she’d tremble when I ordered her to strip.The way her pulse would jump when I touched her for the first time.I’d start slow.Make her kneel.Make her crawl.Teach her that her body belonged to me now, every inch of it, and I could look at it whenever I pleased.I’d spread her open and inspect every pink fold of her cunt, learn what made her wet, what made her gasp.And when she was finally ready, when she was desperate and aching and begging me to take her…
Would she cry?Would she beg?Would she fight?
I hoped she’d fight.Just a little.Just enough to make the surrender sweeter.
A knock at the door interrupted my fantasies.
“Come.”
Parsons entered, his face carefully blank.I knew that expression.It meant news I wouldn’t like.
“There’s been an incident at the hotel.”He handed me a tablet with security footage queued up.“Someone left a package for Miss Hughes this morning.She opened it in the lobby.”
I watched the video.Watched her face shift from confusion to recognition to horror.Watched her scream, the sound silent on the footage but visible in every line of her body.Watched the small broken thing roll out of the box and the note flutter to the ground.
I’M WATCHING.
The wolf surged up so fast I nearly shifted right there in my office.Red hazed the edges of my vision.My hands shook with the effort of keeping my claws from emerging.I could feel my bones wanting to crack and reform, my teeth wanting to lengthen into fangs.
Kill.Protect.Someone touched what is ours.Find them.Rip their throat out.
“Who.”The word came out barely human, more growl than speech.
“We’re investigating.No cameras caught the delivery.Whoever did this knew the building layout.Knew the blind spots.”
Someone had terrorized her.Someone had made her scream in fear.Someone had touched what belonged to me.
I forced myself to breathe.To think.To be the calculating predator I’d made myself into, not the rabid beast I’d been born.
I hadn’t ordered this.I wasn’t behind it.
But someone had done me a favor.Fear was useful.Fear made people dependent.Fear pushed them toward the only safety available.
And tonight, I would be her only safety.
“Keep investigating,” I said, my voice steadier now.“Find who’s moving on my territory.”
“And Miss Hughes?”
“She comes tonight as planned.”I turned back to the window.“No one terrorizes her but me.”
Parsons withdrew without another word.He knew better than to question me when the wolf was this close to the surface.
But the wolf wasn’t satisfied with orders and investigations.He wanted blood.Wanted to tear something apart with his teeth and claws until the rage burning in my chest found an outlet.
