“I’m going to take a shower,” she said finally.“It’s been a long day.”
Not asking permission.Not explaining.Just informing me.
I should have said something.Should have reminded her who she belonged to.Should have demanded to know why she hadn’t called me the moment the crisis began.Should have pinned her against the doorframe and finished what I’d started with that kiss.
Instead, I watched her walk away.Watched the sway of her hips, the straight line of her spine.Watched her disappear around the corner, taking her scent with her.
The wolf howled in protest, but I held him back.If I followed her now, I wouldn’t be able to stop.The need was too strong, the bond too insistent.I would have her against the shower wall, on her bed, anywhere she’d let me take her.
And then I would claim her.
And then I would destroy her.
Coward, the wolf snarled.She handled a crisis without you.Remind her who owns her.Claim what is yours.
I poured another whiskey and watched the snow fall.
Hours passed.I didn’t move from my chair.Didn’t eat.Didn’t do anything but sit in the growing darkness, watching the snow accumulate on the windowsill while the whiskey burned slow and steady in my chest.
The fire had burned low by the time I heard her moving through the manor.Her footsteps on the stairs, then silence.She’d gone to bed.
I sat in the dark, the empty glass in my hand, and let the wolf rage.
Today I had sat across from vampires, creatures I was born to hunt, and my mind had wandered to a human girl’s scent.Today someone had sabotaged her hotel, put her in danger, and she had handled it alone.Today my brother had noticed my distraction.
Viktor would tell Max.He always told Max.
And Max would have questions.Questions about the Hughes contract.About why I’d been distracted during the Diamantis exchange.About whether I was losing my edge over a human girl who should have been nothing more than a means to an end.
She is ours, the wolf insisted.Take her.Use her.Break her.That is what the contract allows.
But that was the problem.The contract allowed me to take her body.It didn’t explain why I couldn’t stop thinking about the way she’d handled that crisis.Couldn’t stop replaying the moment she’d walked into my study with her chin lifted and her shoulders straight.Couldn’t stop wanting to drag her back here and remind her who held the leash.
She’d proven today that she didn’t need me.That rankled more than it should have.
Break her pride, the wolf suggested.Remind her who owns her.
I thought of Lena in the shower, water running over skin I’d touched but hadn’t claimed.The memory of her kissing me back, fury meeting hunger, her fingers twisted in my shirt.
I would take what the contract entitled me to, put her back in her place, remind her that independence was a privilege I could revoke at any moment.
But tonight, in the silence of my study with the collar glinting on my desk, I couldn’t shake the image of her standing in that doorway.Exhausted and proud and not asking my permission for anything.
Somewhere in the manor, she slept.Unaware that someone wanted to hurt her.Unaware that the man who’d contracted her was already planning how to remind her who was in charge.
Tomorrow, I would make her understand.
The wolf paced and snarled, and I poured another whiskey, letting the burn settle in my chest.
She was a contract.A possession.A means to destroy her father’s legacy and complete my revenge.
Nothing more.
16
LENA
I woke feeling stronger than I had in weeks.
