“Second: you will eat what I prepare for you. No skipping meals. No refusing food. Your body needs to stay strong.”
“I’m perfectly capable of feeding myself. I’ve been doing it my whole life.”
“You weren’t doing it last night. You skipped dinner. That stops now. I decide what goes into your body from this point forward.”
Her cheeks burned. “Third?”
“You will stay away from Adrian Vale—completely. No conversations. No lingering glances. No private little meetings in corridors. If I see you near him again, the consequences will be immediate and memorable.”
“Adrian is the only person here who’s actually tried to help me without treating me like a possession. You can’t just forbid me from talking to him.”
“I can and I have. He touched what belongs to me. That alone is enough reason.”
“Fourth: you will attend the gala with me, dressed and presented exactly as I decide. No exceptions. No negotiations. You will stand where I tell you, wear what I choose, and behave like the claim you are.”
“The gala is weeks away. You expect me to just… stand there like a trophy while you parade me around?”
“Exactly like a trophy. Because that’s what you are now. My trophy. My claim. My proof to everyone in this place that you belong to me.”
“Fifth: you will sleep in this bed every night. No exceptions.”
“I have my own room. My own bed. You can’t just—”
“Have you already forgotten your things are already here. You’re not leaving.”
“Sixth: you will remain in this room unless I accompany you. No wandering the corridors alone. No trips to the library without me. No leaving this tower without my permission.”
Lyra’s laugh was sharp and incredulous. “You want to keep me locked up like a prisoner?”
“Like something precious. Something that needs protecting. Something that is finally, completely mine.”
“Seventh and final: you will take the birth control potion I give you every morning without fail.”
She stared at him, chest heaving. “You’re going to drug me every single day?”
“Only until you understand that this is permanent. Refuse, and we’ll see how well you look carrying my child.”
Lyra’s hands tightened at her sides. “Do you have no friends of your own to give your attention to?”
Caelum’s smirk returned, sharp and amused. “You don’t have friends either, Lyra. How convenient that we both have all the time in the world to fuck like rabbits.”
She went bright red, embarrassment flooding her face.
He continued smoothly. “Follow the rules like a good girl and I will deliver the potion to you every morning. Refuse, and we’ll see how well you look with my child growing inside you.”
She swallowed hard. “Have you always been this crude? Were you this controlling with your past lovers?”
He stared at her for a long moment, gray eyes unblinking. “You’re the first. And the last.”
She scoffed. “There’s no way you were a virgin before last night.”
The silence stretched. He simply held her gaze until the truth settled in her chest like a stone.
“Oh,” she said quietly.
Caelum closed the distance between them in two measured steps. Before she could retreat, his hand cupped the back of her neck, and he kissed her—deep, explicit, claiming. His tongue pushed past her lips, stroking against hers with slow, possessive thoroughness, tasting every corner of her mouth as if erasing any lingering trace of the world outside this room. When he finally pulled back, his voice was low and dark against her lips.
“I cleansed your mouth with our cum yesterday. Now it belongs to me too.”
