"I'm not angry." He set down the glass, standing. "I'm not angry. I'm just..." He trailed off, his hands clenching at his sides. "I'm just tired."
He walked toward me, his movements slow, deliberate. He stopped in front of me, his eyes searching mine.
"You're not going to choose," he said. "Are you?"
"No."
"Then what are you going to do?"
I reached out and touched his face. His skin was warm, his jaw tight beneath my fingers.
"I'm going to stay," I said. "And I'm going to take what I want."
He kissed me. It was not gentle. It was desperate, hungry, the kiss of a man who had been waiting for something he was afraid he'd never have. I kissed him back with the same desperation, my hands tangling in his hair, his body pressing against mine.
He undressed me roughly, his hands everywhere, his mouth following. He was not gentle. He was not careful. He took what he wanted, and I let him.
"Say my name," he said. "Say it when you come."
I said his name. Over and over, until it was a prayer and a curse and everything in between.
When it was over, he held me. His arms were tight around me, his face buried in my hair.
"I'm not going to share you," he said. "But I'll wait. I'll wait as long as it takes."
I didn't answer.
I didn't sleep that night.
I lay in the dark, my body aching, my mind racing. I thought about Aleksander, about the way he'd held me, the way he'd said he loved me. I thought about Nathan, about the way he'd taken me, the way he'd said he'd wait.
I thought about Gabriel. About the life he'd offered me, the clean slate, the fresh start.
I thought about the cages. The warehouse. The things I'd seen and done and agreed to.
I thought about the girl I used to be—the farm girl who'd wanted to be a veterinarian, who'd believed in saving things, who'd thought she could heal the world with steady hands.
She was still in there somewhere. Buried. But not gone.
In the morning, I stood at the window and looked out at the city.
"You're still here."
I turned. Nathan was standing in the doorway, his hair disheveled, his eyes dark. He looked like he hadn't slept either.
"Where else would I go?"
"Anywhere."
I walked toward him. He didn't move. I reached up and kissed him—soft, quick, a promise.
He didn't respond. He just looked at me with those dark eyes, searching for something I wasn't sure I could give.
"I'm not going anywhere," I said. "Not yet."
Aleksander appeared in the doorway behind him. He was dressed, composed, the mask back in place. But I saw the softness in his eyes, the vulnerability he tried to hide.
For the first time, the three of us were in a room together without fighting.
I looked at them—father and son, predator and heir, the two men who had claimed me in different ways. I thought about Gabriel, somewhere across the country, starting a new life without me. I thought about the farm, the barn, the girl I used to be.
I was standing in the space between them. Not chosen. Not choosing. Just... there.
I was the crack in the glass.
And empires fall from the smallest fractures.
