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I froze.

It couldn’t be. My eyes darted to Sienna’s sleeping form. Had she gotten involved with anything else? I didn’t think so, and she only did work for her stepfather’s company.

Me: Does it say what Sienna has to do with it?

Aiden: Just to stop going after their men, or they’ll go after Sienna. And this time, she wouldn’t be auctioned off, but hunted.

The threat hit me like a blow.

My entire body tensed, every muscle locking at once.

Me: Hunted?

Aiden: They sent a rather graphic video. Forwarding now.

My phone buzzed, and the video that filtered through froze me. I stared at the graphic image of a young, unknown girl running naked and barefoot through the forest while being hunted by men with guns, bows, and knives like she was an animal.

The intent was very clear, and it made my stomach churn.

I couldn’t breathe. The outcome the short video conjured was worse than anything I wanted to imagine—Sienna hunted through the dark, naked and terrified, then being caught.

Over. My. Dead. Body.

Sienna must have felt the change in me.

She whimpered softly against my chest, her fingers tightening against me while she tried to make herself smaller. Her whole body curled inward, as though she could somehow disappear beneath my arms and become invisible. I could feel the tremor running through her, and it only made the anger burn hotter.

My jaw clenched.

I tightened my hold around her, shielding her with my body as if the threat were already here.

Me: They won’t touch her.

Aiden: Agreed, but what is her connection to all of it?

Me: Don’t know, but I’ll find out.

I looked down at a restless, still sleeping Sienna in my arms and put my big palm against her pale cheek. It calmed her down, but I knew if she learned of this text exchange, it would set her back.

So, I resolved not to tell her anything. Instead, I’d protect her at all costs.

After all, she was mine now and under my protection. The wedding ring I would put on her finger in one day was just a symbol so the world would know it too.

THIRTY-ONE

SIENNA

Istood in the bathroom of our shared bedroom, staring at my reflection in the mirror. The woman staring back at me was barely recognizable.

There was a softness to my features, a strange brightness beneath my skin, as though I’d somehow acquired a glow-up simply by having Tyran back in my life. It was almost laughable, considering what had brought him to me and that he’d been back in my life for less than a week.

Nothing about our reunion had been even remotely normal. It had been complicated and tangled up in circumstances that were fucked up, if I was being honest.

And yet, somehow, I looked… different. Happier, perhaps. Or maybe just more alive.

I rested my palms against the cool marble countertop and leaned closer to the mirror, studying myself as though I might find an explanation in my own reflection.

There was none, but a single thought that dominated my entire day.