It had been four days since the “run” in the woods, and I was no closer to getting those screams out of my head. Nicolae was seldom around the condo, at least, which proved to be a blessing. I didn’t know what to say in those moments he was around, so I avoided him and for the most part, he let me.

He seemed oblivious to the effect of those words he’d spoken in the forest. The few times we had talked, he’d been almost pleasant, just like before. I knew he wanted me to fear him, so I wasn’t sure why he was acting so surprised now that I acted like I did.

The wolf I now recognized as Mason came in and out most days to discuss various happenings within the pack with Nicolae. It wasn’t until he’d slipped up once and called Nicolae “father” that I realized the truth of their relationship.

It might have been obvious, if it wasn’t for the chilled, professional nature of every word that passed between them. After all, Mason had Nicolae’s handsome features right down to the uncomfortably blue eyes and diamond jawline. His hair was just as dark, even if it was cut short. Maybe it was just that Nicolae didn’t look old enough to have a son Mason’s age, but I knew from Leonie’s lessons that wolves aged slower than humans did. She came over nearly every day to have coffee with me and fill me in on all the knowledge Nicolae didn’t have time for. I still felt like I knew next to nothing about wolves, and the more I learned, the more that feeling grew—but I was studying harder than I ever had in my life with the knowledge that the more I learned, the more I could help Ellie.

The more I learned about them, the easier it would be to escape from them, too. But I had already come to terms with the fact that it wasn’t going to be a simple matter of running as soon as Ellie was back. Nicolae’s influence was vast, and with two prominent packs who wanted Ellie, hiding would not be easy. We had only gone undetected as long as we had because Clarksville was protected.

All my life, I’d dreamed of escaping that town, and now it seemed like the only sanctuary left for us. The only place we could be free of Nicolae and the Majerus pack.

That night, Nicolae came home in good spirits, which immediately put me on edge. Before I could disappear into my room, he called, “Wait.”

“What is it?” I asked warily. Please, God, not another run.

“We’re going out,” he announced. “I have news from the Court, so get dressed. The clothes Leonie brought you, not yours,” he added, already pouring himself a drink.

My heart had sank the moment he walked in the door, but now it was in my throat. Was this it? The news we’d been waiting for? Nicolae had kept me on a need to know basis ever since the run, and what he thought I needed to know about the claim he was filing with the Court to petition for Ellie’s return was next to nothing.

I dressed quickly and found him waiting at the door. “You look nice,” he remarked.

I stared at him. For all I’d learned to pretend, I still couldn’t pretend like a kind word was natural coming from his lips. “Come on,” he said when he got tired of waiting.

I followed him onto the elevator and decided he was in a good enough mood that I could venture to ask, “Where are we going?”

“There’s a restaurant the pack owns downtown,” he replied. “I figured you’ve been cooped up so long these last few days that you’d like the chance to get out.”

I wasn’t quite sure that cooped up was the right word for it. I could come and go as I pleased, and the condo itself was like a city, full of shops and restaurants. Most days, I just didn’t feel like exploring. All I did was wait. Feel useless. Sleep without resting. It was an endless cycle and every day that passed, I felt more trapped by my own inability to do anything that mattered.

I didn’t want to believe that Nicolae’s words were part of it, but deep down, I knew they were. They haunted my dreams and stung more than Francesca’s jabs ever had. Maybe it was because Nicolae so easily articulated everything she’d always wanted to say and hadn’t had the courage to. Or perhaps, everything she’d always pitied me too much to say.

You trapped her…

She settled for you…

If it hadn’t been for you, she’d still be alive.

And was he wrong about any of it? Of course not. It was nothing I didn’t already know, but hearing it in his voice… the same voice that could command me and override my will with its powerful frequency. It made it impossible to keep living in denial, even for the odd moments I’d allowed myself before.

The restaurant wasn’t far. The wolves owned most of the block, as I’d come to realize. “Money talks, and no one’s louder than Nicolae Ursache. Not in this country, darling,” Leonie had remarked at our last meeting.

Why Nicolae had decided to take me out was another matter. Something told me it wasn’t because he was just in the mood for a chat. I was pretty sure I fell somewhere between a fake plant and a wall when it came to people he would want to talk with.

I followed him inside, and the dim lights made my eyes ache. The restaurant was full of the drone of meaningless conversation and the lighting was giving me that “none of this is real” feeling I usually only had after a few too many drinks. The hostess greeted Nicolae by name with a flirty little smile before taking us to a private table by the window.

The city was beautiful at night, and it occurred to me that I still didn’t know where we were. The menu was engraved with “Avenue, Fine Dining in Bucharest.” At least now I didn’t have to ask Nicolae. He’d probably just mock me for being geographically illiterate.

“Is there a reason you brought me here?” I asked once he had a little wine in him. I was pretty sure even he wasn’t going to come at me in the middle of a crowded restaurant, and he needed me alive, but after his freakout in the woods, I was more reticent to trust him than ever.

Trust was a funny word. It didn’t mean what I once thought it did. I’d once trusted Francesca, and look where that ended up.

“As I said, there are things we need to discuss,” he said, leaning back from the table. The fancy-ass chair was hardly built to accommodate a man as big and broad as he was, but I doubted he’d fit in a booth any better. As it was, his legs were already stretched out under my side of the table. “I’ve spoken with the Court and filed my petition for Ellie’s return.”

That made me perk up. I could tell from the look on his face that my reaction amused him, but I didn’t care. That was one step closer to bringing Ellie home, or at least back to me. “That’s great news. That means we can go get her, right?”

“Not yet. There still has to be an investigation.” He took a sip of his wine, leaving his rare steak untouched. “The Court will want proof of paternity, which means they’ll want access to you.”

I frowned. “I thought you said—“

“It doesn’t matter. It’s unavoidable that they’ll want to know who she belongs to biologically, but as long as they think she’s yours for the time being, that’s all that matters.”

It took a moment to swallow the implication, but I reminded myself, and not for the first time that day, that it didn’t matter. “So what’s the next step?”

“That is what I wanted to talk to you about.” The way he was watching me made it all but certain that I wasn’t going to like his plan. It was just a matter of wondering whether I’d survive it. “As I mentioned, due to Francesca’s impetuousness, my claim to her is tenuous. However, her claim to you is not.”

“I thought you said human marriage meant nothing to wolves.”

“It doesn’t, but surely Francesca marked you as hers by wolven tradition.”

“Marked me?” I frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“You’ll have her family crest somewhere. She wouldn’t have let you go sixteen years without it. Maybe she scratched it into your ass while you were passed out drunk and you’ve never even seen it.”

“Crest?” I murmured, touching the spot on my arm where that bad ink job sat. “My tattoo?”

Nicolae reached over and started unbuttoning my shirt. I pushed his hands away, but he tugged my shirt down over my left shoulder enough to reveal the top half of the tattoo. “Hey!”

“That’s it,” he announced.

I looked around to make sure we weren’t being watched, but the table was secluded enough. Suddenly, I wasn’t sure that was a good thing. “The fuck are you saying, Francesca tricked me into getting a tattoo I hate so she could show she owned me?”

“It was for your protection, if that makes you feel any better. So other wolves, among other things, wouldn’t touch you.”

“It really doesn’t,” I muttered. This whole thing had been an exercise in emasculation. My buddies had always joked that Franny wore my balls around her neck on a gold chain, but those days, I at least felt the need to check just to make sure.

“In any case, I have an offer to make. One that would guarantee my claim to Ellie as my daughter without question.”

God, those words stung. “Whatever it is, if it’s to protect Ellie, I’ll do it. You know that.”

“You might want to wait and let me tell you what it’ll require of you first.”

“So say it, then,” I muttered, chugging wine.

“I would have to take you as my mate.”

I started coughing and the wine got up my nose. When I finally collected myself, Nicolae was looking at me like I was some savage again, even though he’d timed that fucking bombshell. “Excuse me?”

“I’m afraid I’m not joking,” he said, all smug and more prickish than usual. It didn’t help that he looked the way he did. If I didn’t hate his fucking guts, I’d have been attracted to him.

Who was I kidding? My dick didn’t have those kinds of standards.

“I’m human.” That was by far the least troubling aspect of the equation, but it was as good of a place to start as any.

“It doesn’t matter. Just because we don’t take humans as mates doesn’t mean that we can’t. It’s just frowned upon, because there’s the risk of a bite turning one feral, but it’s not forbidden.”

“I still don’t get how this is supposed to help Ellie.”

“My claim to Francesca is in question, but her claim to you is valid by law. If I take you as my mate and mark you as she did, there will be no doubt. You and all that belongs to you, including Ellie, will be mine,” he answered. “It’s ironclad.”

I listened even though part of me was still convinced he was fucking with me. “And being your mate, that would involve…?”

“Mating?” He raised his eyebrows. “Yes, that’s generally how it works. Forgive me, I didn’t imagine that would be an issue, considering that you are homosexual.”

“Homosexual?” I wasn’t sure whether to address his terminology circa the nineteenth century or his assumption about my sexuality.

“We’ve been sharing close quarters for a week now, Jack,” he answered casually. “Your pheromones don’t lie. Even the day we met, when I stood before you naked and human, I could sense your desire even through the fear and hatred.”

His accusation seemed to erode what little dignity I’d managed to keep with every word. Of course, I knew the wolves probably had a heightened sense of smell, but pheromones? That shit was fucking humiliating.

Worst of all, it was probably true. I hadn’t been consciously checking him out that day. My thoughts were definitely on other things, but I was attracted to him in spite of myself, and the realization that I hadn’t kept it under wraps was more than a bit flustering.

“If this is your idea of a joke—”

“It isn’t. Of course, the choice is yours, but I would advise you to think quickly. The sooner you’re marked, the sooner Ellie will be returned.”

My head was aching already, and not just from the wine. I’d already made up my mind. Still, I knew my perceived indecision was the only leverage I had to get answers. “What would being your mate entail?”

“You are a human, so the rules are different from one Alpha mated to another. You would be treated as my property, but with that lowered status comes protection.”

“How generous of you.”

He smirked. “You’ve already been part of one sham marriage. What’s another?”

My blood was boiling and I wanted to run my steak knife through his hand, but instead, I sat there and behaved because taking shit from him meant sparing Ellie. “I’ll do it. But you know that, don’t you? You just like to taunt me, because it makes you feel better about the fact that even if she stopped loving me toward the end, at least Francesca did love me at one point. That I made her feel something you never could.”

Nicolae’s hand moved so fast I didn’t see it until it was wrapped around my wrist, crushing my bones. I refused to flinch, but holding his gaze was harder than bearing the pain. He yanked me out of my chair and over to his side, his other arm wrapping around my back as he pulled me onto his lap like I weighed nothing. To anyone who happened to be at just the right angle to peek into the private section, it might have looked like a lover’s embrace rather than the power play it was.

“I will not kill you because I am honor bound,” he said in a whisper that felt like knives gliding along my neck. It made me shudder, and not entirely for the reasons it should have. “But I don’t have to touch you physically to ruin you.” His hand closed around the back of my neck and something about that touch, as uncharacteristically gentle as it was, made me fall apart. My fingers bit into his shoulders and my heart thundered so loudly he must have heard it. My eyes fell shut and I tried and failed to swallow as his lips grazed my neck, pure temptation and torture. “And I will take great pleasure in doing so, Jack Mullins. Francesca’s human pet,” he spat before dumping me onto the floor.

By the time I’d caught my breath and pulled myself up, Nicolae was already reaching into his pocket. He lit up a cigarette and tossed a credit card on the table before standing and smoothing out his jacket. “Keep the card. Most of our kept mates find shopping to be a diversion. I trust you can find your way back home.”

“I trust you can find your way back to hell,” I muttered, getting back to my feet. Not exactly my best comeback, but my head was still spinning for all the wrong reasons.

The rough handling didn’t bother me. It was Nicolae’s uncanny ability to rip away my defenses and reveal the very hidden desire he stirred that made me feel vulnerable. To know that he was not only aware of it but planning on using it against me to exact a revenge far subtler than bloodshed.

I dusted myself off and finished the bottle of wine to steady my nerves and come to terms with what I’d just agreed to. To willingly subjugate myself to the man I hated, the man who’d laid claim to my wife’s heart before we’d ever even met and held onto it long after.

For her, I reminded myself as I waited for the check to come. Anything for her.

Even if it meant belonging to a monster.