“Consider it done.” Sully smiled stiffly. “I’ll ensure my company sends whatever you need. And I’ll enlist my assistant to begin interviewing acceptable candidates for an extra vet.”

“You’re very kind. Thank you.” The man pressed his hands together in prayer, bowing respectfully. “Very kind.”

Sully lost his edge of coldness for a moment. “Not kind. Just grateful for the great work your team does.”

“Only because you are our role model, sir.”

Sully scowled. “Don’t push aside credit when it’s due. You picked up my work when I grew too busy to continue. I’m grateful for you, not the other way around.”

The guy just smiled evasively and bowed again, accepting Sully’s compliment but also refusing it.

I hid my wince as we traded soft grass from the clearing to the prickly undergrowth of a jungle path. This one wasn’t manicured with orchids and palms but wild and barely tamed. Parts were so narrow, Sully had no choice but to let me go, frowning with sternness. “You follow my every step. You run, and the punishment I have planned for you will be a thousand times worse.”

I nodded.

I’d already attempted escape and now knew the futility of such a thing.

I wouldn’t waste my energy trying again. Instead, I’d search for other ways to claim my freedom. Ways that might include bartering my heart in return for gaining the reluctant one in the chest of my enemy.

The rest of the ten-minute walk was silent, all while my mind tortured me with guesses of what my punishment would be. Plotted a seduction that I wasn’t brave enough to try. And did my best not to watch Sully’s sleek and powerful body, striding before me.

* * * * *

I’d had many experiences since being snatched from that backpacker’s kitchen. I’d endured more than I thought I’d ever have to face. Yet when we arrived at the home base of the staff who’d come to get us, I struggled to combine all those experiences and all those endurances into one cohesive existence.

I’d expected to be beaten, abused, and ultimately craving death by now. And yet…I drifted through a paradise. Not a paradise like the island Sully had created for girls he called goddesses but a paradise for creatures who’d suffered.

Tears sprang to my eyes as Sully and his staff strode faster, familiar with what they’d created here, unable to see the magic and compassion painting the very air within.

I stopped in the middle of a small city.

A small city hidden and protected by an island in the tropics. Huge pens made of bamboo and vine held animals of their same species. Dogs romped in one. Platforms with beds, tunnels, toys, freshwater, and food. The huge space encouraged the canines to form packs, friendships, and loll in happy contentment.

It could’ve been a scene from a Doctor Doolittle movie or some strange kind of zoo, if it weren’t for closer inspection. Each dog had something not quite perfect. A few had ears missing, a leg, a foot, a tail. Some were bald with cream smeared or bandages wrapped, some hopped, some ran—all recovered from some injury but all of them seemed so unbelievably happy. They glowed with joy. They were the epitome of grateful bliss.

Drifting forward, I peered into the next township. Skittles inched closer to my ear, almost as if aware that this place changed everything. That it broke the final chain preventing me from free-falling.

This one held rabbits. Just like the dog’s enclosure, this one housed hidey-holes, cubbies, and holes in the ground for warrens. Big piles of grass were nibbled happily by fluffy critters, their noses twitching, their bodies alert but calm. And just like the dogs, none of them were perfect. So many of them were missing an eye, an ear, and even a paw.

It broke my heart to see such bravery from such timid, vulnerable things. They didn’t ostracise each other for their disability. They didn’t let depression steal the joy of today. They were wise in their acceptance of whatever they’d endured.

Sully glanced back, noticing I wasn’t close by. He snapped his fingers, and I sprung into speed. Catching up to him, I noticed another large enclosure, this one full of mice. Wheels and tunnels, nesting boxes, and food bowls. The tiny rodents ranged from hairless to horribly scarred.

“What is this place?”

Sully grunted but didn’t reply.

His staff held no such qualms about talking to me, though. He didn’t question why I was there, where my clothes were, or how I came to be in Sully’s control, and was proud to show off his charges. “This is Serigala. It’s wolf in my language.” He beamed, waiting for Sully to pass him by to slip beside me. “Mr. Sinclair called it wolf because we have teeth to protect the weak and a pack to heal the sick.”

I gawked as we entered a modern-day structure. Thatched roof and sweeping beams but the inside spoke of technology and competence. Embarrassment filled me to be in such a place dressed only in a shirt and tie. My bare legs were visible. The silver-grey of Sully’s shirt barely hid my decency.

“Where do the creatures come from?” I asked quietly, awed and slightly frightened by the magnitude of empathy, the size of the heart required to build such a place.

Sully cleared his throat. “No need to answer all her questions, Andika.”

“Oh, I’m happy to inform her, sir.” His chest rose with pride. “All these animals have been liberated from labs around the world.”

“Labs?”

“Yes, you know. They were binatang coba…eh, guinea pigs.” He grinned. “We also have guinea pigs. We have otters and cats and fish and hamsters and pigs and—”

“Enough,” Sully interrupted. He turned and crossed his arms, his gaze navy with secrets.

“But…” I shrugged helplessly, looking around at the sanctuary this man had created. “How can you walk me through here and not give me answers?”

“This is not a school excursion, Jinx.” His face stayed remote and closed off. “You weren’t supposed to be here. This part of my life does not mingle with my main enterprise.”

“Why? Because it shows you have a heart, after all?”

Andika cleared his throat, moving off toward a paddling pool with no barriers or bars.

Inside frolicked three otters, all sleek and swift, rolling and darting through the water. One had no tail, and the other two had patches of waterproof fur missing. It didn’t matter that the tiles of the foyer were covered in water from their antics or that their happy barks pierced the otherwise sedate silence.

They were perfectly at home.

Sully looked to where I stared, flinching as an otter launched itself from the water and zipped quicksilver fast to twine and rub against Sully’s suited leg. The adorable squeaks and insistent affection whittled at Sully’s temper.

With a glower at me, he dropped to his haunches and scooped up the wriggly, besotted creature. All signs of anger and cold-heartedness vanished as the otter squirmed in his arms, rising up to rub his head against Sully’s chin. “You’re looking much better,” he murmured, stroking the sore looking skin on the otter’s spine. “I’m glad we’ve finally created a waterproof cream that’s helping.”

I couldn’t help it.

I fell.

I tumbled.

I wanted.

All control over my own emotions had been stolen by this enigma of a man. Beastly to humans. Saintly to animals. How could I not fall for a man like that? Crave to know a man like that? A man who saw the world in such black and white. Who understood what humans were capable of and turned his back on his own race to defend the creatures at our mercy.