My eyes skated to my bed and the tie he’d wrapped around my throat on Serigala. I’d thrown it there when I’d stumbled into my villa an hour ago, and it lay against the virginal white sheets like a deadly premonition.

I had no time to change or grab any supplies—already he’d almost vanished down the sandy pathway.

With a muffled curse, I darted after him. Doing my best to keep my robe tight around me rather than loose and revealing.

He didn’t slow his pace, guiding me through parts of the island I’d already explored and into the jungle where I hadn’t. Orchids faded in favour of glossy banana plants and other fruit trees I didn’t recognise.

Darkness had descended, stealing the rest of coppery twilight and making everything monochrome. The sand still radiated heat beneath my bare feet, and my hair rapidly dried in the warm humidity.

The skies above, stencilled with palm fronds, were endlessly clear. No rain would fall tonight…not after the storm that’d ended my escape.

I continued chasing Sully until he turned down a side path, overgrown and not nearly as welcoming. Wariness ghosted down my spine as we entered a clearing within an enclave of thick bushes and silken foliage.

No Pika flew with him. No Skittles flew with me.

We were utterly alone as he marched toward the rundown villa sitting squat in the centre of the clearing.

Waiting for me to catch up, he pinned me to the spot with a sinister stare. “You ran from my generosity. Therefore, you must return to my unkindness.” Turning the door handle, he shoved the entrance open and threw me inside.

I tripped over the threshold, blinking in the blackness.

A switch clicked and lights rained from above, spilling into shadows, chasing away obscurity.

Once again, the villa had sweeping high ceilings, thatched roof, and exposed beams like its other counterparts, but unlike the animal hospital on Serigala, Euphoria and its fancy technology, or my cosy elegant villa, this one held nothing of wealth.

This one held cages.

Lots and lots of cages.

Some small and stacked on top of one another, cob-webbed laced and dust sprinkled. Others had fallen from their tower, laying on top of one another with opened wire doors and bent metal walls.

And two large ones sat in the middle of the room, large enough for a primate…or person.

The air smelled metallic and rusty with the faint whiff of cadaver.

Goosebumps scattered down my spine. I did not want to be here. The memories of these cages. The stories they told. The suffering that’d happened inside them. Some of the bars still held maroon stains of shed blood. Others clutched at tufts of fur like trophies with tight wire hands.

Where did these awful things come from?

Sully wrapped possessive fingers around my nape and marched me forward.

I shuddered from the scalding, sinning electricity that ricocheted from him to me.

It didn’t matter that we caused a blend of heightened energy whenever we touched. It didn’t matter that my heart went from worried to winging.

Everything about our connection was chaotic, including the absurdity that my core clenched from being held so primitively.

I’d read that humans had evolved from animals so long ago that we could no longer be classified as beasts. However, the instinct whenever a male clasped the nape of its lover triggered a feral response. An impulse to cower and obey. To submit entirely.

I fought against that instinct as Sully pushed me toward one of the large cages. Without a word, he threw me inside and slammed the metal door shut. With a padlock from his pocket, he locked me in.

My bare feet bruised from the wire beneath them. Claustrophobia rose, seeking desperately for a way out.

My breathing turned shallow, but I forced myself to stand there. To lock gazes with the man who’d just proven his point extremely eloquently.

His island might be a trap, but he granted our every whim.

This was true captivity.

A cage that I could barely stand up in. A box that wouldn’t allow me to lie down, nor held any comfort or kindness.

A true emblem of imprisonment.

For the longest moment, Sully stood on the other side of my cage. His jaw clenched and hands shook. He looked conflicted with regret but also cruel with resignation.

I wished I knew how to speak to his regret. To know the right things to say—to entreat to the part of him that did care. The man who held an otter with such sweet affection and who kissed a parrot on his head.

But for all my belief that I’d begun to understand him, I’d only made it worse.

Please think of me as an animal, so you’ll like me.

Ugh!

What a ridiculous thing to say.

I drowned in embarrassment, flushing with heat.

Shaking his head, dispelling the same pain I’d seen in him when Skittles had landed on my shoulder, he raked a hand through his hair and straightened his spine.

Holding out his hand, he ordered, “Give me your robe.”

I backed up until my shoulder blades clanged against the bars behind me. “Please…can’t I keep it?” I looked around at the bareness. The island temperatures ensured it remained warm, even in this horrific place, but the historic screams of the cage’s prior inhabitants turned the air icy.

I didn’t know how long he intended to keep me in here, but I didn’t want to be naked. I didn’t want to be so…vulnerable.

“Robe, Jinx. I won’t ask again.” His hand remained steady by the bars, waiting for me to obey.

I’d never been very rebellious as a child, but the inner brat inside me wanted to throw a tantrum. To rattle the bars. To bounce in the box. To scream and refuse. To turn as wild as this cage said I was.

But…decorum was my final threshold. Everything else had been stripped from me.

With a tattered breath and feeble rise of my chin, I undid the belt and slipped the softness off my shoulders. I winced as the wire beneath my toes hurt, moving toward him to press the only thing I had into his awaiting hand.

The moment it filled his palm, he yanked it through the bars and tossed it on the floor. Silently, he stalked to the back of the villa where yet more cages rested. Some long, some skinny, some rusted beyond use, and others scarily new.

He returned with a tray and a stool.

Every footfall of his expensive shoes echoed in the depressing place, bringing him back to me. I wrapped my arms around my breasts as he slammed the stool in front of my cage then unlocked the door and placed the tray at my feet.

Stepping out, he slid the padlock back into position before unbuttoning his blazer and sitting majestically on the stool. Legs spread with arrogance. Power dripping from his perfectionism. His beauty once again a monstrous sin.

He kept revealing parts of himself, keeping me walking a tightrope of hope and despair. One moment, I believed he was redeemable…lovable. The next, I wanted him to die a horrible, miserable death.

His stare travelled over my body while his voice gravelled with aggression. “This is what’s going to happen. You are going to obey my every request. If you do what I ask, we shall negotiate your length of residence in this cage. If you don’t, then I’ll decide how long you need to be punished.” His ocean gaze darkened. “And believe me, Jinx…you have a lot to be punished for.”

Twice he’d called me Jinx.

Not Eleanor.

Tonight, it seemed he wouldn’t slip between names. He was resolute with his torture, teaching a runaway a lesson.