Page 2
First Lesson
Cat tightened the sash of her robe as she stepped into the dimly lit room, her bare feet making no sound against the cool floor of the Dungeon. She should’ve felt ridiculous—standing in nothing but silk, ready to enter a simulated world built to break her. Or make her.
She’d gotten a few ground rules. One, it didn’t matter what you wore getting in the chair because the virtual program decided those things. Two, it was virtual. Not real. But it would feel very real. And AL had been clear. Almost suspiciously clear. This was just a first step. A preview . A chance to see what she was in for before Ethan walked her into it himself.
She exhaled slowly. Deliberately. It’s not real. But it feels real. All virtual.
Her limbs shook as she approached the chair.
“Nervous, Kitten?”
Cat nearly jumped out of her skin at AL’s humored question.
“You scared the shit out of me!” She climbed on as he chuckled. “You be nice!” she whispered.
“You’re ready for this.”
She did her best to settle into the sleek chair at the center of the room. The curved arms adjusted automatically, fitting like it already knew her shape. The glasses sat beside her, a simple device—thin, unassuming. Nothing about it hinted at the world she was entering.
AL guided her patiently with precise node placements, then, “And now the glasses,” he coaxed.
She swallowed hard and put them on.
Darkness. Then light. Then—
“Oh shit,” she gasped, now standing. Not in the room she’d first entered.
She looked around at the large space filled with opulent red and black decor. The smell of tobacco and cherries and something else she didn’t know but wanted to, hung in the air. She closed her gaping mouth and swallowed, eyeing the dark walls, wondering where the flickering light on its stone surface came from.
Everything around her suddenly felt sharper. Heightened. Then she felt him.
Spinning around, her breath caught in her throat at finding a tall figure at the far end of the room, facing her. Shit. Here we go .
Her heart hammered when he moved. Oh God. He was coming.
With every stop he took, the room around her changed. She wanted to look and see but his hard, bright stare gripped her tight. Halfway, she saw he wore fitted leather pants and gloves, his etched muscular torso crossed by leather straps in an X.
Dear God.
Dark hair reached his shoulders and a leather mask covered his lower face, illuminating those flashing eyes. Green she finally saw.
Her mouth was bone dry from all her gasping. Six feet away, his pace suddenly slowed to something ghostly and drifting. And then he was there, directly in front of her. Two heads taller and requiring her to look up into eyes that reminded her of untouched moss set on fire. The beauty was striking and strangled the air right from her lungs.
“Kitten,” he murmured.
Her throat let out a small squeak at recognizing the voice. “A-AL?” she gasped, needing to know.
“Here, I am Zero-Sum,” he said, his eyes indicating he might have smiled. “You may call me Zero.” His gloved fingers wrapped around her hand, the sensation so real it nearly choked her. “Welcome to our Dungeon. Are you ready for me to take you to the Crucible Chamber?”
Her mouth moved with attempted questions while sputtering out gasps.
“That’s where your lessons will be given,” he explained, his voice smiling as his eyes lowered slowly over her. The second they did, she felt what she wore. Red leather bodice, and matching panties with red spiked heels. She even remembered putting them on!
Just an illusion. Just an illusion.
His gaze found its way back to hers and there was nothing illusionary about it. His gloved thumb barely stroked over her cheek. “You have nothing to fear in here, Kitten.”
He turned and kept hold of her hand, leading her. Only two steps and the next room came to them, melting into the existing one until only varying shades of black décor surrounded them. The sight of a single, leather straight back chair in the center of the room drop-kicked her courage, bringing the instinct to yank her hand from his and run. Instead, she gripped his fingers tighter, earning her a smoldering green glance over his shoulder.
With every step, more furniture came into view or materialized, she wasn’t sure which. Was almost like the room was being dreamed up as they went.
He released her hand, but his fingers took their time leaving hers. He turned and faced her, and she stood with fists at her side, desperate to look around to see what else was there, what awaited her.
She realized he seemed to be waiting for something. Or someone?
Oh God. Big G? Did he also have a body in here? Why in God’s merciful holy name did they not think to warn her of that?
Probably because it’s not supposed to be a big freaking deal. Settle the hell down.
She glanced around quickly, only seeing shadows, then looked back at AL. Not AL. Not AL ever again. Forever and always him. Zero. He stood with his hands behind his back, eyes sharp on her. Watching.
Was she supposed to do something? Was this part of the test?
“Your first and greatest challenge, Kitten, won’t be the acts themselves,” Zero said, finally. “It’ll be surrender.”
Her stomach clenched.
“Surrender to Ethan,” he continued, voice like velvet and iron even behind the mask. “To his control. His authority. His need. And it will test you in ways you don’t even know exist yet.”
Her breath shook its way out of her nose as she managed a nod. “I’m… I’m ready.”
His eyes almost softened and she imagined a smirk behind the mask. “Are you?”
Definitely a smirk.
Her pulse spiked as he took steps toward her. “Then prove it,” he challenged, when exactly before her.
His closeness sent her pulse running, along with her first directive. Prove it? How? “What do I…”
He reached out and she glanced down at his hand, hovering next to her arm. Close enough to feel the heat of it. “You’re here to understand. I’ll show you.”
Her skin burned beneath his gaze.
“It’s not real, Kitten,” he coaxed, voice low. “Just a taste. A preview of what submission truly means.”
Cat’s heart slammed against her ribs. She couldn’t speak. Or even nod.
He tilted his head slightly, his gaze sliding down and stopping right on her breasts that were stuffed into a leather prison too small. He kept it parked there till an electrical fire erupted on her skin. “Are you ready to be Ethan’s Good Girl?”
Oh hell. Hell and Hades. Her yes was more of a gasp, so she added her nods with it.
He circled her now. “The point of this test,” Zero murmured, “is to prepare you. Ethan will require complete submission. He won’t demand it—not outright. He’ll never force you. And when the time comes, he’ll test just how much you’re capable of surrendering.”
Her breath hitched as his words wove around something deeper in her gut, something she wasn’t ready to acknowledge.
The idea he could teach something like this, demanded the obvious how ?
He stopped behind her, close enough that she felt his heat. “The first lesson,” he said at her ear. “Is understanding that you belong in this space.”
A strange chill moved up her spine.
His mouth moved to her other ear. “Understand where Ethan has put you.”
Her stomach clenched, pulse kicking against her ribs.
“Tell me something, Kitten.” His voice simmered, but it didn’t lessen the weight of it. “Do you trust Ethan?”
Cat blinked, thrown by the question. She nodded. “Yes,” she added in a whisper.
“Good.” He moved in front of her and gestured at the chair. Not a throne. Not a prison. And yet it felt like both.
She exhaled slowly. “You want me to sit.”
“Not want, Kitten.” His voice curled around her, velvet and steel. “ Need .”
Her fingers twitched at her sides as she struggled to get at the meaning of such a mundane task while at the same time untangling herself from his burning mossy stare.
She stared at the chair for many seconds.
It’s just a chair. It’s not a trap. It’s not an obstacle course. Now sit in it.
Her pulse pounded in her throat as she took a step forward, the instant wobble reminding her of the hazards strapped to her feet.
Zero said nothing. Didn’t guide her, didn’t push. But the weight of the chair mystery did both.
Finally at the suspicious piece of furniture, she turned. Her legs pressed into the cool leather as the weight of Zero’s gaze harassed her. What she did next felt heavy. Like how she sat. She surely never had no chair training.
Zero gave a sound of curiosity. “Interesting.”
She swallowed, looking at him, her pulse acting up. “What?” she barely cried, quietly. “I know how I sit is probably part of the test and I never had no kind of chair training.”
She wouldn’t say how stupid the idea was since it likely had a whole other meaning to them.
His head tilted slightly. “I can see you want to sit,” he marveled lightly. “But you don’t want me to see you sit.”
Her stomach clenched as she realized he wasn’t entirely wrong.
“Kitten,” he softly cajoled. “This isn’t a test of strength. It’s a test of surrender.”
She held her jaw, feeling it want to shake. “Well, those two seem to be… the same thing to me.”
“Because you think surrender is weakness.”
His words cut deep then wormed into places even she rarely visited. She took a slow breath through her nose, grounding herself. “I trust Ethan,” she said carefully.
He nodded, and stepped closer. “Do you think Ethan trusts me?”
His soft, hot challenge made her hesitate and that single beat of silence became her answer.
Sit in the damn chair.
She quickly lowered her butt onto the very edge, body bracing for some mysterious impact.
“You chose to sit,” he said, or graded, sounding too impressed for such silliness. His thumb brushed over her shoulder, deliberate and slow. “Are you ready for what comes after?”
His touch and tone put her right back in the panting house with flinching fingers.
He did that curious sound again, like a hum.
A slow beat of silence passed, and Zero lowered onto a leather chaise next to the chair, one leather boot planted on the floor, the other on the furniture, leg stretched out. He locked his hands behind his head with his legs cocked open. Watching her.
Cat froze at sensing a shift in the room. A slow, measured sound filled the silence. A footstep. Then another.
Oh shit. Cat swallowed hard, frozen in panic, wanting to turn but too afraid to see. The presence was behind her chair and felt massive—not just physically, but in force, in something unnamable.
“She sat.”
Her breath caught at the unmistakable sound of Big G’s voice. And it wasn’t a question, it was a velvety smooth statement that moved over her like smoldering fire.
“She did,” Zero said, almost sounding impressed. But not quite.
Cat swallowed at hearing the slide of something along the leather chair behind her. His hands? “What do you think, brother?”
“So much difficulty in our Kitten,” he said, sounding forlorn.
Cat’s stomach dropped as the weight in the room shifted again. Her muscles froze as Big G moved into the edges of her vision. With every step he took, her eyes chickened out and lowered. When he finally stood before her, she was staring at mirror black dress shoes.
“Hello Kitten,” he said softly.
Her eyes slowly rose over black slacks. Her breath and gaze froze on the tan skin above the waistband of his pants. Her eyes meandered along the intricate inkwork framed by a black suit jacket. Inch by inch, her gaze moved higher then paused at the tattoos on his neck. Her breaths trembled as she approached the most terrifying part of him.
“There she is,” he murmured when her eyes made it to his face and got locked in tight. He could’ve been Ethan only his wavy ebony hair reached his shoulders. His eyes were like pitch, hot and burning on her. But his mouth… dear God. A perfection that could wreck a whole world.
His gaze was unreadable as his head tilted slightly. “In here, you call me Omnis. And you greet me with a kiss.”
He presented the back of his hand, and she stared at the tanned silky skin lined with thick veins.
In here, you call me Omnis.
Her eardrums filled with her pulse beating like war drums.
It’s not real. It’s an illusion. He’s a… digital Ethan.
She leaned in and placed a quick kiss on the warm skin.
His hand eased back to his side. “You’re sitting for two reasons,” he informed, back to the lesson. “Because you were asked to sit. And you were allowed to sit.”
The words landed with an odd weight in her mind while her mouth tingled from the realness of his skin.
Zero gave a curious hum, watching her closely.
Omnis exhaled slowly, deeply. “But I want you to sit because you belong there. “
She remembered Zero saying that. Learning how to… belong.
The towering god in a suit watched. Waited.
Zero also studied her, or waited for her to understand something.
Cat’s fingers flexed in her lap, feeling their eyes on her. Trying not to wonder where on her they were.
She focused on the belonging part of the lesson.
You’re supposed to belong in this chair.
This is your chair.
Yours to own and claim .
The whole concept of owning a chair and belonging in one was so weird to her. Her paw-paw would probably get it perfectly. He sat in his favorite one most of the day.
Determined to do her best, she sat up a little straighter.
Omnis’ head tilted slightly. “There it is.”
She glanced at Zero, his green eyes lazily assessing her while surprised by the difference such a little adjustment in her posture had produced. Even she felt it.
She turned her gaze up to Omnis, waiting.
His dark eyes held hers till the entire room began to fade. “Now let’s begin.”
The room and the air itself took off for the races but Omnis didn’t move from where he stood. Didn’t speak. He just continued watching. Waiting for something .
Cat tried to discern the meaning of his stare—it wasn’t like Zero’s, not taunting. All assessing and testing. But blast it, testing what ?
She resisted the urge to shift in her seat, feeling like that would mean something. Likely something wrong. So she kept herself frozen in place, daring half a glance at Zero, still lounging, also still watching. Even with the mask, he looked entertained.
“She sat,” Zero said lazily. “She straightened.” He paused, tilting his head. “But does she stay?”
Cat’s pulse kicked up at the hint. Stay. Why wouldn’t she stay? Did she look like she might not? Should she not? Was she supposed to move?
Omnis’ head angled. “Good question.” He took a slow, deliberate step forward, filling her entire view. At the edge of her gaze, Zero turned his body toward her with a slow eagerness, bringing a sense of something coming.
Omnis didn’t touch her. “What’s the first rule of this kind of control?”
Cat exhaled slowly, her brain a scattered mush. She remembered the only word that might fit. “Trust?”
One brow lifted. “And do you trust Zero?”
Her lips parted and Zero chuckled, deep and rich.
Her mouth shut, realizing it was another test. Another one she didn’t understand.
“It’s a yes or no question,” Zero hinted again, like that made it easier somehow. But it didn’t. It just made failing easier.
She forced herself to meet Zero’s eyes. Did she trust him? “I—”
He propped up his head with a hand, like a boy watching the animal freaks at a circus.
Do you trust him.
…Yes.
…No.
Not the way she trusted Omnis. And Ethan.
Zero was unpredictable. Wild. Calculated in ways she couldn’t quite track.
But he hadn’t hurt her. Hadn’t tricked her. Hadn’t forced her into anything.
That she knew of.
He’d revealed things, which… somehow, could be worse.
Omnis continued watching her hesitation like a hawk.
Zero sighed and reclined on his back. “You’re thinking too hard, Kitten.”
Her pulse pounded, not finding anything useful in his hint.
Omnis exhaled. “Let me make it simpler.” He moved. One second in front of her, the next somewhere behind her. She was stuck in the frozen prison again, her spine stiff. Zero had turned on his side again, head propped on his hand, back at the circus. Only something different flickered in his eyes now. Something sharper.
“Stay still,” Omnis said, just behind her.
Cat’s breath locked.
A hand hovered above her shoulder. Waiting.
Her pulse jumped while Zero gave one of those curious hums. No, not curious. That one was hungry .
The hand lowered.
Onto the arm of the chair.
Right next to her arm.
His presence surrounded her, quiet and massive, caging her without a single touch.
He leaned forward slightly, speaking just near her ear.
“If you obey me,” he murmured, “it’ll be because you choose to—not because you’re compelled or commanded. But because you understand exactly why you want to.”
Cat’s stomach flipped at the words and the warmth on her ear.
“I didn’t tell you to move, did I?” Omnis further asked.
Her hands tightened in her lap. “No.”
His voice stayed quiet. “Then why do you want to?”
A shiver worked through her.
Zero—who had been silent for too long—finally leaned forward. “Because she doesn’t know who she’s listening to yet. She sat for me.”
Omnis’ hand flexed on the arm of the chair. “But will she stay… for herself ?”
Herself?
That was an interesting twist. And another odd concept. Self. But in the swamp, there was no such thing. You lived to survive, you lived to serve others. Was that somehow tied, and she just wasn’t seeing it? This was about helping Ethan, so self didn’t necessarily mean selfish.
But what did it mean in this?
Will I sit for myself? Will I stay for myself?
Choice. That was it. Choosing something. For herself.
Omnis still didn’t move.
Zero didn’t push.
The silence stretched and then her shoulders eased. Her breath let go.
Omnis released a breath as well and Zero relaxed into the lounge with a soft, “Atta girl.”
The weight of Omnis behind her eased as he straightened. “She’s ready,” he said simply.
Cat swallowed hard. All of that just for sitting. And owning her choice. What the heck was the next?
The moment Omnis stepped back into the shadows, Zero shifted. Not physically—Cat realized immediately—but internally, like he’d just decided exactly how to handle his favorite new toy.
She forced herself to meet his gaze, pulse pounding unevenly in her throat.
“Yes or no, Kitten,” Zero murmured softly, leaning forward just enough to tighten the tension. His eyes glittered sharply. “Do you trust me?”
She hesitated, thoughts tangling the same as they had moments ago. “Yes,” she forced, sure she did, enough to qualify as a yes.
Zero sighed softly and reached out, leather fingertips grazing the back of her hand. Her breath stuttered, fingers twitching beneath his touch. “You’ve proven you can stay,” Zero purred, voice velvet-dark. His fingertips encircled her wrist, warm and sure. “I’m here to see how far you’ll go before you break.”
Cat shivered, her pulse racing.
Zero hummed softly, his thumb slowly rubbing circles into her wrist, heating her skin. He leaned further in, his mask brushing her ear as he whispered, “Stay perfectly still.”
The words sank into her, heightening her anticipation. Her fingers clenched involuntarily and Zero slowly traced the line of her jaw with his other hand. Gently. Possessively.
Cat held her breath, muscles tightening with determination as Zero’s face moved to the corner of her mouth—close, intense, and patiently waiting.
Cat closed her eyes briefly, drawing in a trembling breath as his fingertips gently traced upward along her arm, leaving a scorching trail of sensation.
“Don’t move,” he reminded, voice silky yet commanding as his finger glided slowly over her chest, back and forth.
“Look at me,” he ordered quietly, his gaze hot as the sweep of his finger swept lower and lower with each pass.
Once she was locked in his gaze, she sat frozen, spine rigid as his finger slowed to a crawl at her breasts. The moment his touch found her nipple, she failed the test with a full-body jolt.
Zero eased back, his gaze still boiling on hers. “You lose,” he murmured, returning to his cocky recline on the lounge, hands behind his head. “How does defeat feel?”
Cat’s pulse was still galloping from that brief, electrifying touch. How did that even prove trust? “That was… reflex, not choice.”
Zero’s gaze sharpened, studying her carefully. He tilted his head as if noticing something new. “Tell me what you think pain is.”
The abstract question caused her stomach to twist. “It’s… a feeling. That hurts. Something people avoid. Usually.”
Zero’s hum wasn’t impressed. His gaze deepened as he returned to the space he’d occupied before, stiffening her spine. He took her wrist in one gloved hand and traced a line slowly up her forearm. “Pain is currency,” he said softly. “It’s how you pay for truth.” His green eyes lowered to her mouth. “How you earn trust.”
The words unsettled her in curious ways, crawling beneath her skin with the promise of rocking her tiny little world.
Omnis shifted subtly behind her, just enough to remind her he was still there, watching closely, observing everything.
Zero leaned closer, his eyes intense above the mask. “That’s how pain works with Ethan.”
His thumb brushed slowly down her arm, his gaze unwavering. “Pain is Ethan’s language. You give him safety and trust through it.”
Her heart pounded against her ribs, the words digging deeper under her skin.
“You hesitate because you doubt. But pain is exactly what makes him feel safe.” Zero gently but firmly pressed his fingertips against her pulse. “So, how about a test,” he whispered, voice dark and challenging. “Give me pain.”
Cat stared back breathlessly, realizing she was at the place she’d always dreaded arriving at. Giving pain. “I know that he wants pain,” she whispered, shakily. “But… how did we go from… trust to giving pain? Who is trusting who? With what? And why?”
“Ethan already gave you everything,” Zero whispered, his gaze almost fierce. “ His pain. His control. His trust.” He paused, letting her feel it. “It’s yours. He’s giving up his control and trusting you to give him pain.”
Her mouth worked with tangled protests. “I… I was able to understand that but… why?” she gasped. “Why pain? Why should hurting be something that makes him feel safe? Help me understand this.”
Zero hummed, an approving sound. “Because not all pain is the same.”
His thumb traced over her wrist in slow, deliberate circles. The motion was soothing. Which only made it worse.
“There are three kinds of pain,” he murmured. He stared at her wrist where he continued heating her skin. “Some pains break you.” His gaze moved up to hers, darker. “Some pains heal you.” His grip on her wrist tightened. Just enough for her to feel it. “And some pains ground you.”
Her stomach clenched as awareness sank in, too deep, too fast.
He let the words press into her. Let them settle in all the spaces she couldn’t run from. Then he added, “But Ethan needs something more.” His fingers tapped against her wrist. Soft. Rhythmic. Knowing. “He needs a special mix that only an angel can give.”
The words slid under her skin, tangled in her ribs, wrapped around her throat.
Zero tilted his head. Slowly. Watching her unravel.
“The ghosts that haunt him,” he whispered. “The ones he can’t escape… the ones that live in his head.” The fire in his green eyes simmered on her. “When they come for him… what do you think happens?”
Her chest tightened.
“He drowns.”
Those words nearly suffocated her with the need to protect him.
His head shook slowly. “And no one is strong enough to pull him out. No one but you.”
The words sliced through her, clean and deep as her lips parted, airless, soundless.
“And when the woman he loves…” he continued, “…mixes that grounding pain with pleasure?” His grip tightened on her wrist and she felt it everywhere. “Then you have a weapon stronger than any pain.”
She swallowed when her throat threatened to lock up.
“One that can remake him.” His fingertip barely grazed the edge of her jaw. A featherlight touch that brought a slow, steady burn beneath her skin. “Reshape him.” Zero’s gaze locked back on hers. “Into whatever you want.”
She exhaled hard, her lungs forgetting what to do with air.
“And he trusts you to know what that is.”
She wanted to protest at those words. Of reshaping him into whatever she wanted. Instead she focused on understanding what he just taught.
Because Ethan had already given her everything.
His pain.
His control.
His trust.
And she was supposed to figure out what to do with it and how to do it.
Zero shifted, the movement subtle, patient. But when he spoke, it wasn’t patient. “Are you ready, Kitten… to become his salvation?” He pulled her wrist in and moved his masked mouth over it. “This is the hand that will break him,” Zero whispered, eyes raising to hers, now darker above his mask. “You need to be taught how to use it.”
Omnis was suddenly there, a ghost from the shadows. “And that will be tomorrow’s lesson.”