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Like a wild animal, endlessly chasing its prey.

Except I don’t want to kill Ethan. I want to claim him, taste him, know him.

I want to set him free.

“Mr. Romano, we need to talk about your grades,” Professor Wilkam calls to me as I’m about to walk out of my last class of the day. I actually made it to every class today, though whether or not I paid attention is another story.

“Can that wait?” I ask her, though I’m sure from the look on my face it doesn’t seem like asking.

She shakes her head. “I’ve waited long enough. I know your family is important in this town, but that doesn’t mean you get special privileges from me.”

I sigh and step farther into the room. A few more students leave, their eyes on us.

“Mrs. Wilkam,” I start, she corrects me.

“Professor.”

“Professor Wilkam,” I say. “Am I passing?”

She looks down at the papers in her hands. “Yes, but I believe you could do so much better if you applied yourself. Your absence rate is the highest out of all my students this year.”

“I’ve had a lotta family emergencies,” I insist, pulling my expression down, along with my shoulders, in an attempt to appear pitiable.

She eyes me. “Sometimes we have to put ourselves first. Now, I have three extra credit assignments for you to do before winter break. If you do these, the next few essays, and put some effort into the final exam, it will raise your grade from just passing to succeeding.”

I look down at the papers in her hand. “What exactly does ‘succeeding’ mean?”

“You’ll go up to an 85%. I can’t control what you do in the rest of your classes, but I’m offering you this here,” she says.

I snap my gaze back up to her, and she takes a step back. I see the reflection of my glare in her eyes. The darkness she sees in my gaze makes her so uncomfortable that she has to clear her throat and compose herself.

“Fine,” I say simply, and take the papers.

If it’ll get her off my back, I’ll take them.

Do them? I’m not so sure.

I have more important things to worry about right now—even more important than Ethan in the grand scheme of things.

The family has been receiving threats from one of our rivals, the Greivan family. They’ve been a part of the mafia world just as long as we have, but they lack the power we have. They’ve been trying to force our hand to merge for years, but the outcome would weigh heavily in their favor.

Needless to say, my family’s repeated rejections have made them increasingly bitchy.

After I leave campus, I hand deliver a letter from my father to the don of the Greivans, Callum Greivan. He’s older than my father, and it’s no surprise that he has so many guards surrounding him.

The dick can’t fight for himself.

“Here to make a deal?” Callum asks with a sly smile. I’ve approached him in public, knowing that he always comes to the park in the early evening to bird watch…or so he says.

The young men he blackmails into joining his family don’t look like ducks to me.

Sure, my father has interesting ways of expanding our family as well, but Greivan is just desperate.

“You wish,” I tell him, smirking right back at him. He can’t see any amount of irritation or annoyance on my face. Letting him think he’s getting to me is the last thing I want to do.

I sit down next to him on the bench and pull a thick envelope out of the inside pocket of my jacket. Without even looking at him, I offer it with a flick of my wrist.

“If your Nicholas wants to talk with me, he can face me himself,” Callum insists.