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Maybe that’s what terrifies me most.

That even after everything—after blood and blades and forest soil smeared across my back while he fucked me until I forgot how to breathe—part of me wants him to come back.

Part of me wants him to touch me again. Wants both of them to touch me.

Part of me wants to see what happens next.

Andthat?

That’s the part I don’t know how to kill.

The shower hisses to life, steam beginning to curl into the air as Rule turns the handle. The sound is almost soothing—enough to lull me into some false sense of calm after being completely and thoroughly wrecked in a goddamn forest.

But it doesn’t last.

Because a moment later, the shrill ring of a phone cuts through the air like a bullet.

My spine snaps straight.

Rule freezes. His head turns slightly toward the sound, his whole body coiling with instant alertness. Then, slowly, he turns the water back off. The sudden silence makes the ringing feel even louder, sharper, more intrusive.

He steps back toward me with deliberate calm, reaching into one of his deep pockets. I see the glint of a familiar screen as he pulls it out.

My phone.

The fucker hasmyphone.

The ringtone grows louder now it’s not buried in his pocket, while he is gripping it in his gloved fist like a goddamn leash. His thumb ghosts over the edge of the screen, but he doesn’t look at it. He looks atme.

Tilts his head.

Like a predator debating whether to play with its prey or sink its teeth in.

Then he speaks—low, steady, dangerous.

“Be a good girl, Seanna,” he murmurs. “And remember our agreement.”

That tone—it’s not a suggestion. It’s a fucking threat wrapped in velvet. My stomach twists. The fucking truce. I hadn’t even thought about it when I ran earlier.

He extends the phone to me slowly, deliberately, like a test.

I don’t hesitate. I take it with shaking fingers, my pulse a thunderstorm beneath my skin. The screen lights up with Hydessa’s name.

My throat tightens.

Rule doesn’t step away.

Instead, he plants both fists on the counter to either side of me, caging me in without even touching me. His body towers over mine, every inch of him heat and pressure and power. I can’t move. Can’t breathe.

Swallowing past the lump in my throat, I accept the call.

It clicks through, and I don’t even get a full second before her voice comes through—soft, tentative, familiar.

“If I hide…” Hydessa whispers.

I swallow the lump in my throat. My lips move on autopilot, voice low, cracked, but steady.

“Then I’ll seek…” I whisper back.