Page 8 of Darkest Craving

VICTORIA

M ountains pierce the forest around the estate, standing tall, guarding in the quiet of the night. Eyes swollen from the hours of incessant ugly crying, I stand perched on the window frame, watching the nothingness that is now my life.

How did I end up here? One moment I was preparing to buy plane tickets for Europe, the next I’m taken like a sack of gold. Not even gold, actually, since no one tried to keep me.

I should’ve let him kill all of us. I can only imagine what his revenge is going to look like from now on. And he’s just getting started.

I know I should be better—Sasha taught me better than to mop in my misery.

There’s always a solution to every problem , he used to say, and I used to believe it.

God, I used to think I was on top of everything…

that I was going to leave this city, this country, and show everyone I can do whatever I set my mind to.

But right now, heartbroken over my family’s betrayal and utterly alone in this monstrous new world, I’m starting to realize just how human Sasha is, like the rest of us. He doesn’t have all the answers… and he still has hope for things that might never come true.

Hope… what a dangerous thing to hold on to.

Pressing the heels of my palms against my closed eyes, I exhale the rest of my energy for tonight. I haven’t even turned on the light since Wolfgang locked me in here. I needed to let the night swallow me, to make it feel like everything was just a bad dream.

But after hours of being alone, my stomach is grumbling, and my fear is returning to replace the sadness. Because that’s all I’ve felt today—fear and sadness—and it’s a far cry from what I was hoping to experience on my birthday.

Pushing into the window frame, I turn to face my new prison for the first time.

A king-sized bed against the wall fills most of the room. Around it, a walk-in closet holds silhouettes of clothes, and there’s also a vanity desk with drawers and a chair. Attached to the space is an en-suite bathroom I haven’t entered.

Crossing my arms loosely around myself, I take a few aimless steps around the room, not knowing what to do with myself. There’s nothing here other than bare necessities.

Just for good measure, I approach the door and twist the knob to see if it’s still locked.

A jolt of anxiety traverses my chest at seeing that it is, and I hit the light switch on the nearest wall, suddenly afraid of the dark.

But it doesn’t help—in fact, it only makes things worse because seeing glimpses of my cage in the light makes this whole thing real.

And it makes me want to scream.

I flip the switch back off and trudge to the vanity desk, opening up the drawer. I’ve never done this before, but if I could find a hairpin, maybe I can open the door.

And go where? What will you do?

“Shut the hell up,” I tell myself between clenched teeth.

My hands fumble through the makeup inside, touching glass containers, brushes, and tubes of probably mascara or lipstick. I toss them to the side, digging, hoping this isn’t everything there is, until a low, prolonged whistle makes me halt.

Slowly, I straighten up, eyes wide and as silent as I can be.

It’s that feeling again—the one of being hunted, of being looked at by a predator in the shadows—that seizes my survival instinct.

“H-Hello?” I say, my voice dry and exhausted from all the crying. “Who’s there?”

Again, the two-note whistle spears the silence of my confinement, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Somehow, it sounds like it’s coming from all around me and nowhere simultaneously. I step back, hearing it again through the wall behind me.

There are others who will want to harm you .

Maybe Wolfgang wasn’t lying. Maybe he did me a kindness by locking my door tonight.

Another whistle, long and ghostly, sends my heartbeat into overdrive.

I walk backward until my thighs touch the bed frame and I haul myself up as I pull the covers from beneath me. I don’t tear my eyes away from the emptiness of the room for a single moment.

The door is locked. The door is locked, and you’re on the second floor , I remind myself over and over as I sit on the mattress and curl up, taking the silky sheets over my head.

They smell rich, clean, and I inhale voraciously, using the scent to ground me through the moment.

It doesn’t work. The whistles continue to flow seamlessly with what sounds like a slightly amused lilt.

I lie in the dark for what feels like hours, listening and not reacting, hoping once again that this is all just a nightmare I’ll wake up from in the morning.

WOLFGANG

When I get back home, it’s well after midnight.

The house looks dark and quiet from the outside and my eyes go straight to the second floor, where Victoria is waiting. Ruminating, maybe.

Her light is off, but the curtains are drawn, telling me she inspected her surroundings. Where is she now? Is she sleeping peacefully, trying to escape her new reality until dawn? Or is she still up, banging her fists against the door of her enclosure?

She was all I could think about on the way back and during the meetings at The Hive. Ever since we met, the image of her has been spreading through my mind like wildfire, leaving no corner untouched. I expected it. She’s my new toy, after all. Anyone else in my position would obsess over her.

I head inside, making a beeline for her room and unlocking the door.

Upon entering, I’m hit with the faint scent of lilies, of something sweet and feminine that’s inherently hers.

I inhale, laughing to myself. She’s only been here for a couple of hours, and this cursed house is already affected by her presence.

If the circumstances had been different, I wonder what she’d have done with the rest of us.

I also wonder what she’d do if I fucked her pussy raw tonight.

My cock twitches, hardening at the thought.

There she is, partially hidden under the covers, her body a small bump in the middle of the bed.

As I approach her sleeping figure, more parts come into view: her hunched shoulders, as if she’s afraid of something even in her dreams, the small crease between her brows, the pouty, parted lips…

I could have her wake up with my cock between them.

I could spread my cum across their rosy color like a fucking lip balm.

The thought is intoxicating.

She’s shackled to my bed, to my will, my strength. It would be easy to ruin her now, if easy was what I wanted. But it’s not.

I want the moment she begs me to take her. I want her to hate herself for wanting me. And I want the world to see that reflected in her behavior—how much she needs the man who ruined her father, how much she craves him like a good, obedient girl.

That’s when I’ll take her.

Consummating my marriage was never in my plan. In fact, Victoria was never in my plan. I was supposed to take her sister, Nikolai’s golden progeny. And I was going to drag her with me everywhere I went, flaunt her as my possession, maybe wrap a pretty collar around her neck. But that was all.

Then I met Victoria. And something about her—maybe her raw, unfiltered honesty, maybe the wound we both seem to share, maybe her feisty yet sweet demeanor―drew me to her. A rare event, since nothing ever gets to me these days.

I’ve experienced more than the average person could experience in a hundred lifetimes.

I also fucked as much as I wanted, had everything I needed in the palm of my hand.

But the way this woman responded to my touch at her birthday party—afraid, yet daring, challenging…

The way she stands up to me with her little acts of defiance…

It woke me up from a slumber so deep, there’s no going back.

So I changed the fucking plan.

I don’t just want Victoria to be my puppet. I’m making it my mission to bend that feistiness until it bows to me. Until she recognizes me as her new master, willing and pleading for all that I could give her. I can’t fucking wait.

I crack the muscles in my neck, releasing some of the tension, then take a seat next to her limp body. She whimpers, trapped in some dream, and it’s the sweetest fucking sound I’ve ever heard.

I brush a strand of hair away from her face.

She stirs, and while I focus on how soft she feels under my hands, her eyelashes flutter.

Confusion etches on her pretty face as she looks around, probably trying to figure out where she is.

When the realization dawns on her, she sucks in a breath, catches my gaze, and jolts upright, supporting her body on her arms as she tries to get away.

“I didn’t take you just to kill you,” I say. “You’re safe.”

For now.

She shakes her head, tears pooling in her baby-blue eyes before she blinks them away.

One of them still escapes to her cheek. It makes my cock harden further, and my hand instinctively reaches out to wipe it away.

Not because I want to soothe her, but because I need to taste it on my tongue, even if I don’t end up doing it.

I don’t yet want her to know how much I want to take from her.

Let her wonder, let her try to anticipate my needs, my moods. Let her come to her own conclusions slowly, in time.

“It was y-you. Wasn’t it?” she asks, her voice mellow, timid, still laced with sleep.

I frown. “I don’t follow.”

“The whistling. You were trying to scare me.” She tears her gaze away from me, bringing her knees to her chest. Her camisole strap falls to her shoulder—one of the many I filled her dresser with prior to her arrival—revealing the top of her breast. My fucking mouth waters.

“If I wanted to scare you, I’d employ much more enjoyable methods. Besides, I was out all evening.”

“All evening? Then who… who was it? What the hell is this place?!”

“What happened, Victoria? I can’t help you if I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She scoffs, as if she doesn’t believe I actually want to help her. But in this case, I do. She’s my possession now. Mine. No one else gets to torment her but me.

“All night, someone was out there, whistling. It was creepy, and loud, and it wouldn’t stop. And I thought… I thought you were trying to mess with me.”

Of course. Fucking Mikhail.

That’s why I couldn’t find him anywhere to take him with me to The Hive.

He pretended to be out already, when in fact, he was here, waiting to prey on my soon-to-be-wife.

Knowing him and his motives, I knew this would happen eventually.

But this was the first goddamn night. I didn’t think I’d have to impose myself so quickly.

“It wasn’t me. Sorry it bothered you.”

Her head shakes in what looks like disbelief.

“I warned you, didn’t I? About the others.”

“Don’t paint yourself into a savior when you’re the one who brought me here in the first place—”

I wrap my hand around the back of her head, grabbing her hair and pulling a little so she tilts. So she looks at me.

Her breath hitches. And that same flicker of thrill goes through her like it did earlier, when she got out of the car against my explicit order.

I can see it in the way her body slackens, in the way her breathing pattern changes.

If she were afraid, she’d try to get away.

She’s not. No… she just doesn’t understand how this action makes her feel.

I have so many delicious things to teach her.

“I’m the only one you can rely on here. So if you were smart, you’d choose your battles carefully. And you are smart, aren’t you, Victoria?”

She keeps silent, but I can see the anger, the defiance swimming in her eyes.

The corner of my mouth lifts. “That’s what I thought.”

I release her, forcing myself to get up. As much as I’d love to keep taunting her for the rest of the night, I need to focus on the rest of the plan. It started with her, and it will end with her, but everything in between, I need a clear mind to take care of that.

“I’ll have Corinne bring you something to eat.”

“I don’t need your food. Or anything else you have.”

I quirk a brow. “Isn’t that one of the camisoles I bought you?”

“I had no choice.”

“Sleeping naked was a choice. You chose not to do that.”

“So you could pry on me all night? No, thanks.”

“I could get you naked and on your knees right now if I wanted to, love. That sheer layer of clothing means nothing. I’m sure you already know that.”

She snorts an incredulous laugh that I don’t buy. Our dynamic is clear, even if she refuses to accept it. I call the shots. She does what I want.

“You’ll get your food, and you’ll eat it. Be ready in the morning. I’ll be here to get you.”

Her brows furrow. “What? Where are you taking me?” A pause. “Wherever it is, I don’t want to come.”

I don’t bother to reply to that. What she wants is irrelevant.

Besides, there will never be a good time for her to meet the others, so we might as well do it tomorrow and get it over with.

I leave her room, locking the door behind me.

Enjoying the feeling of having her trapped again.

Of knowing she’ll depend on me from now on.