Page 165 of The Life of Anna, Tenth Anniversary Edition, Act 2

Alex paced on the rooftop terrace. He vacillated between anger and hurt at Anna’s departure. How dare she get upset about something he’d done when he never thought he’d be allowed to see her again—at least, not until she’d been made into Devin’s slave forever. He hadn’t done it against Anna. He’d done it to Vlad.

And how many men had she fucked while he was gone? How many men had she fallen in love with? How could she get upset about him keeping her from being with Hugo? He couldn’t let her be with someone who couldn’t protect her. She was his wife , damnit! His wife! She belonged to him .

“Alex?”

Alex spun around to see Greg standing near the door, holding his phone out. “You need to take this.”

“What?” he snapped into the phone.

“Alex? It’s Hugo.”

Alex barely contained a growl. This was not the person who should be calling him right now. Hugo was at the top of his shit list. “What do you want?”

There was a slight hesitation. “It’s Anna. She’s?—?”

“Anna’s with you?”

“I... Yes. She’s in pain. She holding her head and crying.”

Her head? “What was she doing when it started hurting?” Hugo didn’t answer, and Alex’s stomach twisted into knots. “What the hell were you doing with my wife?”

“We... shit, Alex. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for anything to happen.”

Alex’s temper snapped. “Tell her to stop fucking rebelling and get her ass home as soon as she can fucking walk. And you better stay the fuck away from her from now on or I will have you fired.” He ended the call and threw his phone down in the middle of the terrace.

He let out a growling yell and stared at the sky. What the hell had she been doing? No, he knew what she’d been doing. She was intentionally rebelling against her Master by going back to her ex-boyfriend out of pure spite, which is why her head started hurting. Fucking infuriating woman.

He stalked downstairs to the library for a drink. What the hell was he going to do now?

An hour later, Anna walked through the door of the condo, very pale and very weak. Alex stood in the doorway of the library, arms crossed, and glared at her. “Go take a fucking shower and rinse that bastard off of you.”

“Yes, Alex.” She bowed her head and hurried to their bedroom.

He walked into the bedroom a few minutes later and was pleased to hear the water running in the bathroom. She wasn’t rebelling anymore. Good.

A while later, when she came out of the bathroom in her pink cotton robe, he was sitting at the foot of the bed, waiting for her. She froze in the doorway, eyes wide and full of terror. He flinched, seeing the fear. He didn’t want her afraid of him... did he? But he didn’t want to feel the hurt right now. He wanted to be angry, not hurt.

They stared at each other for a moment before Anna slowly walked across the room to him and bowed at his feet, forehead on the floor. “I’m sorry, Master.”

The angry part of him liked the idea of her calling him Master. His rational side told him he was treading in dangerous territory that could irreparably tear their relationship apart. His irrational side wanted to wound her as she’d wounded him.

She’d gone to her ex-boyfriend and started having sex. The only reason she stopped was because of the pain of rebellion. “How could you do that to me, Anna?” he asked in a soft voice.

She sat up, her jaw trembling, fear and anger mixed in her expression. “I didn’t ask you to come back.”

It was as if she’d slapped him across the face again. He struggled to come up with a response. “Do you wish I hadn’t?”

She looked down at her hands. “It doesn’t matter what I wish,” she said in a broken voice. “You are here. I belong to you.”

Alex lifted his chin and clenched his jaw. “Yes, you do.” He reached down and tipped her face up to his. “You never had a problem with it before.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You weren’t around long enough for me to have a problem with it.”

Alex barely kept himself from wincing.

“Perhaps you should perform the final ritual. Then I would be like the other Elder-Mistresses. Cold and beautiful.”

“I like your warmth,” he said before he could stop himself.

Anna looked back at the floor.

His anger rose to the surface again. “I will allow you to continue dancing with Hugo for this season, but once Devin is dealt with, we will be returning to Germany. I expect you to keep your interactions with him strictly professional.”

“Yes, Alex.”

He wasn’t commanding her, he rationalized to himself. He was just laying out his expectations.

“When I am out of town, I expect you to go to class and return here. No going out to clubs or spending time with other men. I obviously can’t trust you.” He briefly wondered if she would be glad if he disappeared again.

“Yes, Alex.” Her voice was getting softer with each response.

“If you need to go somewhere, I expect you to ask me first. If you disobey me, I will put a tracker on you.”

“I won’t disobey you,” she whispered.

He continued to look down at her, and she looked up after a moment. “Do you want me to sleep in a different room?”

“Why would I want that?”

“That’s what—I mean, in case you want to bring another woman home.”

Was she going to say that’s what Devin would have her do? He closed his eyes. He was angry, yes, but he would never do that to her. “No woman could satisfy me like you do.”

She bowed her head again.