CHAPTER 8

Selena

“I’ll be quiet I promise,” I choked out, my voice trembling as tears ran down my cheeks. “I won’t speak unless spoken to. I won’t fight with your woman. I’ll act like I don’t even exist. Just please I don’t want to stay in your house.”

My words spilled out in desperation, but I could already see the cruelty dancing in Stephen’s eyes.

Living with him had been hell the first time. The kind of hell that crept into your dreams and poisoned your waking moments. We may not have spent years together, but the time we did was enough to scar me for life. I swore I’d never go back to that nightmare. And yet, here I was, trapped again.

His fingers twisted in my hair, yanking my head back, but then he stopped staring down at me with that devilish smirk that made my stomach knot. He wiped away one of my tears with the pad of his thumb, like he was trying to be gentle. But there was nothing kind in the way his touch lingered, cold and possessive.

“Am I not your brother?” he asked, tilting his head slightly. “Shouldn’t I look after my dear sister?”

His hand slid from my cheek to my waist, gripping me tighter until I flinched.

“Stop,” I whispered, breath catching in my throat.

Stephen finally let go and stepped back, casually pulling out his phone. His voice lowered as he spoke to someone on the other end, his tone calm but menacing. Whatever he was planning it wasn’t good.

This was my chance.

My heart pounded as I took a slow step back. He was too deep in his conversation to notice. One more step... then another. I kept my eyes on the door, willing my legs not to shake. Just a few more seconds and—

CRACK!

Pain exploded at the back of my skull, and the world spun out of control. The last thing I saw was the floor rushing up to meet me before everything turned black.

---

I woke up groggy, my head pounding like a drum. The air was heavy with the scent of vanilla and expensive cologne. Slowly, I sat up, eyes darting around the unfamiliar room. Golden drapes fluttered by the window, and the walls were painted a rich cream color. Everything looked too perfect too intentional.

“Where... am I?” I murmured, touching the back of my head.

The room was decorated like a luxury suite, but it felt like a cage.

I stumbled to the door and tried the handle. Locked. My pulse spiked.

“No. No, no, no,” I muttered, banging on the door. “Let me out! You can’t keep me here!”

Tears blurred my vision as I slammed my fists against the wood. “Let me out! Please! I don’t want to be here!”

My voice cracked. I slid down the door and curled into myself, sobbing into my knees. How did it come to this?

Maybe if I’d never suggested leaving the pack, none of this would’ve happened. Maybe my brother wouldn’t hate me the way he does now. Maybe I wouldn’t feel like such a burden. I was supposed to be the princess of this pack—but that title had turned to dust in Stephen’s hands.

“I’ll disappear,” I whispered. “I swear I’ll vanish from your life. You’ll never see me again. Just don’t lock me away…”

The door creaked open behind me.

I froze.

Slowly, I lifted my head to see Stephen standing in the doorway, his tall frame casting a shadow across the room. His eyes were as cold as ever—two pits of darkness that stripped the warmth from the air.

I scrambled to my feet, heart racing.

He stepped inside, each stride deliberate.

“So tell me,” he said, voice low and smooth, “were you trying to run from me in my office?”

His words carried weight, slamming into me harder than any blow.

“I wasn’t,” I said quickly. My lips moved before I could stop them. “I wasn’t trying to run.”

A lie. A pathetic, desperate lie.

Stephen smirked. “You know my rules, Selena. I hate liars. I hate disobedience. And you just broke both.”

He circled me like a predator playing with its prey.

“What should your punishment be?” he whispered, almost thoughtfully.

I dropped to my knees, shaking. “I’m sorry. I’ll follow the rules Stephen. Please, I don’t want to be your prisoner.”

He crouched in front of me, gripping my face with both hands. His fingers dug into my cheeks until it hurt.

“Don’t you ever call me by my name again,” he snarled. “You address me as Master. Your father killed my mother, and yet you still breathe. You don’t deserve that privilege.”

My blood ran cold.

I should’ve stayed with Alpha Kingsley. I should’ve taken the risk any risk other than this. Now I was trapped in a house with someone who hated me for something I didn’t do, someone who saw my pain as entertainment.

Stephen’s voice cut through my thoughts. “Let’s play a game.”

I flinched.

Not again.

The last time we played one of his “games,” I’d woken up in a hospital bed, barely able to move. Machines had beeped around me like ticking clocks of borrowed time. My ribs had felt like glass, my face barely recognizable. A nurse whispered that I’d been unconscious for seven days. A full week lost to darkness.

But I hadn’t really been asleep.

Not in the way they thought.

I’d felt everything every blow, every scream trapped inside my head while his voice slithered through the silence like poison.

“You like to fight? Then fight.”

“Let’s see how long that stubbornness lasts.”

I remembered the coldness in his eyes, the glint of amusement as I gasped for air. I remembered the floor slick with blood and the sound of my own pulse crashing like waves in my ears.

I remembered praying for death.

“I don’t want to play,” I whispered.

“You don’t have a choice,” he said simply, standing. “This is your warning, Selena. Disobey me again and you won’t wake up next time.”

He looked down at me with that same cruel smile.

“Now run.”

My legs hesitated but my instincts didn’t.

I ran.