Page 9 of 8-Bit & Cat

She glanced around quickly, only seeing shadows, then looked back at AL. Not AL. Not AL ever again. Forever and always him. Zero. He stood with his hands behind his back, eyes sharp on her. Watching.

Was she supposed to do something? Was this part of the test?

“Your first and greatest challenge, Kitten, won’t be the acts themselves,” Zero said, finally. “It’ll be surrender.”

Her stomach clenched.

“Surrender to Ethan,” he continued, voice like velvet and iron even behind the mask. “To his control. His authority. Hisneed.And it will test you in ways you don’t even know exist yet.”

Her breath shook its way out of her nose as she managed a nod. “I’m… I’m ready.”

His eyes almost softened and she imagined a smirk behind the mask. “Are you?”

Definitely a smirk.

Her pulse spiked as he took steps toward her. “Then prove it,” he challenged, when exactly before her.

His closeness sent her pulse running, along with her first directive. Prove it? How? “What do I…”

He reached out and she glanced down at his hand, hovering next to her arm. Close enough to feel the heat of it. “You’re here to understand. I’ll show you.”

Her skin burned beneath his gaze.

“It’s not real, Kitten,” he coaxed, voice low. “Just a taste. A preview of what submission truly means.”

Cat’s heart slammed against her ribs. She couldn’t speak. Or even nod.

He tilted his head slightly, his gaze sliding down and stopping right on her breasts that were stuffed into a leather prison too small. He kept it parked there till an electrical fire erupted on her skin. “Are you ready to be Ethan’s Good Girl?”

Oh hell. Hell and Hades. Her yes was more of a gasp, so she added her nods with it.

He circled her now. “The point of this test,” Zero murmured, “is to prepare you. Ethan will require complete submission. He won’t demand it—not outright. He’ll never force you. And when the time comes, he’ll test just how much you’re capable of surrendering.”

Her breath hitched as his words wove around something deeper in her gut, something she wasn’t ready to acknowledge.

The idea he couldteachsomething like this, demanded the obvioushow?

He stopped behind her, close enough that she felt his heat. “The first lesson,” he said at her ear. “Is understanding that youbelongin this space.”

A strange chill moved up her spine.

His mouth moved to her other ear. “Understand where Ethan has put you.”

Her stomach clenched, pulse kicking against her ribs.

“Tell me something, Kitten.” His voice simmered, but it didn’t lessen the weight of it. “Do you trust Ethan?”

Cat blinked, thrown by the question. She nodded. “Yes,” she added in a whisper.

“Good.” He moved in front of her and gestured at the chair. Not a throne. Not a prison. And yet it felt like both.

She exhaled slowly. “You want me to sit.”

“Not want, Kitten.” His voice curled around her, velvet and steel. “Need.”

Her fingers twitched at her sides as she struggled to get at the meaning of such a mundane task while at the same time untangling herself from his burning mossy stare.

She stared at the chair for many seconds.

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