Page 6 of The Naga Lord's Pretty Little Mouse

Interesting.

Inside, the grand hall stretches high, open to the evening sky. The dining space lies ahead, though the table remains untouched, as it always is. The stench of raw meat drifts from deeper within, fresh game set aside for my evening meal.

Seren notices.

Her brows crease, but she says nothing.

I gesture toward the corridor leading toward the private wing. “Your chamber is there.”

She doesn't move toward it. “And if I refuse?”

I chuckle, low and deliberate. “Then sleep where you stand.”

Her jaw tightens, but she doesn't press the challenge. Not yet.

Instead, she lifts her wrists, the silver chain still wrapped between them. “Remove this.”

“No.”

Her shoulders tense. “Then you plan to keep me bound indefinitely?”

I step closer, drinking in the storm beneath her skin. Her pulse doesn't quicken. She doesn't flinch.

Fascinating.

"I will decide when you earn your hands."

She exhales sharply through her nose, then mutters something under her breath.

I tilt my head. "Say it."

Her gaze flicks up, defiance flickering like lightning.

"You are insufferable."

My fangs glint in amusement. "And you are reckless."

The wind shifts through the open hall, carrying the sounds of the jungle with it, the distant calls of beasts, the rustling of unseen things beneath the leaves.

I expect her to demand more. To press.

Instead, she looks past me, into the darkened halls of my home, and does something unexpected.

She steps inside.

Without another word.

Without hesitation.

I watch her disappear into the dim corridors, her small form swallowed by the shadows of a world that was never meant for her.

Yet she walks like she belongs.

A mistake.

A miscalculation.

She is prey.

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