Page 173 of The Owner's Temptation

He won’t just drag me back.

He’ll have to admit what he’s known all along.

That I’m not just a Companion.

Not just his trainee.

I’mhis.

And tonight, I want to watch himlose controltrying to prove it.

The intercom crackles.

A low burst of static, barely more than a hiss—and yet it freezes me in place. The hair on the back of my neck stands up, prickling with instinct. I’m alone, but notreally. Not anymore.

For a beat, the only think I hear is the deep, labored breath of someone. It sounds like they ran a marathon to get here.

Deep. Controlled. Measured in that way predators breathe when they have their eye fixed on their prey.

My pulse stutters.

A voice follows. Not shouted, not forced—but low and lethal, like smoke curling beneath a locked door.

“Run, little rabbit.”

The words are slow, dragged out like a warning… or a curse. But they don’t feel like either.

They feel like apromise.

A chill slips down my spine, chased by something hotter, heavier, curling low in my belly.

“Run as fast as you can,” he continues, every word dipped in hunger. “Because when I catch you…”

There’s a pause. Silence thick enough to taste.

Then—

“I’m going to fuck you.”

And just like that, the lights go out.

Total darkness swallows the maze.

No flicker. No dimming. Just a full blackout, abrupt and consuming.

I don’t scream.

Ismile.

Because the game has truly begun. And I can already feel him closing in.

She’s onWrath.

I watched her bolt the second the alarm sounded. No hesitation. No second-guessing. Just instinct. The stairwell door was barely swinging closed behind her when I pulled her up on the surveillance feed, following every step.

Up to the fifth floor.

That wild, glorious look in her eyes when she burst through the door and caught sight of the maze stretched out before her. That split-second flicker of panic. The subtle shift to calculation.

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