Page 78 of Owned

The robe slipped from my shoulders and pooled beneath me, a sea of flimsy silk. I grasped at it wildly, but Lucian’s handspinned mine above my head. My pulse thundered through every inch of me as he held me in place with ease.

“Why are you doing this?” I gasped as I struggled against his hold.

“Because Ican,” Lucian whispered, and his lips brushed against my skin like a poisoned promise. “And because you aremine.”

Each word cut into me and left a jagged wound behind. My mind flailed for something—anything—to hold on to as despair closed around my throat like a noose.

Lucian’s power undulated over me in waves, relentless and consuming, and I found against the pleasure that was coaxed from my flesh.

No—

Desperation clawed at my insides as I tried to push it away, but it seeped into every part of me and filled the cracks with darkness.

I blinked rapidly against the tears that threatened to spill over, and then closed my eyes tightly as Lucian’s cold lips pressed against the side of my throat.

I wouldn’t let him see me cry—I wouldn’t—

Just as the pressure became unbearable, I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out.

I gasped, awake in a disorienting haze.

The cold marble tiles of the bathroom floor pressed against my cheek. Stark and white.

Dark blood pooled around me—a grotesque bloom of crimson that shimmered wickedly in the dim light. The warm stickiness coated my arms and soaked into my hair, and the scent of it filled my senses. My ragged breaths were loud in my ears as panic burned through me.

It wasn’t real.

It wasn’t—

A moan escaped my lips as I tried to push myself up.

But I was too weak…

Strong hands gripped me and peeled me from the floor.

A familiar presence who felt so wrong yet so right.

Titus’s concerned voice pierced through the veil of my panic and mixed with the disorientation that clung to my mind. “What have you done?” he murmured.

She was so pale.

I lifted her against my chest and walked out of the bathroom and back toward her bed.

She moaned weakly and struggled against my grip, but I could ignore her movements with ease—as if she were made of feathers.

Despite her mumbled protests, I placed her gently on the bed and she moaned as she sank into the softness of the coverlet.

Bastian leaned against the bathroom door. His face was twisted, but this time not with sarcasm. “What the fuck— it looks like a crime scene in there—”

“We weren’t gone that long—” Valen said.“We left her at the garage—”

Bastian shook his head and stepped away from the door. He snuffed the candles with a wave of his hand and the smoke curled in the air and stung my nostrils.

I fixed Valen with a glare. “You shouldn’t have left her.”

“We had to. Lucian wanted us.”

Valen looked surprised that Bastian had come to his defense.

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