Selene could still feel the ghost of the bond unraveling inside her, the sensation so foreign that it left her gasping for air.
Damien was dead.
The man who had haunted her life, controlled her every breath, was nothing more than a lifeless body on the cold floor. The weight she had carried for so long was gone, yet something else—something darker—wrapped around her now.
Kieran.
His arms were still locked around her, his grip unrelenting, almost as if he was afraid she would slip away. His scent, a mix of rain and something wild, surrounded her, intoxicating in a way she wasn't prepared for.
But there was something in his eyes—something unsettling.
She had seen Kieran angry before, seen him ruthless in battle.
But this?
This was something else.
This was possession.
—
Kieran didn't speak.
He had won.
Damien was dead. Selene was free. The bond was broken.
So why did it still feel like something was unfinished?
His heart was still racing, his hands still clenched as if he wasn't convinced she was really here.
The way she looked at him—like she wasn't sure if she had escaped one monster just to fall into the hands of another—it did something to him.
A slow, dangerous burn coiled in his chest.
She didn't trust him.
Not yet.
But she would.
She had to.
Because Kieran had spent years dreaming of this moment, years preparing for the day he could take Selene back from the nightmare that had stolen her from him.
And now that she was his again—
He wasn't letting her go.
Ever.
—
Selene pulled away first, her body stiff, her expression unreadable.
"We need to leave," she murmured, her voice hoarse.
Kieran didn't move.
She glanced at him, brows knitting. "Kieran?"
He exhaled slowly, forcing himself to push down the primal instincts clawing at his chest. "Right." His voice was rough, strained, but he released her. "Let's go."
Selene stepped over Damien's lifeless body, not sparing him a second glance. She should have felt something—relief, closure, anything—but there was only emptiness.
Her eyes flickered to Kieran as he moved beside her, his presence overwhelming even in silence.
She had spent years fearing Damien's control.
But Kieran's obsession?
It might just be worse.
Because Damien had wanted to break her.
But Kieran?
Kieran wanted to own her.
And for the first time, she wasn't sure which fate was more dangerous.