My angry gaze scouted the room, wishing I'd miraculously find Danne in there. But I didn't. I snatched my phone from the pocket of my skirt.

I'll do it. Just call Danne and vent—

Maybe it's too late in the evening. Maybe I'll interrupt him in a meeting.

But isn't that what friends are for—to lend an ear?

I started stabbing the screen, scrolling furiously for Danne's number, only half aware of approaching footsteps.

Just on the cusp of pressing call, I glanced up and found Graysen staring down at me. I paused as a fierce look cut through his features—his gaze snapped to the Pelans, back to me, and down to my phone. For some strange reason, he seemed just as angry as I was.

How long has he been watching me?

"Danne Pelan. That's your friend isn't it?" he ground out. "That fucker."

How he'd pieced it together I didn't give a shit. But I surely did not appreciate what he said, or how he said it.

"He's just a friend," I bit back.

"But you want more." It wasn't a question.

I startled a bit, the anger dampening. Sure I liked Danne, but I doubted he liked me in that way.

"You stay away from him," Graysen snarled, shoving a finger in my face.

I knocked his hand aside, my mouth thinning, and anger rising once more. "Why? Why should I?" Why on earth should Danne Pelan matter to Graysen?

His gaze darkened and his jaw clenched. "Keep your distance from Danne Pelan." With one last glower, he spun around and stalked toward the smoky doors.

I watched his broad back as he strode from me. Fury hissed through my blood, had the creature slithering along my bones. Graysen was as bad as my father. I was just a possession. Passed from my father to him. From one gilded cage to another.

"Fuck off, Crowther! I'm sick and tired of being told what to do, by you, by my father!" My temper grew hotter and hotter. The creature inside of me snarled. I never backed down when I knew damn well I should just keep my mouth shut. I hissed at his retreating figure, shaking my fist. "Danne's my friend and I'll do what I like!"

Graysen whirled around. "You'll fucking do as I say!"

I balled both of my hands, practically shrieking. "You don't own me! You don't get to tell me what to do!"

He was closer now, his words spoken with a dangerous kind of calm. "Oh, but little bird, in one month's time I do. In one month's time, you'll turn twenty and I'll own every single inch of you."

I blinked, my eyes flaring wide. "You do realize you're a walking, talking cliché? Do you ever listen to yourself? Gods, Crowther. Do as I say. You're mine. Blah blah blah. Yeah, we all got it. You're the alpha. The guy with the biggest dick in the room."

"I prefer the term 'cock,' little bird." A smug smirk. A mocking wink. "Glad you noticed."

I nearly imploded on the spot with fury. I unwound my adamere bracelet and started snapping the length in irritated tugs, stepping closer to him. "You know what, Crowther—No!"

"No?"

"This is what is going to happen." I shoved a finger into his hard chest. "I don't want to marry you. You don't want to marry me. As soon as I reach twenty, you'll shred up that stupid contract and let me go."

He straightened to his full height. His anger matched mine. "Still thinking you can order me about it? Still behaving like the spoiled Wychthorn princess. Snapping her fingers, thinking I'll fucking dance to your beck and call and do whatever you order."

"Let me live by myself." As soon as it slipped from my tongue, the idea gripped me hard. He could...he could let me go...I could live wherever I wanted. New York or a seaside village. I could live, really live. Talk to people, travel... Not even my father could drag me back to the estate. I'd disappear and hide from the Horned Gods. No one would find me.

"I see that devious little mind at work. Don't bother with that line of thought. You're mine. You'll always be mine and I sure as fuck won't be letting you go!"

I loosened a string of curses that had his eyebrows rising. Then I whirled away.

"Where the fuck are you going?!'

I spun back. "Wherever I like," I ground out, advancing on him, bracing a hand on my hip. "What can you do?"

Because I was slowly becoming aware that though my birthday was coming up soon, there was also time in-between now and then. The contract binding us together granted Graysen some power over me from the age of nineteen—he could spend one day a month with me, as well as join me on a House matter or a House celebration, like my sister's engagement this weekend. But he didn't actually own me. Yet.

I could walk away right this moment and he couldn't do a godsdamned thing about it.

"I'm not twenty yet," I gritted out. "You don't get to tell me what to do just yet. Maybe I'll get shit-faced and vomit all over your expensive suit." My gaze pointedly cast about the room beyond the smoky doors, at the available Pelans. There wasn't a single male in that room I had any desire or interest in, but Graysen didn't know that. "Maybe I'll go tabletop dancing. Maybe I'll screw every single Pelan here."

Graysen's hand suddenly ensnared my arm, his fingers tightening their grip. He got right into my face and growled. "Nobody steals that from me."

A cruel smile lit my lips—Ah, so there was something about me Graysen desired.

I gave him my best smirk, tugging my arm free, and took a step back. "Who says it hasn't already been given?"

He barked a laugh. "Gods, Wychthorn, don't bother trying to fool me." He stalked closer, backing me up into the wall, his arms boxing me in. Shamefully, that hyper-awareness of him sparked again. It crackled and fizzed through the air, scorching my skin, and heat flared through my chest.

He bowed his head and his roughened jaw abraded my cheek as he breathed into my ear. "You're still a virgin. I can scent it on you. It tastes of newly ripened peach begging to be plucked."

I sucked in a sharp breath, furious with him, but more furious with myself as my cheeks heated, confirming he was right.

"I'll never give you that," I hissed back.

No way was my first sexual partner going to be a menace like Graysen Crowther!

I ducked beneath his arms, getting no more than two paces before my fiery rage had me whirling back around. "Piss off, Crowther. Why don't you go and find someone else to fuck with, or better yet—fuck!" My hand slashed through the air, the adamere beads clinking as the bracelet arced with the motion. "I'm done with you. From now on I do as I please. Do who I please!"

Silly, silly girl, taunting him like that. Because 'who I please' obviously translated to Danne Pelan.

But instead of heading through those smoky doors into the gathering of Pelans, I stormed toward my rooms in the eastern wing.

Sage kept up with my furious pace as I ran along hallways, through vast open rooms and smaller ones, all beautifully appointed but utterly unused by my family. I resided in the eastern wing, alone.

Heavy footfall resounded down the long hallway stretching behind me.

I glared over my shoulder, knowing exactly who the hells was following. For fuck's-sake couldn't he just let me be!

Graysen's expression was thunderous. "Where the fuck are you going?! I'm not done with you yet!"

It occurred to me then, for the first time, that my father's guards didn't shadow me. They never had when Graysen was in my presence. It was just Sage who had my back. The wraith-wolf's ghostly body shimmered in and out of existence as he gave a soft snarl.

Dashing into my quarters, I spun around and tried shutting the door, but Graysen shoved his foot in, blocking my escape.

Sage danced by my side, growling and barking loudly. One word from me and he'd tear through Graysen. But I was so keyed up, burning with fury at Corné, at my father, at Graysen's absurd demands, I wanted to handle him by myself. There was a part of me still grounded enough to remember not to unleash that dark creature inside me. But I still had strength.

To my fury, Graysen advanced and I fled through the living quarters into my bedroom, slamming the door in his face only to have it kicked in. The door jolted against the wall, vibrating and swinging back open.

His tall, broad form filled the doorway, his anger swamping the room. This was the first time he'd ever been in here, but his whole focus was solely on me.

"Danne Pelan is a sick fuck, just like all his brothers!"

Ridiculous. Danne was nice and kind and funny. The opposite of Graysen. "You're the sick fucker!" I roared back. "What's your problem with him?!" I didn't give him time to answer. "Is it because he's interested in me?! Because gods forbid someone actually likes me. You sure don't, so why the hells do you care?!"

I hopped on one foot, unbuckling the shoe from the other, sliding it off to hurl it across the room. It hit the headboard of my bed and fell with a soft thud onto the carpet. The second shoe followed swiftly. "Get out!"

He didn't.

Instead, he stalked closer.

Power coiled around my bones, fortifying my strength.

He stepped right into my space. "I don't give a fuck about you. But that guy—"

"Get the hells out of my bedroom and out of my godsdamned life, Crowther!"

He stood his ground, feet braced apart, looking like he could tear me into smithereens.

I'd warned him. I surged forward, slamming my hands against his strong chest, and shoved hard, so hard the immovable Graysen Crowther stumbled back—actually stumbled.

Surprise flared in his black eyes. Then he snarled, rushing forward, slamming into me, shoving me onto the bed.

I bounced up and down, rolling over—

And he pounced—

But I was ready for him.

We tangled on the mattress, jostling and struggling, my nails raking and fists pummeling. Sage barked and howled, his powerful muscles rippling as he bounded around my bed, just waiting for my order to attack.

Both Graysen and I unleashed our rage against one another. Raging that we were stuck with one another and couldn't get out of this ridiculous boon the Horned Gods had granted. To be fair to Graysen, he didn't actually hit me. I, however, held nothing back.

I tumbled onto my back. He lunged forward, looming over me. I drove a foot into his chest, knocking him off, only to have him grab my feet and drag me back across the mattress.

"I didn't realize your strength." He was panting from exertion which gave me some pleasure. "Where does it come from? Your father's bloodline or your mother's?".

I answered him by twisting around and slamming an elbow into his belly.

We were evenly matched in strength, but he was skilled. I was just a twisting, howling hellion, lashing out.

He gave a dark chuckle as he wrestled me into submission.

Both of us breathed hard and glared harder. Our stormy eyes clashed as if Nine Hells had broken free. And in some ways it had. I'd torn the sleeve of his shirt, blood oozed down his cheeks where I'd raked my fingernails and he'd ripped a few buttons from the front of my dress, the material gaping wide.

He'd pinned me beneath him, locking both my hands by my head at the wrist. I huffed, wanting to scratch his eyes out.

Golden flecks, like constellations, glittered around his pupils—

Why hadn't I noticed that about his eyes before?

The mood in the room shifted.

There was something about him. Me. Us. That neither of us understood. But it was there, thrumming between us. The air in the room grew heavier, warmer, rippled and shimmered. Our combined fury heated into something else. Something new. Something that we'd both been dancing around since we'd first laid eyes on one another as children, and had only intensified the older we got.

He rolled us over so I was on top, my thighs straddling his hips. He fixed my hands to my side, keeping them there beneath his own large hands.

"Let me go." But it came out breathlessly, almost like an invitation.

His breath came in excited, ragged pants. "I knew you'd be like this." He flashed a delighted grin. "It'll be war whenever we finally fuck." His palms were spread wide over my hands and his long fingers cupped my ass. And now I realized what was beneath me—a hard length, impossibly large between my legs, pressing against my sex.

No one had ever, and I mean, ever, gotten this close to me.