Chapter 20: A Gift with Teeth

HENDRIX

Erdem entered with Konstantin behind him before I could finish dressing.

He wore a dark shirt with the sleeves rolled to his forearms. The bandage beneath his shoulder was hidden, but his movements remained slightly measured from the wound. He had not slept well. I could see it around his eyes.

Konstantin carried a tablet and several folders.

Erdem walked toward me and handed me a box.

I took the box.

"What do you think it is?"

"Jewelry."

"Do you wear jewelry?"

"No."

"Then you know better."

I opened it and held the band between two fingers.

"It's a tracker."

"Yes."

The answer was so direct that I looked up.

"Put it on," he said.

I looked at the band again.

"No."

Konstantin lowered his eyes toward the tablet, suddenly very interested in whatever was displayed there.

Erdem did not move.

"Say that again."

"No."

I don't care what will happen, I'm not wearing this.

He stepped closer, stopping just within reach.

"It isn't a request."

"I know."

"Then put it on."

I placed the band on the table.

"If you want it there, put it there yourself."

The silence that followed was precise and dangerous.

Erdem’s gaze dropped to the band then returned to me.

He could have forced it on me.

Instead, he reached for it slowly and came around the table.

I remained still as he approached.

When he stopped in front of me, I kept my hands at my sides.

His eyes lowered to my left wrist, the same wrist where the red thread had been wrapped.

"Give me your hand," he said.

His fingers closed around my wrist.

The contact was firm, not painful.

I tried to pull away but his grip tightened.

"Let go."

"You don't like being watched."

"I don't like being touched without permission."

The words came out sharper than I intended.

Erdem went still.

For one second, I thought he might release me but he did not.

Instead, his gaze moved over my face with an unreadable expression.

Then he said, "You're in no position to make demands."

"No," I replied. "But I can still make them."

He placed the band around my wrist.

The interior lining pressed against my skin, smooth and warm almost immediately. He aligned the clasp with careful precision, as though he had done this before.

With the kind of objects that turned a person into a location.

The hidden mechanism clicked shut and a tiny pulse passed through the band.

The transmitter was active.

I kept my face blank.

Inside, I memorized the sequence. The clasp had two stages.

A pressure release beneath the silver seam, a second lock that engaged only after contact with the skin.

Erdem ran one finger along the edge of the band.

The gesture was almost absent-minded, it made my body tense.

"This will remain on you," he said.

"Why?"

"You left the estate without permission."

"That was in your head."

"You were caught in a restricted passage, by Silas."

So he knew Silas had found me.

That meant Silas had either told him or Erdem had learned another way.

I watched his face carefully but he gave nothing away.

"You were near my office," he said.

"I was lost."

"You have a habit of getting lost near things that interest you."

My pulse jumped.

I kept my expression soft.

"Maybe your house is badly designed."

His hand closed around the band.

Not hard enough to hurt but hard enough to remind me that he could.

"The tracker tells me where you are, it also alerts me if the clasp is damaged."

I looked down at it.

"Thoughtful."

"It alerts me if your pulse rises sharply."

That made me look at him.

The words were delivered without emotion.

A leash that could report both where I was and how well I was enduring it.

"You're monitoring my heartbeat now?"

His thumb rested against the inside of my wrist.

My pulse beat beneath it.

The band seemed to tighten, though I knew it had not moved.

"You're enjoying this," I said.

His gaze held mine.

"I'm enjoying your honesty."

The door opened before I could answer.

Silas stepped inside without knocking.

He wore a black suit and a smile that was too light for the mood in the room. His gaze moved first to Erdem, then to the band around my wrist.

His smile widened.

"Well well well," he said. "That's almost romantic."

Erdem's hand left my wrist, immediately.

Silas leaned against the doorframe, looking between us.

"Did you choose it yourself?" he asked me. "Or did my brother have someone measure you in your sleep?"

"Silas," Erdem said.

The warning carried enough force to stop most men.

Silas was not most men.

He entered the room fully and looked at the band again.

"Does it come off when he behaves?" he asked. "Or only when you decide he has earned the privilege?"

I felt Erdem's attention shift.

Not toward me but toward his brother.

Silas smiled as if he had been waiting for exactly this.

"I'm only saying," he continued, "if you wanted something around his wrist, you could have chosen a ring."

Erdem moved towards him.

Silas's smile faded.

"Erdem—"

The punch landed before he finished the name.

Silas struck the wall hard enough to rattle the framed painting beside him. Erdem caught him by the throat and drove his back against the wall.

"You will not speak about it like that," Erdem said.

Silas's hands closed around Erdem's wrist.

He was smiling again, though his breath had tightened.

"Like what?"

"Like it's yours to discuss."

Silence fell.

My pulse moved beneath the band, a small vibration answered.

Erdem's head turned toward me instantly.

He felt the change. His eyes dropped to my wrist.

Then rose again.

Silas saw it too and his smile became sharper.

"There," he said, voice rough beneath Erdem's grip. "That's what I mean."

Erdem slammed him against the wall again.

"Say another word."

"You're proving my point."

"Silas."

"Is he your new favorite?"

The hand at Silas's throat tightened, not enough to choke him but enough to make his face lose color.

I should have been pleased.

Silas had earned the threat but the argument had shifted in a direction I did not like.

Why is Erdem so angry?

Mara's voice returned to me.

Anyone loved by a Veyra becomes leverage.

I looked at Erdem's face. The fury there was not ordinary irritation.

It was personal.

Silas laughed softly despite the pressure on his throat.

"You can dress it up however you want," he said. "A tracker is still a collar."

Erdem's jaw tightened.

"Do you want to find out how close it is to becoming one?"

Silas's eyes flicked toward me.

"Ask him if he likes it."

Erdem looked at me.

His hand remained around Silas's throat.

I looked down at the band and said, "It's uncomfortable."

Silas let out a low laugh.

Erdem did not.

"Is that all?"

His expression darkened.

I raised my eyes.

"It's a leash," I said.

Silas stopped smiling.

Then Erdem released him.

Silas stumbled forward, coughing once, his hand rising to his neck. He looked furious, but the fury was threaded with satisfaction.

Erdem stepped toward him again.

Silas lifted both hands.

"Fine. Fine."

"You need to leave."

"Because I called your toy romantic?"

Erdem moved so quickly that Silas barely had time to turn.

His fist struck Silas's jaw.

Bone cracked.

The sound was clean and ugly.

Silas hit the floor on one knee, one hand braced against the table.

The guard outside the room shifted toward the door.

Erdem did not look at him.

"Stay out," he ordered.

The guard froze.

Silas touched his mouth, a thin line of blood appeared across his lower lip.

"You nearly broke my jaw," he said.

"I should have."

"For him?"

Erdem's eyes became lethal.

Silas smiled through the blood.

Erdem grabbed him by the front of his jacket and hauled him upright.

I expected another strike but instead, he leaned close and spoke in a voice quiet enough that only the three of us could hear.

"If you ever call him my toy again, I will make sure you lose more than your jaw."

Silas held his gaze.

"Then what is he?"

Erdem did not answer immediately.

Silas saw it.

His smile faded.

Erdem shoved him toward the door.

"Leave."

Silas stopped in the doorway and looked back at me.

His eyes moved to the band around my wrist, Then to Erdem.

"Careful," he said softly.

Erdem took one step toward him.

Silas disappeared into the corridor.

The door closed.

I looked at the blood on the floor where Silas had fallen.

Then at Erdem.

"You nearly broke his jaw."

"He deserved it."

"Is it because he insulted your control?"

He approached me again, slower this time.

"Do you think you understand me?"

"No."

"Good."

"Then stop behaving as if I belong to you."

His expression sharpened.

"I never said you belong to me."

"You put a tracker on me to know where I am."

"Yes."

"To know when I'm afraid."

His gaze dropped briefly to the band.

Then returned to my face.

"To know when you're in danger."

"You are the danger."

He did not deny it.

He reached toward my wrist.

I pulled back.

His hand stopped in the air.

For a moment, something passed between us.

His face remained calm, but I could see the effort behind it. The decision not to grab me.

"You can remove it if you find a way," he said.

I stared at him.

He continued, "Because I know you'll try anyway.”

Or perhaps he only knew the version of me he had invented.

I looked down at the band.

I promised myself that when I finally removed it, I wouldn't leave it on the floor. I would fasten it around your throat.

"You should thank me," he said.

"For what?"

"For giving you something that keeps the others away."

I looked up.

"Who are the others?"

"Anyone who thinks you're unprotected, don't worry you'll get used to it the same way you got used to the glass room."

 Then Erdem reached down and picked up the velvet box.

He closed it and handed it to Konstantin, who had remained silently near the door.

"Take this away."

Konstantin accepted the box.

The door closed behind them.

I looked down at the tracker.

Erdem thought he had put a leash around my wrist.

He had no idea I had already begun studying how to use it against him.