“Unspoken Threads”

*Harper*

The morning light woke me up with a small headache.

My simple bed was cozy enough, so I lay still for a long time, eyes half-open, letting the warmth wrap around the last edges of sleep.

But there was no mistaking the clarity in my body. The drug had worn off completely. My mind was my own again, and yet… I still remembered the weight in my limbs.

His kiss. That kiss. I still felt it on my lips.

Then the hallway of private doors. The silence before he spoke.

I didn’t know his name, but I could still hear his voice, it was low, cold, and final. “Consent isn’t optional.”

I sat up and pressed my feet to the floor. I’d only worn the red velvet dress once. It was folded over the back of the chair now, limp and innocent, as if it hadn’t been worn into a place built on darkness.

A shower was needed, if not to finish waking me up, I needed to push away the images in my head. The ones of that place filled with people from all social status, and doing everything society would not let them do openly, at least without judging.

As my stomach growled, I decided it was time for me to get some breakfast.

Sophia was already in the kitchen, humming off-key and spreading jam across a slice of toast like she had nothing in the world to feel guilty about.

I didn’t say anything as I poured myself coffee.

“Oh good, you’re alive,” she said with mock surprise. “I didn’t see you come home. Where did you go?”

I sipped slowly. “Home.”

She tilted her head. “I waited for you, you know. I didn’t see you leave the bar, I figured you ditched me.”

She was lying. I could see it in her eyes, the way they watched me too closely, searching for a crack, a tremble, a bruise. She’d planned the whole thing, brought me there hoping someone would approach me. Maybe worse.

“Everything okay?” she pressed, pretending to pout. “You look a little… tense.”

“I’m fine,” I said, faking a smile. “You know, if you needed to find me, you could’ve texted.”

She blinked. “I… thought you’d left with someone. Didn’t want to interrupt.”

Of course she did. That was the point.

I finished my coffee in silence and rinsed the mug, feeling her eyes on me the entire time, but I was not going to let her get any more information from me.

I walked to campus with my headphones in, but no music playing. It was odd, yes, but numbing the sound of people and the world helped me relax and gather my thoughts.

The streets were familiar, safe. Or at least they used to be. Now they felt… quieter. Emptier. Like something had followed me out of The Hollow, trailing behind in the shadow of my thoughts.

My first lecture of the day passed in a blur. Ancient civilizations, kings and conquerors, the rise and fall of empires. The professor droned on about power structures while I stared at my notes, seeing only two words.

‘He watched.’

Not the way other men watched. His gaze wasn’t hungry. It was measuring.

‘So what do you like?’ That question hadn’t been flirtation. It had been something else entirely. A test?

I remembered Rafe, too. The way he opened the car door without a word. The way he drove through empty streets with military precision and never once looked at me in the mirror. He hadn’t needed to. I wasn’t a person to him. I was an order he was carrying out.

But the man upstairs… he looked at me like I was a story. One he hadn’t read yet. One he wasn’t sure he’d let end. Or maybe I was just overthinking about the whole interaction. He could have just noticed me in trouble, and made sure I came out alive, then forgot about me.

Something in me wished that wasn’t the case.

I returned home after class, still feeling like I hadn’t fully left the suite above that club. I tried to study, but my concentration drifted. I even tried calling Lili, but she didn’t answer.

When I closed my eyes that night, I told myself I didn’t want to see him again. And yet, I saw his face anyway.

-

*Rowan*

The girl’s name was Harper Blue.

Rafe’s report had been efficient. Clean. Just how I expected it. She’d been taken home safely. No issues. No tail.

I barely listened. My attention was on the city through the glass, towers and traffic far below the edge of my office. My fingers tapped the edge of my desk once. Twice.

“She has no criminal record,” Rafe said. “University student. Lives with her foster family. Strong academic record. Quiet.”

“Background?” I asked.

“Adopted at eleven. Moved through the system before that. Parents Cole and Helen, took her in after their biological daughter dropped out of college. She studies history.”

“Friends?”

Rafe flipped through his tablet. “Few. One close friend abroad. Nothing significant.”

“She’s not from our world.”

“No, sir.”

I leaned back, resting one hand against my mouth, letting silence settle.

I should’ve dismissed it. Let her go. She didn’t belong in my space. She hadn’t asked to be there. She hadn’t flirted. She hadn’t begged. She hadn’t screamed.

And her lips, soft, warm, addictive.

She also hadn’t run.

That part stayed with me.

“She’s not afraid,” I said under my breath.

Rafe looked up. “Should she be?”

I didn’t answer him.

Instead, I stood and turned toward the window, watching the city breathe.

“She knows what power is,” I murmured. “And she doesn’t hand it over easily.”

That part drew my attention, it was not like all the curious girls at the club, the ones thirsty for power, or the needy subs searching for attention. She was far more different than them.

“Find out more of what connection Lance had with her,” that encounter still left questions in my head. She had ignored everyone before he came to her, and I needed to figure out what.

Whatever she was, she had already taken root in my mind.