005

VIVIENNE POV

I woke up slowly, nausea coiling through my gut, my head pounding hard enough to split a bone. My lashes dragged open and the blur sharpened, rich mahogany, velvet drapes, shelves of leather‑bound books that screamed old money and older power. A study, an expensive one. A cage with a nicer wallpaper.

Then I saw them.

Four monsters in tailored suits sitting like a tribunal of executioners. Dante in the center, Kane leaning forward like a loaded gun, Ryker lounging with a grin that promised corruption, Asher watching with those soft eyes that belonged on a saint while hiding something worse.

My limbs were limp. My wolf was barely breathing but my glare still worked. I made sure they saw it, the promise that one day, I’d carve them open and smile while doing it.

Dante didn’t blink or look amused, he just leaned in slightly, cool as anything,

“Listen carefully,” he said, voice quiet in the way knives are quiet. “We don’t repeat ourselves. Here are the terms of your new reality, Vivienne.”

I hated the way he said my name, like it belonged on his tongue.

“You stay on the estate. You do not leave. Ever. Your movement is ours to decide. You eat when told, sleep when told, breathe when told.” His gaze dragged down me, clinical, and cold. “You will address any one of us as Master or Alpha. You break that rule…”

A pause and a soft lethal smile.

“…you bleed.”

Inside my head, Ivy snarled weakly. You bleed first, I promised silently.

Dante continued as if reciting a grocery list.

“During your heat cycles, you submit. Fully. No struggle, no negotiation. We expect a minimum of three Alpha heirs. If you’re not pregnant, we'll keep fucking you till you are.”

He didn't even blink while saying it and I almost laughed. Bastard.

Then Kane stepped forward, huge, scarred, radiating hatred so intense it felt like the air curdled around him.

“Rule two,” Kane growled. “If you run, we hunt you. Day, night, doesn’t matter. We will drag you back by your hair and fuck more seeds into you.”

His eyes narrowed like I offended him by existing.

“If you attack, we break you. Bones, pride, everything. You disobey, we punish you. I don’t care if it takes hours, days… I enjoy the work.”

In my head, I spat... Scar‑boy thinks he scares me? I’ve gutted men like him before breakfast.

He leaned closer, his breath hot.

“You’ll scream, Moreau. And no one will come.”

My pulse spiked, not with fear but rage, and I badly wanted to bite his tongue off.

Then Ryker pushed off the desk, rolling his shoulders like a predator stretching.

“Rule three.” He smirked. “Begging.”

He said it like a hobby, licking his lips. “You’ll beg, one way or another, little flame. Either for cock or for your life. Makes no difference to me.”

I’ll shove your dick through your own teeth first, I thought.

He winked at me, reading the violence in my eyes. “Fiery little thing. I think I’ll call you Red. Short for ‘Red Flag.’”

Asher stepped up last, calm, composed, terrifying in the quiet way storms are.

“Rule four,” he whispered. “Pain is a teacher. You’ll heal only when we allow it. Cry if you need to. It tells us how deep we’ve cut.”

My stomach tightened, not in fear but anticipation.

Oh, this one’s dangerous. Too quiet.

“You exist for us now,” Asher finished, voice barely audible. “Mind, wolf, body... ours.”

Ryker added, lazy and amused, “My rule? Don’t bore me, little flame.”

Kane snarled, “Shut up, Criminal.”

Asher murmured, “She’s Little Sin.”

Dante leaned in until his breath brushed my cheek.

“You will never raise a hand to a Shadowcrest. You will not speak unless spoken to. You obey. In return, you get protection, security, and a life without enemies unless you decide to make us one.”

He leaned in, inches from my face. “Understand, Vivienne Moreau? Nod if you do.”

I didn’t nod. I let a cruel smile curl up instead, voice sharp even through the weakness. “You bought an Alpha wolf, not a house pet,” I rasped. “You want obedience, you’ll have to break bones for it. You want heirs? Try not to cry when I make you beg for it. I survived the Moreau underworld, what makes you think four spoiled Alphas scare me?”

Kane moved so fast the chair skidded, his hand clamped around my throat, slamming me into the wall so hard the air burst from my lungs and my vision pulsed black, spots dancing.

“Let’s make something clear, Wolf‑Trash,” Kane hissed, lips against my ear. “You’re nothing here. You crawl when we say. You scream when we say. You bleed when we say.”

His grip tightened, cutting off oxygen.

“For this rudeness, you get one meal a day. If you earn it. You disobey? We fuck you on the floor in front of the pack until you cry blood.”

I would’ve spit in his face if I could breathe but he wasn’t done.

“Try escaping,” he snarled, pressing harder until my ears rang, “and I’ll break your legs, watch you try to run on shattered bones, then break them again.”

Inside, Ivy whispered through the agony," Kill him first."

I smirked, even as my chest struggled for air.

“So much talking for a man whose cock is grinding on my thigh like a teenage boy’s,” I rasped. “Should I call you Puppy?”

His eyes burned pure murder and he pressed harder, hips grinding without meaning to.

Ryker laughed behind him. “Told you, boys… she’s going to be fun.”

Dante’s voice snapped through the tension.

“Enough.”

Kane dropped me, and I hit the floor hard, coughing,and rage lighting every nerve.

Dante stepped closer, shadows carving his face into something inhuman.

“She’ll learn,” he said. “Or she’ll break. Either outcome serves us.”

I lifted my chin, blood running down my throat, and lungs burning, but my mind was already counting doors, windows, distances, any weapons and weaknesses.

I gave them all a slow, defiant smile, let them carve their rules into the walls.

Every king loves his little tyrannies before the coup but they forgot one thing

Vivienne Moreau doesn't lose, I don’t bend and I sure as hell don’t stay owned.. This is a game and I always play to win, no matter what I have to do.