Chapter 2

Wren's POV 

"Do you know what happens to people who try to run from this family?"

The question came from the leader as the car pulled through a gate I hadn't even noticed until it was already closing behind us. My hands were shaking in my lap, and I pressed them together to stop it. He watched the motion from the corner of his eye, saying nothing, letting the silence do its own kind of damage.

"I wasn't trying to run," I said. "I didn't even know you existed until an hour ago."

"That won't matter once you're inside these walls," he said, turning his gaze back to the house rising up ahead of us through the tinted window. "Ignorance doesn't erase a debt."

The house was enormous, all stone and dark windows, lit only by a few lights near the entrance. It looked less like a home and more like something built to keep people in.

The rough voiced one, sitting across from me, stretched one arm along the back of the seat, close enough that his fingers almost brushed my shoulder. "Kane," he said, watching my reaction closely. "In case you were wondering who's going to be watching you the closest."

"I wasn't wondering," I lied.

He smirked, clearly not believing me, and let his fingers drop just enough to graze my sleeve before pulling back. "You will."

The car stopped, and before I could reach for the door handle myself, it opened from the outside. Kane stepped out first, then held out his hand, not really as a courtesy but as an order, his palm open and waiting.

"Move," he said.

I ignored his hand and climbed out on my own, earning a low chuckle from the leader, who was already walking ahead toward the entrance, his coat catching in the wind like he owned the night itself.

The quiet one fell into step beside me, close enough that our shoulders nearly touched. "Damian," he said, nodding toward the leader's back. "That's his name. In case no one bothered to tell you who owns this house."

I turned to him. Up close, his eyes were sharper than I expected, calm on the surface but calculating underneath, studying me the way someone studies a lock before deciding how to open it.

"And you?" I asked.

"Adrian," he said simply, letting one hand rest lightly against the small of my back to guide me forward, the touch light but deliberate. "I keep the family's secrets. Including yours, if you're smart enough to give me one worth keeping."

The three of them walked me inside like an escort, though it felt more like being herded. The interior was cold despite the warm lighting, marble floors and dark wood, portraits of stern faced men lining the hallway like silent judges.

"Sit," Damian said once we reached a large room with a fireplace, gesturing to a chair positioned in the center like it had been placed there specifically for this moment.

"I'd rather stand."

"That wasn't a request."

I sat, mostly because Kane's hand landed on my shoulder and pressed down before I could argue further, his fingers curling slightly, not painful but unmistakably firm.

Damian settled into a chair across from me, one ankle crossed over his knee, studying me with the same unreadable expression from the warehouse. "Your father owed us protection money for eleven years. When he stopped paying, he disappeared. Left you to inherit what he couldn't."

"I never asked for any of this."

"None of us get to choose the debts we're born into." His voice was flat, almost bored, though his eyes never once left mine. "The question now is how you intend to pay it."

"I don't have money."

"We've already established that." Kane's voice, sharper this time, his hand still resting on my shoulder, thumb moving in a slow absent circle that felt more like a warning than comfort. "So we're left with other options."

My pulse spiked. "What other options?"

Adrian stepped forward, crouching slightly so he was eye level with me, forearms braced on his knees, his calm somehow more unsettling than Kane's aggression. "You could work for us. Prove your loyalty. Or you could try to run, and we hunt you down like we've hunted everyone else who tried."

"There's a third option too," Damian said, leaning forward, elbows on his knees, the firelight catching the sharp line of his jaw. "You could belong to us completely. No half measures. No pretending you have a choice in the matter."

"That's not a real option," I snapped. "That's just slavery with better furniture."

Something flickered across Damian's face, almost amusement, almost respect. "You have a mouth on you."

"I have a lot more than that when people try to trap me."

Kane laughed behind me, low and rough, his hand finally sliding off my shoulder, though his presence still loomed close. "I like her."

"You like anything that fights back," Adrian said dryly, rising to his full height again.

Damian ignored them both, his eyes locked on mine like he was trying to peel back every layer I had. He stood slowly, unfolding from the chair with unhurried control. "Here's what's going to happen. You'll stay here. You'll learn how this family operates. And in time, you'll understand that what feels like a cage right now is actually the safest place you could be."

"Safe," I repeated bitterly. "You kidnapped me."

"We collected what was owed," he corrected. "There's a difference."

I stood up despite Kane's hand attempting to settle back on my shoulder, anger pushing past fear for the first time since the warehouse. "I'm not property. I'm not a payment. I'm a person, and none of you get to decide what happens to me."

The room went quiet. For a moment nobody moved, and I wondered if I had made a terrible mistake.

Then Damian rose fully, closing the distance between us until there was barely any space left, his height forcing me to tilt my head back just to hold his gaze. His voice dropped, low enough that only I could hear it clearly.

"You're right," he said. "You're not property."

Relief flickered through me for half a second before he continued.

"You're mine."

My breath caught in my throat. "Excuse me?"

He didn't blink, didn't hesitate. His hand came up, sliding along the curve of my jaw, thumb resting just beneath my bottom lip. "Kane found you. Adrian will investigate you. But you walked into my house, under my protection, carrying my family's debt. That makes you mine to decide what happens next."

"I don't belong to you," I whispered, though my voice betrayed the fear underneath the defiance.

His hand tilted my chin higher so I had no choice but to meet his eyes fully, his other hand settling at my waist, firm and unmoving. "You will," he said quietly. "Because tonight, I'm not just deciding your debt."

He leaned in slightly, his voice dropping to something almost intimate, almost dangerous, his breath warm against my ear.

"I'm deciding your vows.”