Chapter 3

Wren's POV 

"Do you know what my father does to men who touch what belongs to him?"

The voice came from the doorway before I even registered someone else had entered the room. A woman stood there, dressed sharp and cold, her eyes locking onto Damian's hand still resting at my waist.

"Sit down, Elena," Damian said without turning around. "This doesn't concern you."

"Everything in this house concerns me." She stepped inside, heels clicking against the marble, her gaze sliding over me like I was something tracked in on someone's shoe. "Is this her? The debt?"

"She has a name," I said before anyone else could answer for me.

Elena's eyebrows lifted, amused. "She speaks."

"She bites too," Kane said from behind me, and I could hear the smirk in his voice without even turning around.

Damian finally stepped back from me, though his hand lingered a second longer than necessary before falling away completely. "Elena is my sister. She thinks that gives her a say in family matters."

"It does give me a say," Elena shot back, arms crossing. "Father built this family on rules, and rule one has always been no outsiders get close enough to know our secrets. Yet here you are, deciding her vows before the sun even comes up."

My stomach dropped. "What exactly are these vows everyone keeps talking about?"

Nobody answered right away. Adrian was the one who finally spoke, his voice calm as ever, though something behind his eyes had sharpened. "When a debt this size goes unpaid, the family has the right to bind the debtor to us permanently. Not through paperwork. Through blood."

"That sounds like a threat."

"It's a tradition," Damian corrected. "Older than any of us. Older than the money itself."

Elena scoffed. "Tradition. Is that what we're calling it now?"

"Careful," Damian said, his voice dropping into something quieter and far more dangerous than before.

Elena rolled her eyes and turned back to me, studying my face like she was searching for something specific. "Do you even understand what you agreed to just by walking through that door?"

"I didn't agree to anything," I snapped. "I was dragged here."

"Doesn't matter," Kane said, finally stepping into view beside me, his shoulder brushing mine like it was second nature already. "Once the vow is spoken, it's spoken. There's no undoing it."

My pulse spiked. "Nobody has said any vow yet."

"Not yet," Damian said, and something in his tone made the room feel smaller.

Elena studied the three men slowly, her expression shifting from irritation into something closer to disbelief. "You're all looking at her the same way." Her eyes narrowed. "All three of you."

Nobody denied it.

"Unbelievable," she muttered, shaking her head. "Father is going to lose his mind."

"Father isn't here," Damian said flatly. "I make the decisions until he returns."

"And what exactly have you decided?" Elena asked, arms tightening across her chest.

Damian's eyes moved back to me, slow and deliberate, and something about the way he looked at me made my breath catch before he even spoke. "That she stays. That she learns what it means to belong somewhere that will never let her go. And that until the debt is settled, she answers to the three of us. Equally."

"Equally," Adrian repeated, testing the word like it amused him.

Kane's hand found my wrist again, thumb brushing slowly over my pulse point, like he could feel exactly how fast my heart was racing. "I can work with equally."

"This is insane," I said, pulling my wrist free, though the warmth of his grip lingered even after he let go. "You can't just divide me up like property between the three of you."

"We're not dividing you," Damian said, stepping closer again, close enough that I had to tilt my head back to hold his gaze. "We're protecting an investment. There's a difference."

"That's not better."

"It doesn't have to be better," he said quietly. "It just has to be true."

Elena watched the exchange with narrowed eyes, then finally sighed and turned toward the door. "Fine. Do whatever you want. But when Father finds out three of his most trusted men are fighting over a debt girl instead of running this family, don't expect me to defend any of you."

The door shut behind her, and the room fell into a heavy silence.

Adrian was the first to move, stepping closer, his voice low. "She's not wrong about one thing. This complicates everything."

"Since when do you care about complications?" Kane asked.

"Since the complication started looking at Damian like she might actually trust him," Adrian said, his eyes flicking toward me with something unreadable.

My cheeks burned. "I don't trust any of you."

"You will," Kane said again, echoing Damian's earlier words, and the repetition sent a shiver down my spine that I refused to examine too closely.

Damian reached out, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear the same way he had in the warehouse, his touch unhurried despite everything happening around us. "Tomorrow, the vow will be spoken. Tonight, you rest. Tomorrow, you belong to this house completely."

"And if I say no?"

His hand slid down, resting briefly against the side of my neck, his thumb tracing slow along my jaw. "You won't."

"How can you be so sure?"

He leaned in close, his voice dropping to something almost gentle, almost dangerous, his breath warm against my skin. "Because by tomorrow night, you'll understand exactly what it means to be claimed by three men who have already decided they're never letting you go."

I opened my mouth to argue, but before I could speak, the door swung open again, and a man I hadn't seen before stepped inside, his eyes locking onto mine with an intensity that made the room feel even colder.

"So this is her," he said. "The one who's about to ruin everything I built.”