Valentina's POVI trembled as panic rose in my chest. My throat locked in.But his hand didn’t move. It stayed there on my lower back like a warning.I knew what this was, it was a branding. Speak, and you earn a place.Stay silent, and you become nothing but a trembling ornament in the palace of monsters.I looked up slowly, letting my eyes meet the first man I could focus on. His eyes were ink-dark, and there was a scar running from the side of his lip to his jaw.I turned my head to the next. Older. Wiser, maybe, cold.And then I looked forward again. I didn’t know what to say.But my lips moved.“My name is Valentina,” I said, my voice soft. “And I belong to Ryker Blackthorn.”My own words turned to glass in my throat. I expected laughter, disdain.But there was only silence but then, one by one, they bowed their heads enough to say it was done.Enough to say they had seen and heard. My heart roared in my ears.Ryker didn’t smile. But he let out a quiet sound from his throat, somet
Last Updated : 2025-07-19 Read more