Page 69 of Prey

He pauses, hand on the door. “Yes?”

“The mask.” I swallow hard. “Why won’t you take it off?”

“Because without it, I might make a mistake. And we both know how that worked out last time.”

Then he’s gone, leaving me alone with the echo of his words and the knowledge that whatever humanity I glimpsed in him before has been locked away behind the mask.

I touch my belly, wondering if his seed is already taking root. Wondering if I want it to be.

And hating myself for not knowing the answer.

24

NIKOLAI

My phone buzzes against my chest as I lean against the observation window overlooking Jenna’s cell. She’s curled on the cot, still naked, her dark hair spilling across the pillow. Even unconscious, her body maintains that coiled tension—ready to spring into violence at the first sign of threat.

“Vex,” I answer.

“Should we expect you back tonight?” Ezra’s voice carries that familiar analytical detachment, but underneath lurks curiosity. “We have the Hendricks execution scheduled for tomorrow. Marcus confirmed the location.”

Dr.Sarah Hendricks. Another architect of our conditioning. The one who wrote the protocols for the youngest intake—the breaking of children too small to understand what was being done to them. I learned her work from the inside years before I ever saw her name in a file. Another name I should be eager to cross off my list.

“Don’t expect me back for a month.”

Silence stretches across the line before Ezra’s laugh crackles through the speaker. “A month? What the hell are you—oh. You found her.”

“Found who?” Darius’s voice joins the call.

Fucking speakerphone.

“Our boy finally caught his runaway pet,” Ezra announces.

“No shit?” That’s Damon. “You actually tracked down the little assassin?”

Heat crawls up my neck. “She’s at the compound. I’m handling her conditioning personally.”

“Conditioning?” Raphael’s voice carries dark amusement. “So what you’re doing to her what they did to us?”

“Fuck off.”

“Come on, Nik.” Theon joins the chorus. “We all know you’re not actually going to sell her. Just admit you want to keep her around to make your dick wet.”

“Yeah,” Marcus chimes in. “Three months of brooding. Just put a collar on her and call it a day.”

My grip tightens on the phone. “It’s not like that.”

“Sure it isn’t.” Darius laughs. “That’s why you went off piste and kidnapped a woman completely innocent, brought her to the Nexus like a pet. That’s why you are disappearing for a month to personally handle herconditioning.”

“She’s important.” The words come out sharp. “She killed five collectors after escaping me. She became a predator.”

“So you’re going to what—train her to be your hunting partner?” Lucien’s voice carries curiosity beneath the mockery. “Domesticate the feral cat?”

“I’m going to condition her.” My eyes move to Jenna’s sleeping form. “I made mistakes before. Got distracted. This time I’m doing it right.”

“Right,” Ezra drawls. “And what exactly doesdoing it rightentail?”

The image of Jenna’s unconscious body responding to my touch flashes through my mind. The way she moaned when Ithreatened to rape her while drugged. How her back arched even in sedation when I claimed her.