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I said nothing. I didn't like to lie if I didn't have to. Hurting Nell wasn't of interest to me. Unless she was into a bit of spanking. I wanted her brain, and I also wanted to suck on those pert breasts. They appeared the perfect size to fit one fully in my mouth. I would give myself one night to explore that theory. Her brain would remain the permanent asset of Blackwood Holdings for the rest of her life.

"If it were Gunnar, I'd be kicking down doors," Addie was saying, her voice calm now that she believed her friend was out of danger.

I chuckled. "I don't doubt it."

Before I could hang up, there was a muffled scuffle on the other end of the line. Vidar’s voice came over the phone with Addie's receding into the background. I caught the word bossy, but it was said without any heat. A door shut, and then my brother came on in hushed tones.

"Did you send the Odhiambo woman to Anchorage?"

That was the plan my brother had set up for Nell. Before I'd gotten a whiff of her.

"I have her working on the Volki problem. She’s dismantling their industrial merger as we speak. It'll probably take her a couple of days.

"She can do it in Alaska. That woman is not a good influence on my wife. She's the reason Addie was in the park when her father was taken out. She could've been taken from me. Or worse. Addie’s distracted enough without that Iago whispering in her ear."

I couldn't help it; a dark grin tugged at my mouth. "Are you jealous of your wife’s best friend, Viddo? That sounds dangerously like a personal feeling."

Vidar growled—more wolf than man—and hung up.

My brother had always had the emotional range of a thunderstorm: loud and over quickly. I set the phone face down on the table and looked up to find my mother watching me from across the kitchen.

She was smiling. Not the sharp, knowing smile she deployed when she had caught one of us in something. The quieter one; private, almost to herself. She covered the remaining food, slid the containers into the refrigerator, and padded out of the kitchen without a word.

Addie thought I was protecting her friend. Vidar wanted Nell gone. My mother had heard asset. Nobody suspected anything.

Good.

I picked up my utensils and ate until my plate was clear. I wasn't full. I was starving. I knew what I wanted. It was back in the cabin.

My wolf was eager, a little too eager. It had been a while. I had no idea what the frequency of sex would be when I got married. I knew my brother couldn't keep his hands off his new wife. But Vidar and Addie had accidentally fallen in love after being forced to marry. My parents were the same way. I doubted luck would strike a third time.

In a few weeks, I’d be meeting Rosalind Lobo. I’d be signing my life away to a woman I didn't know to secure a future for my family, for my pack.

Nell was a toy. A final indulgence before the cage closed for good. She’d be on her knees soon, I promised the wolf. I cleaned my plate, rinsing it under the faucet before putting in the dishwasher like I'd been taught, and headed up to bed.

CHAPTER FIVE

NELL

Bored. Bored now. Bored hours ago. Bored as I tried to fall asleep last night in this silent cabin. I'd grown so used to the hum of life that was New York City that I didn't know how to rest without the constant vibration.

I had finished the liquidation setup hours ago. The protocols were live, working their way through the digital ether like a series of tripwires. By now, the Volki’s board of directors would be staring at their phones in frozen horror as their liquidity evaporated into the dozens of escrow accounts I’d mapped out. I had done my job. I'd done it well. So where was my golden parachute out of here?

Magnus had left me with no phone. Not to call any of my friends. Well, friend. I only had the one true friend. I felt certain I'd be seeing her soon enough. The only person I wanted to contact was the man whose bed I'd slept in last night without a single benefit.

Well, the bed did carry his scent. I had half a mind to buy a box of cigars once I got out of here and put them under my pillow. It hadn't been the best night of sleep, but it had been a horny one.

The dreams had been specific. Unhelpfully, cinematically specific. Magnus and his big hands. Magnus and his big feet. Magnus and his big…package.

I had woken up twice. The second time I had lain in the dark and had a frank internal conversation with myself about my situation. A man had kidnapped me, blackmailed me, and installed me in his personal cabin in the middle of nowhere. This had to be the beginning of Stockholm syndrome.

I walked into the small kitchenette, my bare feet silent on the polished wood. On the counter sat a covered dish. When I’d opened it earlier, the scent had nearly brought me to my knees. It was Red Red. Black-eyed pea stew, spicy and rich, exactly the way my grandmother used to make it, with the palm oil just starting to separate. Next to it was a bag of plantain chips, the exact brand I used to hunt for in the specialty shops in Brooklyn.

Magnus hadn't just looked at my resume; he’d audited my soul. He must've gone back through my grocery deliveries, my favorite takeout orders, perhaps even interviewed the ghosts of my past. It was a terrifying level of attention. Most men I knew couldn’t remember the color of my eyes after sitting across from me for an hour.

I wanted to hate him for it. I wanted to see it as the calculated move of a predator baiting a trap. But a small, traitorous part of me—the part that had spent a decade being the "useful" shadow at Sterling—glowed under the heat of that attention.

I turned away from the counter and paced to the window. It was a perfect afternoon. The sun was a bright, unapologetic gold, filtering through the ancient oaks in long, dusty shafts. It looked like a postcard for a life I’d never been invited to join.