Page 149 of Stalked By Seduction and Shadows

Durian stroked my cheek, and I recoiled. His smile turned down, and he gripped my face hard. When I winced, he loosened his hold, as if he’d forgotten his own strength. Or my fragility.

He released me and snapped his fingers. Soon Liza was approaching us. I couldn’t see the rest of our surroundings beyond their looming figures. I smelled candles and perfume. Adrenaline surged, my vision growing tunneled.

As soon as I realized what Liza was holding, I tensed up.

“No,” I rasped.

Durian held me still as Liza lifted my tangled hair, placing a heavy black collar around my neck with a silver ring dangling at the center.

Tears streamed down my cheeks when she’d fastened it in place. She locked it with a small key, quick to dangle it in front of my face before slipping it into her pocket. Durian still held my arms at my sides, his knee on my legs. I couldn’t move to stop Liza’s snakelike tongue from darting out to catch one of my tears on her tongue.

“Enough,” Durian said. “Leave us.”

When Liza receded with a lowered gaze and satisfied smirk, Durian rose to his feet. He stared down at me as I pulled my knees to my chest and trembled. I wanted to tear the collar from my throat. It was too tight, too stifling.

“Soon, you won’t be able to remember any touch but mine. Any reason to live but for me. You will never think of Rune again. You will not even be able to remember his name.”

Never. I would never forget Rune. It was impossible; I’d already tried.

Durian sighed, watching me with calculated coldness. “Willful little thing, hmm? I can see clearly why he grew so fond of you.”

Durian grinned, and all I saw were those two razor-sharp, extended canines.

“You’re going to be a delight to break. I won’t stop until you’re perfect, until you have no thoughts but the ones I feed you. And my property will always be grateful for everything she is fed, be it my gracious attention or my firm, divine correction.”

Rune would find me. Rune would save me.

Then, with a sharp inhale, I remembered everything—every gruesome detail. I remembered the way he’d regarded me with such brutal disgust and hardened disdain. I hadn’t been able to convince him of the truth, the love I harbored that was more real than anything I’d ever felt before. Unbreakable, unending, like a steady river that went on and on.

Rune would think I’d fled. He would slide even deeper into his hatred, now with clear evidence I’d joined his enemies. He wouldn’t come looking for me. And if he did, it would only be to kill me.

My tears ran down my cheeks faster now as I clawed at the suffocating collar around my throat. Durian’s sickly grin widened.

“You belong to me, pet. Until your final breath.”