Page 78 of Prey

Darius’s laugh crackles through: “You’re completely insane, you know that?”

“Probably.” My grip tightens as I watch Jenna’s face contort in pleasure on screen. Sanity seems irrelevant when I have her alone in thousands of acres where no one can hear her scream my name.

“Jesus, Nik,” Marcus cuts in. “Are you jerking off right now?”

“What gave it away?”

“The heavy breathing and wet sounds, for starters,” he shoots back.

Theon’s voice carries amusement. “Man’s got priorities. Can’t blame him.”

“Focus, children,” Ezra interjects. “I’m calling with updates. The Hendricks execution went flawlessly. Raphael made it look like a heart attack during her morning jog. No heat, no investigation.”

I pause the video, my hand still. Dr.Sarah Hendricks—another architect of our hell, another name crossed off my list. I should feel satisfaction, that familiar cold pleasure of vengeance served. Instead, all I feel is mild annoyance at the interruption.

“Good. What else?” I ask.

“Dominic traced the funneling of the funds we’ve been tracking. They lead to a shell company in the Caymans where it appears they are resurrecting the program,” Ezra continues. “Three-point-seven million transferred in the last month. Someone’s definitely rebuilding.”

“Lucien’s sources confirmed movement in Prague, Oklahoma,” Damon adds. “New facility, new staff. They’re being more careful this time, but it’s definitely them.”

The information should demand my immediate attention. Should have me driving back to Chicago to coordinate our response. Instead, I resume stroking myself while watching Jenna’s unconscious form on the live feed from the bedroom.

“Handle it without me.”

“Handle it without—Nik, this is Project Architect we’re talking about.” Ezra’s voice sharpens. “They’re rebuilding. This is what we’ve been waiting for.”

“You’re all perfectly capable of burning down whatever they’re constructing. I’m busy.”

“Busy conditioning your little vigilante,” Raphael observes. “How’s that progressing?”

“Today I’m giving her weapons. Knives, basic survival gear. Let her think she has a real chance of evading me.”

“And when you catch her?” Theon asks with obvious interest.

Heat spreads through my gut as I outline my plans. “There’s a room in the west wing I’ve prepared. Padded floor, restraint points, mirrors on every wall so she can watch herself being taken. After tonight’s hunt, I’m keeping her there for seventy-two hours straight.”

“Seventy-two hours?” Marcus whistles. “That’s… ambitious.”

“By the time I’m done with her, she’ll be addicted to being filled with my cock. Won’t be able to sleep without me inside her.”

“You realize you’re describing Stockholm Syndrome with extra steps,” Dominic points out.

“I’m describing conditioning. She already responds to being claimed—I’m just making that response stronger.”

“What about pregnancy?” Darius asks. “All this breeding talk actually going somewhere?”

The question makes my cock twitch, and like that, I’m coming on my fist, grunting as I do. The vision of Jenna’s belly swollen with my child, her body marked permanently as mine, floods my mind with dark satisfaction.

“Jesus, sounds like Nik just shot his load,” Darius teases.

“She’s not on birth control. Every time I fill her, there’s a chance,” I admit.

“And if she gets pregnant?”

“Then she’s mine forever.” The certainty in my voice surprises me. “No running. No escaping. Just mine.”

Silence stretches across the line before Lucien speaks, his voice carrying that familiar detached curiosity.