Page 30 of Property of Crypt Keeper

Comfortable. Like she’d done this before. I didn’t like that thought. She was too little.

The road stretched ahead, cutting through the trees as I pushed the bike toward the clubhouse.

Lily would watch her. With the way Dexter watched Lily, she’d be safe.

And me?

I had somewhere else to be. The shack. The cell. The woman I’d dragged out of a bar to fuck, then left in cuffs in my cell because she thought she could play games with me.

Katalina Kingston.

Hunter.

Demon.

And the only person in this state who might know exactly which “werewolves” were still breathing. Or which ones weren’t.

My grip tightened on the handlebars.

Yeah. We were about to have a conversation. And this time—I wasn’t letting her control it.

And I wasn’t going to let her distract me with that sexy fucking body.

8

KATALINA

The shack didn’t smell like a prison. Not exactly.

It smelled like restraint.

Old but sturdy wood, damp earth, iron, and something deeper beneath it—magic, layered and deliberate. Not sloppy. Not desperate.

Controlled. Very controlled and specific.

That told me more about Gideon Bourque than anything he’d said so far. He didn’t lock things up because he was afraid. He locked them up because he understood exactly what they could do.

Including himself.

Frustrated, I leaned back against the far wall of the cell, bare skin meeting cool, scarred wood without a flicker of discomfort. The warded cuffs bit into my wrists—not painfully, but enough. Enough to remind me they weren’t a fucking decoration.

They were made to hold something like me.

Or him.

My gaze drifted over the runes carved into the beams, etched deep and filled with something dark and old. They hummed faintly against my senses, pressing against my demon like a warning.

Stay.

Contain.

Survive.

Interesting. Yeah, I’d seen cages before. More kinds than humans would believe existed. This wasn’t one. This was a choice. Those runes were made by a witch, but made for someone. Gideon.

The door opened. I didn’t move. Didn’t need to.

I felt him the second he stepped inside.