Dropping my chin, I nodded, doing my best to keep any emotion from my face. I searched for something to say, but words were mysteriously absent.
Sully shifted, moving toward the exit. “Come with me.”
My eyes shot up. “But you just said—”
“I said you’re serving in Euphoria tomorrow. Not that you were free from punishment tonight.”
I gulped. “But—”
“No fucking buts.” He snapped his fingers. “Follow me.” His eyes narrowed. “Or I can throw you over my shoulder and carry you there.” He stepped threateningly toward me. “Which would you prefer?”
“I’ll walk.” I arched my chin, refusing to be intimidated even though every blood cell quaked.
“Fine.” He spun on his shiny shoes and stalked from my bathroom, through my lounge, and out the front door. He didn’t stop to ensure I obeyed him. He’d changed clothes since our last encounter, slipping into a black suit and black shirt, leaving his throat bare from a tie.
My eyes skated to my bed and the tie he’d wrapped around my throat on Serigala. I’d thrown it there when I’d stumbled into my villa an hour ago, and it lay against the virginal white sheets like a deadly premonition.
I had no time to change or grab any supplies—already he’d almost vanished down the sandy pathway.
With a muffled curse, I darted after him. Doing my best to keep my robe tight around me rather than loose and revealing.
He didn’t slow his pace, guiding me through parts of the island I’d already explored and into the jungle where I hadn’t. Orchids faded in favour of glossy banana plants and other fruit trees I didn’t recognise.
Darkness had descended, stealing the rest of coppery twilight and making everything monochrome. The sand still radiated heat beneath my bare feet, and my hair rapidly dried in the warm humidity.
The skies above, stencilled with palm fronds, were endlessly clear. No rain would fall tonight…not after the storm that’d ended my escape.
I continued chasing Sully until he turned down a side path, overgrown and not nearly as welcoming. Wariness ghosted down my spine as we entered a clearing within an enclave of thick bushes and silken foliage.
No Pika flew with him. No Skittles flew with me.
We were utterly alone as he marched toward the rundown villa sitting squat in the centre of the clearing.
Waiting for me to catch up, he pinned me to the spot with a sinister stare. “You ran from my generosity. Therefore, you must return to my unkindness.” Turning the door handle, he shoved the entrance open and threw me inside.
I tripped over the threshold, blinking in the blackness.
A switch clicked and lights rained from above, spilling into shadows, chasing away obscurity.
Once again, the villa had sweeping high ceilings, thatched roof, and exposed beams like its other counterparts, but unlike the animal hospital on Serigala, Euphoria and its fancy technology, or my cosy elegant villa, this one held nothing of wealth.
This one held cages.
Lots and lots of cages.
Some small and stacked on top of one another, cob-webbed laced and dust sprinkled. Others had fallen from their tower, laying on top of one another with opened wire doors and bent metal walls.
And two large ones sat in the middle of the room, large enough for a primate…or person.
The air smelled metallic and rusty with the faint whiff of cadaver.
Goosebumps scattered down my spine. I did not want to be here. The memories of these cages. The stories they told. The suffering that’d happened inside them. Some of the bars still held maroon stains of shed blood. Others clutched at tufts of fur like trophies with tight wire hands.
Where did these awful things come from?
Sully wrapped possessive fingers around my nape and marched me forward.
I shuddered from the scalding, sinning electricity that ricocheted from him to me.
It didn’t matter that we caused a blend of heightened energy whenever we touched. It didn’t matter that my heart went from worried to winging.
Everything about our connection was chaotic, including the absurdity that my core clenched from being held so primitively.
I’d read that humans had evolved from animals so long ago that we could no longer be classified as beasts. However, the instinct whenever a male clasped the nape of its lover triggered a feral response. An impulse to cower and obey. To submit entirely.
I fought against that instinct as Sully pushed me toward one of the large cages. Without a word, he threw me inside and slammed the metal door shut. With a padlock from his pocket, he locked me in.
My bare feet bruised from the wire beneath them. Claustrophobia rose, seeking desperately for a way out.
My breathing turned shallow, but I forced myself to stand there. To lock gazes with the man who’d just proven his point extremely eloquently.
His island might be a trap, but he granted our every whim.
This was true captivity.
A cage that I could barely stand up in. A box that wouldn’t allow me to lie down, nor held any comfort or kindness.