Perhaps this was another trick.
Perhaps he was waiting for me to run again.
But I couldn’t remain there and find out.
I took another step.
Then I heard it.
A soft dragging sound came from somewhere behind me.
I stopped.
My heart began pounding again as I slowly turned my head, but the corridor behind me was empty.
There was nothing except darkness and those terrible scratches covering the walls.
I took another cautious step backward, refusing to take my eyes away from the shadows, and then something cold brushed against the back of my neck.
I gasped.
His voice came from directly behind me.
“Run.” I didn’t hesitate.
I turned and bolted down the corridor with everything I had left in me, my bare feet striking against the carpet as I desperately searched for somewhere—anywhere—I could hide.
I didn’t know where I was going, and I couldn’t see what waited ahead of me, but the only thought occupying my mind was getting away from him.
Behind me, that quiet laughter followed through the darkness, never growing distant, never becoming louder, simply remaining there as though he were walking rather than running.
And somehow, that frightened me more than anything else.
Because if I was running with everything I had, yet he didn’t even need to run to keep up with me, then what exactly was I running from?
After a long run I was exhausted and out of breath.
When the lights came on I found myself in another room, dim enough that I could only make out the shadows.
“It seems like this is my fate,” I thought, realizing he was enjoying the sight of me losing myself.
The lights went out again, and the same person was suddenly behind me—I knew him by his scent.
He turned me around and pressed his lips hard against mine.
I sealed my mouth shut completely.
“Paw paw… open your mouth for me,” his rough voice growled beside my ear while I stood there frantic.
I tried to nudge him away with my hands to keep some distance, but he caught both wrists, spun me, and shoved me against the wall.
Pain flared through my back as it hit the hard surface.
I couldn’t fight him.
One of his hands pinned my wrists above my head while the other locked around my waist and dragged me flush against him.
His lips claimed mine again, still finding them tightly closed.
He roughly nibbled my lower lip, and the surge of his rampant pheromones made my body soften against my will.
I could no longer hold the rigid posture.
He shifted from the lower lip to the upper, kissing more gently for a moment before forcing his tongue into my mouth.
There was nothing I could do to stop him.
His tongue claimed every inch of my mouth, sweeping and pressing until the last of my resistance crumbled.
The taste of him flooded me—dark, possessive, laced with those overwhelming pheromones that turned my limbs heavy and pliant.
A soft, involuntary sound escaped my throat as he deepened the kiss, tilting my head back with the force of it.
The hand at my waist slid lower, fingers digging into the soft flesh of my hip and pulling me even closer so that there was no space left between us.
I could feel the hard line of his body against mine, the heat of him searing through our clothes.
My pinned wrists ached under his grip, yet the pain only sharpened the dizzying rush that left me breathless and trembling.
When he finally broke the kiss it was only to trail his mouth along my jaw, then down to the sensitive skin of my neck.
He inhaled deeply against my pulse, a low, rough sound vibrating in his chest as if my scent satisfied something primal in him.
“Still trying to fight it?” he murmured against my throat, the words hot and mocking.
His free hand slipped beneath the hem of my shirt, palm spreading possessively over the bare skin of my waist, claiming more of me with every second.
I shivered, body softening further under the onslaught of his touch and the relentless pheromones that left me weak and aching.
My legs threatened to give out, and he must have felt it, because he pressed me harder against the wall, using his body to keep me upright while his mouth returned to mine—hungry, demanding, and utterly unyielding.
His pheromones thickened the air around us until they crowded every thought from my mind, heavy and intoxicating, leaving no room for resistance or clear reason.
My knees buckled.
I sagged into him, the last of my strength dissolving as my body melted against the solid heat of his chest.
He caught me easily, one arm tightening around my waist while the other kept my wrists pinned high against the wall, holding me up as if I weighed nothing.
A low, satisfied hum rumbled in his throat.
He nuzzled the side of my neck, breathing me in, then spoke against my skin in that rough, possessive voice.
“That’s better.
I like my pets obedient.
Soft.
Willing.
When you stop fighting and just give in… gods, nothing is more perfect.” His lips brushed the shell of my ear as he continued, the words dark with pleasure.
“Good little pet.
Just like this—pliant, needy, mine.” The praise and the relentless flood of his scent sent another wave of weakness through me.
I could only cling to him, head tipping back against the wall, body completely surrendered to the way he held me and the way his pheromones rewrote every instinct until all I wanted was to stay exactly where he put me.
His arms shifted, scooping me up with effortless strength so that my feet left the floor entirely.
The world tilted as he carried me through the darkened space, my head resting against his shoulder while his pheromones continued to fog every coherent thought.
I was too limp, too lost in the haze of his scent, to do more than murmur a weak protest that never fully formed.
We stopped in front of something metal and solid.
The soft click of a latch, the quiet creak of hinges, and then cool air brushed my skin as he lowered me carefully inside.
Bars closed around me with a final, decisive clang.
The cage was larger than the last one, lined with soft bedding, yet the bars still pressed cold and unyielding against my awareness.
He crouched outside, watching me through the gaps as I curled instinctively on the padding, body still trembling from the aftershocks of his touch and the lingering weight of his scent.
“There,” he murmured, voice low and pleased.
“Safe in your new cage, just where an obedient pet belongs.” One hand slipped between the bars to stroke my hair, gentle yet unmistakably possessive.
“Rest now.
I’ll be back when I want to play with you again.” The pheromones still clung to me, thick and intoxicating, keeping my limbs heavy and my mind soft as the door locked with a quiet, final sound.
I could only lie there, breathing him in, already aching for the next time he would open it.
For several minutes, I remained curled on the soft bedding, unable to tell whether the darkness surrounding me was real or whether the strange effects of his pheromones were still clouding my mind.
My entire body felt impossibly heavy, yet sleep refused to come.
Every time I closed my eyes, I remembered his voice and the way he had spoken about me as though I were nothing more than an object he had found and decided to keep.
I slowly pushed myself upright and pressed my palms against my face, desperately trying to clear my thoughts and regain control of my senses.
It was only then that I noticed something strange about the room.
It was completely silent.
There were no footsteps outside the cage, no voices drifting through the walls, and no indication that anyone else was nearby.
He was gone, and for the first time since I had been dragged into this place, I was completely alone.
I carefully moved toward the bars and wrapped my fingers around them, testing them with whatever strength I could gather.
They didn’t move even slightly.
I examined the lock more closely, searching for anything I could use to force it open, but there was nothing within reach that could possibly help me.