My breath hitched as his words settled around me, thick and suffocating. My body refused to move, every muscle locked in place as if the weight of his presence alone was enough to pin me where I stood.
I barely had time to react.
One second, he was standing in the doorway, watching me with that unreadable expression. The next, he was on me.
A force like a steel vise closed around my throat, slamming me back against the wall. My vision blurred at the impact, my breath cutting off in an instant. My hands flew to his wrist, nails digging in, but his grip didn't budge. He wasn't just strong—he was something else. Something unnatural.
I gasped, trying to pull in air, my legs kicking against the floor, but it was useless. His hand tightened just enough to keep me on the edge of suffocation, his thumb pressing lightly against my pulse, like he was feeling it race beneath his touch.
"You're afraid," he said, voice low, almost curious.
I was. But I didn't have the breath to admit it.
His eyes were different now. Darker. Too dark. The soft morning light that had once warmed the room barely seemed to reach him. His presence swallowed it whole.
"Let me go," I rasped, my voice barely there.
He didn't. Instead, his grip shifted, his fingers pressing into my wrist—the same one he'd grabbed before. A sharp, searing pain flared beneath his touch. It wasn't normal. It wasn't just pressure. It felt like something was crawling under my skin, burrowing deep into the bone.
I sucked in a sharp breath, my body tensing at the foreign sensation. He watched me, his head tilting slightly, like he was waiting for something.
"You feel it now," he murmured. "You understand."
I didn't.
Not until I saw the change.
His lips parted slightly, just enough for me to catch the sharp points of his teeth. Not human. Not normal. My stomach lurched, a primal fear clawing up my throat.
I struggled harder, twisting, trying to break free, but the moment I moved, he struck.
A sharp pain tore through my shoulder as his teeth sank deep. The world fractured. My body seized, a choked sound escaping me as heat flared from the wound, spreading outward in a sickening wave. It wasn't just pain. It was something worse—something unnatural seeping into me, numbing and burning all at once.
I couldn't think. Couldn't breathe.
The grip on my throat loosened, and I crumpled, knees slamming against the wooden floor. My whole body shook, every nerve misfiring. My head swam, my stomach churned, and the only thing I could focus on was the dull, pulsing ache where he'd bitten me.
Above me, he exhaled slowly, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. His eyes—god, his eyes—were locked onto me, unreadable, unreadable, unreadable.
"You're mine now," he said simply.
I shuddered, pressing a hand against my shoulder. Blood. Too much of it.
I wanted to run, to scream, to do anything—but I couldn't. My limbs wouldn't move. My body wouldn't listen.
And from the look in his eyes, he knew it.