Chapter 61 The Shape of His Obsession
Sable’s POV
The silver bit into my wrists when I pulled against it again. The sting made me grit my teeth, it was sharp and real, a reminder that I was still here, awake and alive.
Sam watched every movement, his gaze drinking me in like a man who’d found water after crossing a desert. His glasses caught the light from the hanging bulbs overhead, a glint that made his eyes seem even sharper.
“Why?” My voice came out rough, scraped from sleep and panic, but the word carried. “Why are you doing this, Sam?”
His lips parted. For a moment, I thought he might laugh, but what came instead was a low, almost tender chuckle. He leaned back on the crate, his posture relaxed in a way that didn’t fit the intensity in his eyes.
“Because I love you,” he said simply, like it was the only answer that ever mattered.
My stomach clenched. “You don’t know what love is.”
He shook his head slowly, pitying, like I was the one confused. “You think I don’t? Sable, I’ve loved you since the first day I saw you. You walked on campus with your head high, every man at school turning to look, and you didn’t return not one glance. You belonged to yourself in a way that made the rest of us look like children. I knew then.” His voice softened, almost reverent. “I knew you were it.”
I froze, bile rising in my throat.
He went on, words spilling faster now, as if they’d been waiting years. “Do you remember? Your first week? You dropped your pen in the classroom, and when I picked it up, you smiled at me. No one ever smiled at me like that. Like I was worth noticing. And then the lunch after, when everyone else ignored you because you were new? I sat with you. We talked about nothing—just stupid things, sandwiches and music and how much the city stinks after rain—but it was… perfect.”
I shook my head. “That wasn’t love, Sam. That was kindness. Friendship.”
His jaw tightened, but his eyes gleamed like he hadn’t heard me. “Do you know how many nights I stayed up waiting for your messages to pop across my screen? You’d ask for help on a subject, or just… just send a meme. Do you know what that did to me? It meant you thought of me. You trusted me. And every time you laughed at something Sable, I lived for it.”
I stared at him, my pulse pounding against the chains. The wolf stirred weakly, but she was still drowned under the wolfbane.
“You built me into something in your head that I'm not,” I said, my voice sharper now. “You’ve made me into your obsession, Sam. That’s not love.”
His expression cracked then, just for a second, before he plastered it back together with a smile that sent ice crawling up my spine. “You’re wrong."
My throat tightened, fury pushing through the fear. “If you love me, you’d let me go. You wouldn’t chain me up like some animal.”
His head snapped toward me, eyes wild. “I’m saving you!” The words echoed through the warehouse. “Do you think I don’t know that he wants take what's mine. The girl who laughed at my stupid jokes, who made late-night coffee runs, who dreamed about making her own mark—she’ll be gone. I can't let her go.”
He came closer, crouching low in front of me, his face only inches from mine. His breath smelled faintly of coffee and desperation. “I couldn’t let that happen. Not when I could keep you. Not when I could protect you. Not when I love you.”
I forced myself to hold his gaze, even though every part of me wanted to recoil. “This isn’t protection, Sam. This is prison. You don’t see me—you see what you want me to be.”
His eyes softened again, dangerous in their gentleness. “I see you better than anyone. I see the way you chew your lip when you’re deep in thought, how you tap your pen three times before you write, how you wear that necklace even when it doesn’t match because it’s the only thing you kept from your home. I see the fire in you, and I see the fear. And I want both. All of it. Because it’s you.”
My stomach turned. He sounded so certain, so delusional, like he was describing some sacred text instead of my life. He had built a temple out of my scraps, and now he thought I was supposed to live in it.
“You don’t get to write my story,” I spat, yanking at the chains again even though it burned. “You don’t get to decide my life.”
His smile faltered, but only for a breath. Then he straightened, looking down at me like a man who thought himself merciful. “You’ll see, Sable. When this so called mate bond wears off, when you realize he can’t find you, when you can finally breath —you’ll understand. You’ll thank me.”
I swallowed the rising scream clawing up my throat. My body was weak, my wolf unreachable, the silver searing my skin. But inside, beneath the haze and the fury, one truth burned clear.
Sam was crazy and he thought he could cage me in.
But I’d survived worse cages. And I would survive this one.
Even if I had to killed him.