Chapter 71

Chapter 71
My fingers trembled so badly I could barely grasp the fabric. Every nerve in my body screamed at me to stop, to run, to fight — but Elsa’s small shape on the couch anchored me, and Adrik’s eyes pinned me in place like iron.

Shaking, I pulled at my dress. The fabric slid from my shoulders slowly, every inch feeling like a strip of my skin being torn away. It pooled at my feet, and I stood there, exposed, my body rigid with shame.

A sob caught in my throat as I crossed my arms over myself, trying to cover what little I could, trying to disappear inside my own skin. Tears blurred my vision until the room swam.

Then his voice cut through the silence like a blade.

“Do you want me to break those hands?” The words were low, steady, and terrifyingly calm. He tilted his head slightly, the knife still gleaming faintly in his grip. “It’s not like I’m not going to do so later… but you can still dare me now.”

The threat slid over me like a shadow. My arms shook harder, my breath stuttering, my body frozen in place. My hands hovered at my chest, trembling, but I didn’t dare move them again.

Adrik’s gaze raked over me, unblinking, cold as winter steel. He wasn’t yelling. He didn’t need to. His voice alone was enough to hollow me out.

My throat tightened until it ached. My knees trembled. And in that moment, standing there with nothing to shield me but shaking hands, I realized he didn’t just want obedience — he wanted humiliation. To peel away every layer until there was nothing left but fear.

We stayed like that for what felt like forever. The room was silent except for the ragged sound of my own breathing, shallow and uneven. My arms burned from holding them stiff against my body, but I didn’t dare move them. My head hung low, my hair falling in a messy curtain to shield my face.

Ten minutes — maybe more — passed in suffocating silence. The air was heavy, thick, like the weight of chains pressing down on me. I could feel his eyes never leaving me, the way you can feel fire even with your back turned.

Finally, against every instinct in me, I lifted my head.

And that’s when I saw it.

Adrik’s face wasn’t calm anymore. His lips had parted slightly, his breath shallow, and his expression had twisted into something terrifying. His eyes were locked onto me with a hunger so raw it made my stomach lurch.

He looked like a starving beast.

His gaze roamed over me as though he hadn’t eaten in years and I was the meal laid bare before him. His pupils dilated, his jaw tightened, and a sharp gleam flickered in his eyes — possession, obsession, hunger all tangled together into something inhuman.

I froze, my whole body trembling violently, bile rising in my throat. My skin crawled as though his eyes alone were tearing into me, stripping me further than my own shaking hands ever could.

My breath caught, a whimper escaping before I could swallow it down. His head tilted ever so slightly, that feral look never leaving his face, and he whispered something under his breath in Russian that I couldn’t even process.

But I didn’t need to understand the words.

His expression told me everything.

He wanted to devour me.

His eyes stayed locked on me, still carrying that feral, starving look. The silence between us grew heavier, like the air before a storm. I could feel my knees starting to buckle, but I kept standing, trembling, my head bowed again to avoid his gaze.

Then his voice cut through the quiet.

Low. Cold. Commanding.

“Walk to the room,” he said.

It wasn’t loud. It didn’t need to be. The way he spoke made it sound like an order carved in stone — no space for questions, no space for refusal.

My heart lurched painfully against my ribs. My lips parted as if to protest, but no sound came. I glanced at Elsa, still shivering on the couch, and my stomach clenched; she wouldn’t survive my disobedience. Neither would Grandma.

My feet felt glued to the floor. It was as though the world itself had narrowed to a single point: his voice, his eyes, the knife gleaming faintly in his hand.

He tilted his head slightly, a shadow of a smile crawling across his lips — the kind that never reached his eyes.

“Walk,” he repeated, slower this time, almost whispering.

My body moved before my mind could stop it. One step. Another. My bare feet against the cold floor felt like walking across shards of glass.

I heard it before I saw it — the soft, frantic thump of tiny paws on the wooden floor. Elsa.

She was hopping after me, her small body a blur of white and brown, ears quivering as if she knew something was horribly wrong. My heart lurched painfully in my chest. She’d always followed me like a shadow, no matter where I went.

But before she could reach me, Adrik moved.

He stepped sideways into her path, his presence like a wall of iron. His hand shot out, palm open, and the rabbit froze, trembling on the spot. His smile curled upward, slow and cold.

“Oh no,” he murmured, his voice dipping low, almost playful. “Mummy and Daddy are about to play.”

He crouched slightly, his shadow stretching long across the floor. Elsa trembled harder under his gaze.

“I wouldn’t want you seeing something you’re not supposed to see.”

The way he said it — soft, almost cooing — made my blood run colder than any shout could. It wasn’t just a warning. It was a promise of what was to come.

He shifted his weight and reached out with his boot, nudging the rabbit gently but firmly back, blocking her from following. Elsa gave a tiny, frightened squeak, but didn’t dare move past him again.

My stomach twisted, tears stinging my eyes as I watched her tremble behind him. The image burned into me: my only comfort in this nightmare, now separated, pushed back, forced to stay behind like she was nothing more than a toy.

Adrik turned his gaze back to me, that same smile still etched on his face — but now it was sharper, darker, and directed entirely at me.

“Keep walking,” he said softly.

The kiss was nothing like anything I had ever felt—or feared.

Adrik’s hand shot up and clamped firmly on the back of my neck, his grip hard enough to make me shiver with panic. My body froze instinctively, every nerve screaming at me to pull away, to push him off, to run—but he didn’t give me the chance.

Then his lips were on mine.

It wasn’t gentle. It wasn’t tender. It was sharp, urgent, and consuming, as if he wanted to push every ounce of me into him, to imprint himself on me in a way I couldn’t escape. His mouth pounded against mine with a force that stole my breath and left my chest aching.

I tried to twist my head, to turn away, but his hand on the back of my neck held me like iron. Every attempt to pull back was useless. He leaned into me, pressing me closer, his body pressing down like a weight I couldn’t lift, his presence filling every inch of my world.

Panic surged through me, wild and frantic, mixed with the raw humiliation of having no control. My hands flailed, caught between pushing him away and covering myself, but it was hopeless.

And through it all, I could feel the feral hunger in him—like the same beast I had seen in his eyes before—channeling through every movement, every touch, every crushing second of this terrifying kiss.

I gasped, my mind screaming for release, for air, for anything—yet there was nothing I could do.

I stumbled back as the kiss finally broke, my lips burning, my chest heaving as I tried to suck in air. My hands were shaking uncontrollably, my fingers curled tight as if gripping anything could anchor me to reality.

Adrik didn’t give me a chance to recover. He straightened slowly, that predatory smile stretching across his face once more. His eyes glinted in the dim light, cold, sharp, and impossibly hungry.

“It’s going to be a long night,” he murmured, his voice low and rough, each word slicing through me like steel.

Before I could process the meaning, before my mind could even react, he shoved me toward the bed.

The sudden force knocked me off balance, and I tumbled onto the cold sheets. My body hit the mattress hard, the impact stealing the little breath I had left. My hands instinctively flew up, trying to shield myself, to grab something, anything, to keep him at bay—but he was already looming above me.

The air in the room felt suffocating, thick with the weight of him. Elsa’s small, terrified squeak from the couch echoed faintly in my ears, a reminder that I wasn’t the only one trapped in this nightmare.

I pressed my back against the bed, trying to shrink into myself, trying to make myself disappear, but there was no escape.

Adrik’s presence filled the room entirely, and as he hovered over me, I realized just how powerless I was.

And I knew the night had only just begun.