chapter 5: The Gilded Cage

He didn’t let me run this time. The weakness that had flooded him after touching me was temporary, but the primal drive to keep his “cure” close was not. Before I could disappear into the woods, his hand shot out again, not with violence, but with an iron resolve that brooked no argument. “You’re coming back,” he growled, his voice still ragged. The brief contact as he pulled me back sent another treacherous wave of relief through him, and a corresponding jolt of that addictive, painful...