y for Teleth

ught Kaelen's hover hand dropping to fist, tremor stopping completely, and after I saw second signature CHARLES WI

waist is - and pulls me through Crown kitchens, past Telethon kids, past father holding empty wheelc

e Enterprises temporary penthouse, 42nd floor, opposite mirror building black glass

nding lights gone.

tyranni

the red dress now, not at 10am, because Silas said he lost bid right but alpha doesn't ca

ar V/W across chest under suit, father killed with hamm

st now, not hover, r

doe

assive frame not trembling at all now, which is terrifying because faint tremor was human, stopp

r. Dry-clean chemicals make silk sticks. Zipper stubborn at back, between shoulder blades,

le, smal

efully. Amber stor

or, but cracked, because of the gala announcement, becau

eed

e will co

s

bal permission to as

ck law. Like an 1888 ledger. Like

st

ha

fter what I did to my uncle with a hammer. We ask. We don't take it. Even property of Vance legacy. Even LIFE co

expected tears at 10am by Silas, tears now by Kaelen, tears by Charles Jr.

for a

of confus

nt. This ice is not corporate nothing. This icy wolf is

orary penthouse 42nd floor t

... help with

st above red silk, above zipper, not touching, m

eful, "Say: Kaelen, you have permission

er. Because the £400 breeding contract 18

lly, but I say, because zipper

ission to touch the zi

l, two fingers, massive frame, hand huge but gentle, faint tremor returning now, fain

hes. Stuck again. Lower

" he asks, still fo

gone, confusion growing: "You

cause the first inch is a zipper. The second inch is you. And I don't want to own you unless you own me back. I

e asks. I give. The voice i

inches. Red dress loos

st, where hover hand was

1cm above silk, above skin now

st you with the final stubborn zipper at waist where my hand hovered at gala and p

At the waist. Where t

r sacred permission to touch a zipper of red dress that can be torn, when he could have

nfusion blooms

u have permission to touch th

ves. The red dress op

his suit, I see on my own skin - small, fresh, jagged scar, same shape as his jawline scar, same

s mark appearing a

rm goes violent, not hiding

bare fingers, no hover, no boundary, because scar is his scar, t

ark. Not mine. Hammer mark. He signed under you in the at

losed, fast, zipper up,

her wheelchair, but builder with blowtorch from 42A, Bren, holding same hammer from 2016, and behind him, man with limp, jagged scar sam