MASTER DON'S LITTLE PREY

CHAPTER 3: TRACKING PILL.

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RACHEL POV

The door slammed against the wall so hard I jolted upright before my eyes even opened.

Cloth racks. Jewelry cases. Water running somewhere. Voices layered on top of each other, sharp and rushed. Maids moved around the room like the building was on fire, folding, arranging, pulling garment bags off hangers.

Morning has never felt so chaotic in my life than this day….worst I couldn't remember falling asleep…

I could only remember crying at my new fate then falling asleep on the couch.

Someone yanked me out of bed before I could ask what was happening.

They dragged me to the bathroom half-asleep, sleep still crusted in my eyes, and stripped me before I could protest.

So many hands scrubbed me raw….my armpits, my hair, f**k…my p***y.

Everywhere, like I was being prepped for surgery, not a wedding.

"Five minutes. We will lose our jobs if she isn't ready in five minutes."

A maid yelled to the rest and I felt the increase in their speed.

That was when it hit me. This wasn't urgent. This was fear. Whatever happened to the maid who failed him, it was bad enough that grown women were shaking while they worked on my hair.

While my scalp was praying to be saved.

I remembered the night I arrived. The same panic. The same countdown…

The same heavy scrubbing.

Nothing here moved on anyone's time but his….

The fact that he works with time is more scary than he actually was..

“Three minutes…. quickly!"

Makeup, hair, dress…. it all happened in a blur too fast to process, too fast to even look at myself in the mirror but in that one seconds I saw how perfect I looed….

I haven't seen this part of myself…ever.

Before I could admire myself fully in my head I was pushed into a waiting SUV.

By the time the car stopped, I was standing in front of a church.

A very massive one that looked more like a castle than a church.

The moment I stepped out of the car, camera flashes hit me like gunfire of a different kind.

"Mrs. Draven! How does it feel marrying the most powerful businessman in the country?"

"How did you two meet?"

"What was it like the first time you saw him?"

“Are you two in love with each other?"

Question after question, shouted over each other, and none of them made sense to me.

I had no answers. I didn't even know the story they thought they were asking about, whatever version of "us" the world believed in.

Worst of all, I didn't know who he was, but I knew that whatever he was…he was dangerous.

The crowd pressed closer, microphones shoved toward my face, the guards struggling to hold the line. I felt hands grabbing at my dress, my arm, panic rising in my throat…

Then a hand closed around my hand so firm that I feared for myself.

At that moment I noticed I was him.

Draven.

Draven pulled me through the chaos like the noise didn't exist, and within seconds we were inside the church, the doors shutting the world out behind us.

Phew…

But what?

Everything was happening too fast… or maybe too forced.

I wasn't sure what was happening…if this is all a dream I can't wait to wake up from all of it.

“Where's the bride?"

“Ohh there she is"

I didn't get a single second to admire the place. Marble. Gold. Rows of men in black suits, expressions carved from stone. One of them stood near the front in a leather jacket instead of a suit, black boot, boobs potent to the top and a leather shirt pant….tracing my eyes through from her feet to her face and something about his face made my breath catch…. the same sharp jaw, the same cold eyes. Family, maybe.

He looked at me the way Draven's mother had.

Like I was a problem someone hadn't solved yet.

Speaking of her, she stood near the altar, arms folded, watching me with a glare sharp enough to cut me open.

Cold metal slid onto my finger, and I stared down at it like it belonged to someone else's hand. Draven's fingers were steady around mine…. mine were not.

The priest's mouth kept moving. I caught pieces. Vows... honor... until.

I felt more than hearing the ring go onto Draven's finger next, my own hand shaking as I pushed it over his knuckle, my palm slick with sweat.

The ring suddenly fell to the ground, rolling down the little stairs.

“I'm…. I'm so sorry.”

Somewhere behind me, his mother's heels shifted against marble. A cough. The rustle of a hundred people holding their breath, waiting for me to get this right.

The ring was handed to me again, I wiped my sweaty hands on my dress and then did it again with shivering hands ..my heart pounding hard and cold sweat pouring down my forehead.

Draven eyes on me…I felt it deep in my skin.

"You may kiss your bride."

The priest annoced…and my chest raced even more….

Louder.

Draven's mouth met mine, brief and hard, and for one strange second the whole church went quiet around us.

“Draven…. you owe me…you owe me so much.”

A man stood up from the pews, shouting.

"You cruel crook! You think you can hide behind a wedding? Everyone here knows what you…."

The rest of the sentence never came.

Draven moved before I even saw the gun in his hand. One shot. The man dropped, blood spraying across the marble floor, across the front row, across the hem of my dress.

I spun around, my heart in my throat, and found Draven already turning back to the altar like nothing had happened.

"Continue," he told the priest.

The priest's hands shook, but he continued.

The SUV door shut behind us, sealing out the flashing lights, and Draven's phone was already lit up in his hand, screen after screen scrolling past. I caught glimpses over his shoulder. My own face, wide-eyed, staring back at me from a hundred thumbnails.

"Draven Vitali's Fairytale Wedding."

"Business Mogul Finally Off The Market….And Clearly Smitten."

A photo of the kiss, cropped just right, just soft enough that nobody watching would ever guess what happened three seconds later, what landed on the marble behind us.

I looked down at my hand instead. The Diamond ring caught the light from the window.

I turned the ring slowly, watching it catch the streetlights sliding past outside.

This was supposed to be Caleb's ring. Caleb's hand should have been the one shaking next to mine at that altar. I'd pictured it a hundred times, his stupid nervous laugh, the way he'd probably trip over his own vows, the two of us laughing about it after.

Instead I got a stranger's name beside mine on every screen in the country, and a man who hadn't looked at me once since the church doors closed.

The tears came before I could stop them, sliding down silently, and I turned my face to the window so he wouldn't see.

Back at the mansion, a maid told me to prepare myself for tonight's banquet and left me alone in the room.

I was halfway out of the wedding dress, down to nothing, when the door slammed open.

I froze, arms flying up to cover boobs as the door was pushed open without knocks…. spinning to face the wall.

"Turn around."

Draven's voice. Flat. Absolute.

I hesitated, humiliation burning through me, and turned slowly, using my hands to cover what little I could.

He stood in the doorway holding a small tray. Pills. A glass of water.

"Take it."

"Why? What is it?"

His eyes didn't move off mine.

"I don't repeat myself twice.”