Ryker’s POV
The sound of her voice lingered. The soft tremble wrapped in fear but it had the gall to stand against me.
Her words shouldn't have mattered. Shouldn’t have reached me at all. But it did—like the echo of something she didn’t know she’d drawn.
I walked slowly, my steps silent against the black marble floor. Every corner of this hall bent to my will. I had built it that way. Power wasn’t simply taken; it was carved, stitched into walls, poured into air thick enough to make even the brave hesitate.
Valentina hadn't hesitated, not in the way I expected.
She should have broken. Instead, she looked me in the eye. Quiet. Unmoving. Unshaken.
I didn’t like the feeling that twisted somewhere beneath my ribs.
Weak men called it admiration. I called it irritation.
She should have t
