Taming the Tycoon's Prey

Secrets with Teeth

Lena didn’t sleep after Axel dragged her back to the penthouse. He didn’t lock her in the room — he didn’t have to. The threat in his eyes when he left her there was enough.

She sat on the edge of the massive bed, listening to the soft click of the door latching shut behind him. She waited for the sound of boots fading down the hallway — but they didn’t. Instead, she heard murmured voices. Axel’s low rumble, Dimitri’s rasp like gravel dragged over steel.

She pressed her ear to the door. The wood was thick, but the anger in Axel’s voice bled through anyway.

“If you ever touch her again without my order—”

Dimitri’s laugh was soft. Ugly. “Careful, boss. You’re getting sentimental about this one.”

A sharp sound — flesh striking flesh. A muffled grunt. Silence.

Lena pressed her palm flat against the door to keep her hands from shaking. She should’ve felt safe hearing Dimitri get punished. She didn’t. She felt trapped — pressed between two monsters who didn’t see her as a woman but as something breakable. Moldable. A piece on a board she didn’t know how to play.

When the voices vanished, she cracked the door open an inch. The hall was empty. The silence pressed against her ears so hard they rang.

She should’ve stayed inside. Curled up under those expensive blankets and pretended she was somewhere else. But the curiosity itched under her skin — a splinter she couldn’t leave alone.

She slipped into the hall, bare feet silent on the marble floor.

---

She didn’t know where she was going. The penthouse felt endless — a maze of sharp corners and darkened doorways. She passed a room where low music thrummed behind a closed door, too faint to catch the words. Another door was ajar, revealing a polished office lined with shelves of leather-bound books that looked untouched.

She ducked inside.

It smelled faintly of cigar smoke and something darker — gun oil, maybe. Or blood. She told herself that was paranoia. She didn’t quite believe it.

A massive desk dominated the room — black wood, edges sharp enough to cut. Papers were stacked in neat piles. Folders stamped with names she didn’t recognize. Some were in Russian, others in English.

She shouldn’t look. But she did.

One file lay half-open — a thin dossier clipped together with a black paperclip. Her name on the tab in Axel’s precise handwriting.

Her stomach lurched.

She flipped it open with shaking fingers. Inside: a copy of her driver’s license. Her old address. Notes scribbled in the margins — Brother: Jaxon R. Carter, LAPD. Connection: high risk? Next to that, a line drawn in red pen: Potential leverage.

Her vision blurred. The words danced in her head like gnats. Leverage. That’s what she was. A pawn to keep Jax in check? Or a shield to keep him away?

She turned the page. More photos — grainy shots of her leaving her old apartment. One of her arguing with Gregory outside the courthouse. Another of her alone in a parking garage, hugging herself so tight she looked like she might shatter.

Her chest squeezed until she couldn’t breathe.

A shadow moved across the page.

She looked up and nearly screamed — but a rough hand clamped over her mouth before the sound escaped.

Dimitri’s breath ghosted against her ear. “Little rabbits shouldn’t leave their cage.”

She tried to twist free. His grip only tightened, forcing her head back against his chest. She felt the shape of something cold and hard press into her lower back — a knife, maybe. Or a gun.

“You’re going to get people killed poking in holes that don’t belong to you,” Dimitri hissed. His other hand flipped the folder shut, pinning it under his palm. “You think he’s your savior? You think you’re special because he didn’t break you yet?”

His breath turned sour against her skin. “He doesn’t save people, little rabbit. He feeds us.”

Lena’s pulse thundered. She tried to speak, but his hand clamped tighter.

He dragged her backward out of the office, into the hallway. His grip was bruising, fingers digging into her ribs until she couldn’t pull air into her lungs.

He shoved her against the wall. Cold marble slammed into her spine. His hand dropped from her mouth, but before she could scream, he pressed his forearm against her throat. Not hard enough to choke. Just enough to promise he could if he wanted to.

“You’re going to forget what you saw,” he murmured, eyes inches from hers. “You’re going to smile when he pets you. You’re going to keep your pretty mouth shut. Or next time—”

A soft click. A voice like silk dipped in poison.

“Next time, what?”

Axel stood at the end of the hallway. No boots now — just bare feet on the marble, a pair of dark sweatpants, a white shirt that made him look disarmingly domestic. If you didn’t look at his eyes.

Dimitri didn’t flinch. His arm stayed where it was, pinning her throat.

Axel’s gaze slid to Lena — her wide eyes, her trembling hands pinned between their bodies. Then back to Dimitri.

“Move your arm,” Axel said softly.

Dimitri’s jaw twitched. But he did as he was told, stepping back just enough that Lena gasped in air like a drowning woman.

Axel didn’t look at her. He only looked at Dimitri. “Did I not make myself clear?”

Dimitri’s smile was razor thin. “You’re slipping, boss. The leash is getting soft.”

Axel moved then — so fast Lena didn’t even see it happen. One moment he was ten feet away, the next Dimitri was slammed against the wall, Axel’s hand wrapped around his throat.

The sound Dimitri made was low, a wet choke that rattled down the hall.

Axel’s voice was so quiet Lena had to lean forward to hear it — even though she knew she shouldn’t.

“You ever touch her again without my say, I will bury you under the same concrete you think you own.”

Dimitri’s grin cracked under the pressure. But the glint in his eyes didn’t fade. “She’s not worth it, Axel.”

Axel squeezed harder. Dimitri’s boots scrabbled against the floor.

“She is,” Axel said, voice cold enough to burn. “And that’s the only truth you need to swallow tonight.”

He let go. Dimitri crumpled to his knees, coughing, spitting something dark onto the marble. His eyes flicked up at Lena — a promise of retribution that made her stomach knot.

Axel didn’t spare him another glance. He reached for Lena’s hand, pulling her away from the wall, guiding her down the hall like nothing had happened.

---

He didn’t speak until they were back in her bedroom. He shut the door behind them with a quiet click. The lock slid into place with a soft snick she felt in her teeth.

He turned then, eyes on her face. Not angry — worse. Calm. Controlled. Like he’d already decided what she was worth and nothing she did now would change it.

“You went looking for answers,” he said. Not a question.

Lena swallowed. Her voice came out a whisper. “Why me, Axel? Why my brother?”

Axel crossed the room, stopping inches from her. He smelled like soap and gunpowder and something darker that made her knees want to buckle.

“Because your brother wants me dead. Or behind bars. And you?” He brushed a finger down the side of her throat, tracing the faint mark Dimitri’s arm had left. “You’re the only thing he’s ever loved enough to bleed for.”

Her stomach flipped. “So that’s all this is? A threat?”

Axel’s smile was soft. Almost sad. “No, Lena. That’s what it started as.”

He leaned in. His mouth brushed her ear. She hated how her pulse spiked at the warmth of it.

“But now you’re something else. Now you’re mine. And I protect what’s mine — even if I have to break every piece of it to do it.”

His mouth found hers then — sudden, brutal, claiming. A kiss that tasted like a warning and a promise tangled together.

When he pulled back, her knees barely held her up. His thumb brushed her lower lip.

“Sleep, Lena.” His voice was a dark lullaby. “Tomorrow, you’ll see how deep this goes.”

He left her there — heart hammering, throat bruised, mind spinning with too many truths that didn’t fit together.

Outside her window, the city pulsed like a living thing. Inside the penthouse, wolves watched and waited.

And somewhere in the shadows, someone else was waiting too — someone who wanted her gone. Or dead.