Chapter 2

By midnight, I was asleep in one of my own apartments across the city.

By morning, my phone had almost burned itself dead.

Adrian had called thirty-six times.

I answered on the thirty-seventh.

“Elena,” he snarled. “What did you do to Selena?”

I rubbed my temple. “Good morning to you too.”

“Don’t play innocent. She’s missing. You hated that I chose her, so you hurt her.”

I almost laughed.

The little fool had staged her own disappearance already.

Fast learner.

“Adrian, I didn’t touch your precious Eclipse Mate.”

“Don’t call her that.”

“That’s what she is, isn’t she? Fifteen days of moonlight before the dark comes back.”

His growl shook through the phone.

“If anything happens to her, I will never forgive you.”

“You won’t remember saying that in two weeks.”

The line went dead.

Three minutes later, my apartment door broke open.

Adrian came in first.

His guards followed.

His eyes were gold, wild, and empty of me.

Before I could stand, his hand cracked across my face with the full strength of an Alpha who had forgotten he once kissed that same cheek.

Pain burst white behind my eyes.

I hit the floor hard enough for my teeth to cut through my lip. Blood filled my mouth.

For half a second, the room went quiet.

Then I looked toward the corner.

The little red light on the security camera blinked steadily.

Good.

Adrian crouched in front of me, his expensive black coat brushing the floor.

“Still looking at me like that?” he said. “Like I’m supposed to feel sorry for you?”

I lowered my head.

Not because I was afraid.

Because the camera needed the angle.

“Adrian,” I whispered, letting my voice tremble just enough, “you hit me for her?”

His mouth twisted.

“You kidnapped her. That crossed my line.”

He stood.

“Search the apartment. If she doesn’t tell us where Selena is, make her.”

The guards moved at once.

One fist landed against my ribs.

Then another.

Then another.

Someone drove a knee into my stomach. Someone wrenched my arms behind my back until my shoulders screamed. I curled in on myself and counted each blow.

Not because I wanted to remember the pain.

Because every second was being saved to the cloud.

A boot hit my side. My breath snapped apart. The room blurred.

For one ugly heartbeat, I remembered the tenth curse, when Adrian had almost gouged out one of my eyes for a woman who said she hated the way I looked at him.

When he woke that time and saw the blood crusted across my lashes, he locked himself in the cellar for a week and broke both his hands against the stone wall. He begged to tear out his own eye so the debt would be even.

Back then, I stopped him.

This time, I wondered why I had ever bothered.

The last punch landed under my ribs.

My throat tightened.

I vomited blood onto my own floor.

Adrian’s phone rang.

His face changed before he even answered.

“Selena?” His voice softened at once. “I’m coming. Don’t cry. I’ll be there.”

He walked out without looking back.

The guards followed.

The broken door swung open in the silence.

I lay on the floor until I could breathe again.

Then I reached for my phone with shaking fingers, opened the live security upload, and saved the file under a new folder.

Gift One.

For the day he wakes.