The iron gates of Fox Manor opened like the jaws of a giant beast. The limousine rolled up the long, winding driveway, flanked by ancient trees that seemed to lean in, whispering secrets.
Kai didn't wait for the driver. He stepped out and reached back in, grabbing me by the waist and pulling me into his arms. My dress was ruined, the silk hanging in shreds, leaving me exposed to the cold night air and his burning gaze.
"Carry me yourself?" I rasped, my voice still trembling from the kiss that had almost undone me in the car. "What happened to treating me like an asset?"
"Some assets are too precious to let others touch," Kai muttered, his voice thick with a dark possessiveness.
He didn't take me through the front door. He took me through a private elevator that led straight to the master wing. The hallway was lined with paintings—portraits of the Fox ancestors. All of them had the same cold, obsidian eyes. But as we passed the last one, I gasped.
It was a painting of a woman. She looked exactly like me. The same honey-brown hair, the same defiant curve of the lips.
"Who is she?" I whispered, my heart skipping a beat.
Kai didn't answer. He kicked open the doors to his bedroom and dropped me onto the charcoal silk sheets of his massive bed. He stood over me, unbuckling his belt with a slow, deliberate movement that made my breath hitch.
"She is the reason your father is still alive," Kai said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "And she is the reason Marcus knew exactly how much I would pay for you."
"You... you knew my family before tonight?" I scrambled back against the headboard, the mystery of it all making my head spin.
Kai leaned over me, his hands landing on either side of my hips, trapping me against the pillows. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, silver pendant. It was a fox curled around a violet stone—the exact same pendant my mother had given me before she disappeared ten years ago.
"This belonged to my mother!" I reached for it, but Kai pulled it back, a cruel smirk playing on his lips.
"It belonged to the woman in the painting," Kai corrected. "Your mother wasn't just a wife, Amara. She was a Fox. And you... you aren't just a girl sold at an auction. You are the last piece of a bloodline I've been hunting for a decade."
My blood ran cold. The man who had just bought my body was claiming I was related to his empire? It was twisted. It was impossible.
"I don't believe you," I hissed, even as a strange heat began to radiate from the pendant in his hand.
"Believe what you want," Kai growled. He leaned down, his lips grazing the shell of my ear. "But tonight, we aren't just consummating a transaction. We are sealing a destiny. You think Marcus sold you because of a debt? No, Little Bird. Marcus sold you because I told him I would burn the city to the ground if he didn't put you on that stage."
He suddenly grabbed my ankle and pulled me toward him, his strength overwhelming. He reached for a leather-bound book on the nightstand—the Marriage Contract we saw in the vision earlier, but this one looked older, cursed.
"Sign the book, Amara. Sign it in the place where your mother's name is missing," he commanded, his eyes glowing with an obsessive light. "Do it, and I might just tell you where she's being kept."
My jaw dropped. "She's... she's alive?"
Kai's hand moved to the nape of my neck, his fingers tangling in my hair as he forced my gaze to meet his. "That depends on how well you play your role tonight. My bed, or my dungeon. Choose, Little Fox."
The mystery was a trap, and the trap was a cage made of silk and secrets. I looked at the pen, then at the man who was both my captor and the only link to my past.