Chapter 2
Chapter Two
ORION VOSS
I watch her, waiting. My breath is slow, steady, but my body is tense, wound tight like a predator on the verge of striking. I can hear the frantic beat of her heart in the silence, the soft, barely-there tremor of her breath as realization settles in. She stands frozen, her dark hair wild around her shoulders, loose strands catching the moonlight, a stark contrast against the pale column of her throat. Her skin glows faintly beneath the trees, streaked with dirt, flushed with exertion, and yet she is still breathtaking—fierce, unbroken, every inch of her a challenge waiting to be answered.
She knows what I’ve just given her—a chance.
She doesn’t waste it.
Vivienne bolts.
I stay in the shadows, watching as she disappears into the woods, her dark cloak whipping behind her, her steps light but frantic. Every muscle in my body tenses, fighting against instinct, against everything I’ve ever been trained to do. I should go after her. I should chase her now, claim her like I’ve done with so many others.
But I don’t move. I let her go. Five minutes. That’s all I can give her.
It could cost me everything.
The Order will not forgive this.
I grit my teeth, my fingers flexing at my sides. The Order. They made me into this—into the warlock who could hunt down anyone, anything. I was their most devoted. My power, my strength, my existence has been shaped by them. And yet, for all their power, they are nothing more than parasites. Twisting magic to fit their will, feeding off the souls of witches until there is nothing left.
Vivienne should have been one of them years ago.
I should have delivered her to them the night she became mine.
She was eighteen then. So young. So pure. The memory of her beneath me is burned into my mind, the way she trembled as she gave herself to me, the way her lips parted in breathless surrender. I could have taken everything from her. And I nearly did.
But something stopped me.
For the first time in my life, I hesitated. Not because I lacked the power. Not because I lacked the hunger. But because when I looked into her eyes, I saw something I wasn’t meant to see.
A future.
A different kind of power. Not the kind the Order had spent years teaching me to covet. Not the kind I could consume. But something untouchable. Something that made me want.
Since then, no woman has ever satisfied me. I have taken others, drained their power, felt their pleasure. But none of them were her. None of them burned through my veins the way she did. None of them haunted me like she has.
And now, the Order has sent me to finish what I couldn’t do all those years ago.
I clench my jaw, pushing the thoughts away. I know what will happen if I take her back. They will strip her of everything, rip her magic from her bones, leave her a husk. Or worse—they will bind her to someone else, force her into a servitude far crueler than death.
My fate will be no better if I don’t obey. I have been given this task because I am trusted. Because they believe me incapable of failure. Because I have never once let emotion cloud my judgment.
And yet, here I am. Counting down the seconds.
Five minutes. It’s nothing.
And yet it’s everything.
I exhale slowly, my hands curling into fists as I let the final moments slip away.
Then, I step forward, and the Hunt begins.