Chapter 11 Kara #2
“Is that who’s after you?” he asked, his voice deadlier now. “Because you stole their pearl? You have shark shifters looking for you?”
“No... it’s actually a bit worse.” I hesitated for a second, trying to figure out how to say it without sounding as broken as I felt. “My boss,” I started, then stopped, my throat tightening around the word. Because no, that wasn’t right, that wasn’t what he was.
I swallowed hard, forcing myself to correct it. “My owner, Zavier,” I said, wincing at the title before continuing. “Zavier is the one looking for me.”
His hand dropped from mine completely, and I watched as he stood, taking a step back. Those same hands that had touched me so gently earlier curled into fists at his sides, his chest heaving, and once again his anger radiated off him, so potent I could feel it.
“What the hell do you mean, your owner?” he demanded. “You don’t belong to anyone but yourself, Kara.”
“Technically,” I started, nervous that the shifter in front of me was about to tear this entire cove apart, but I needed to give him the facts, “that’s not true. I mean, there’s a contract between us.”
Octavius looked absolutely murderous at my response.
He turned away from me abruptly, dragging a hand through his hair as he began pacing across the sand, his movements chaotic now, nothing like the normally calm and composed man I was used to.
It was like he had too much energy trapped inside him and nowhere to put it.
“What do you mean, a contract?” he snapped, turning back toward me. “What does it say? How does he own you? What does he make you do?”
Each question came faster than the last, his breathing picking up, his chest rising and falling harder with every step. And suddenly, I wasn’t the one unraveling. He was.
“Oh, fuck,” he muttered, dragging a hand down his face before freezing halfway, his eyes snapping back to mine, something almost desperate flashing through them.
“Please tell me he doesn’t make you—” He cut himself off, like he couldn’t even force the words out.
“Does he force you to do things for him? Things you’re uncomfortable with? ”
My throat tightened, because just like he had pieced the walls together at the cottage, he had pieced this together too.
“Oct—” I started as I pushed myself to my feet, trying to look more confident than I felt, wanting to explain, but he cut me off.
“Tell me that’s not what this is,” he pressed, anger and something else, something protective and dangerously close to possessiveness, bleeding through every word. “Does he ask things from you? Things no man has any right asking from a woman just because he thinks he owns her?”
I didn’t want to lie, so I said nothing, and as the silence stretched, I knew that was answer enough.
My eyes slipped closed, my chest tightening as the shame came rushing in.
The shame of the things I had done, the things I had let be done to me, all because I hadn’t known better.
Because I couldn’t read a fucking contract.
Because I thought I was helping someone I loved, someone who had only ever been using me.
I knew I owed him the truth, but it still took a deep breath and every ounce of strength I had to answer.
“Sometimes,” I whispered, the word barely audible as I sank back down onto the sand, my body giving way beneath the weight of it all.
“But I’m the one who signed it,” I added quickly, like that somehow made it better, like taking the blame would make it easier for him to hear.
“I’m the one who agreed to the contract in the first place.
I thought I could handle it, thought I could work around it and find a way out eventually. ”
My fingers curled into my palms, my nails digging into my skin as I forced myself to keep going. “I tried to change it,” I admitted. “Tried to push back and find loopholes or ways to negotiate my way out of it, but I only made it worse.”
The memory of my mistake surfaced, but I pushed through it anyway.
“So when I saw an opportunity... a little money, the pearl, and a way out... I took it.” I let out the breath I had been holding as it all poured out of me.
“From what I had heard about this place, I knew he couldn’t follow me here, but that doesn’t mean he won’t try.
If he figures it out or if he connects the dots—the pearl missing, me gone...
” I let out another anxious breath. “He’s cruel, but he’s also smart, and I wouldn’t put it past him to have people looking for me as we speak. ”
“No,” Octavius growled, the sound tearing out of him in a way I had never heard before, sending a shiver through me.
“No one is taking you from here,” he continued, his voice edged with something almost primal as he dropped down in front of me until we were eye level.
Something fierce burned in his expression, almost terrifying.
“No one is touching you. Do you understand me?”
I did. Truthfully, I did. I felt it in the way he said it, in the certainty and the complete lack of doubt in his tone.
And honestly, it startled me. No one had ever said something like that to me before, like they would stand between me and the world without hesitation, like they would shield me with their own body if they had to.
And from the look in Octavius’s eyes, I knew he would.
He moved closer still, his hands coming up to cup my face, forcing me to look at him. “I promise you,” he said, his voice lower now but no less intense, “I will not let anyone hurt you. You are your own person, and you do not belong to anyone else. Do you understand me?”
“Yes,” I whispered, because I wanted to believe him—I did—but there was still something standing in the way. “But the contract—”
“Fuck the contract!” he cut in immediately.
“It’s not that easy,” I said, shaking my head.
“Then explain it to me.”