Chapter 235: Sadistic game

Turning away from him, I stared out the tinted window, pulling the thin sleeves of my sweatshirt over my fingers in a desperate attempt to trap whatever meager scraps of warmth remained. We drove for a while in a suffocating, almost tangible silence, and the bone-chilling cold was so severe that I felt a cold coming on. Sniffling softly, I curled into a tight ball, feeling utterly helpless.

"Are you crying?" the man asked tensely, breaking the heavy quiet.

"No, I’m just freezing," I replied quietly, refusing to turn toward him so he wouldn’t see my terrified face.

Without a word, he pressed a button on the dashboard, and a second later, I felt the seat beneath me slowly begin to warm up. He hadn’t turned down the biting air conditioner, but he had activated the seat heaters. Tucking my freezing hands beneath my thighs, I pressed my back hard against the soft leather seat, trying with every ounce of strength to thaw out.

"Thanks," I mumbled barely above a whisper, my gaze blank as I watched the streetlights streak past the glass.

"Don’t take it to heart; I just don’t want you getting sick. After all, you still have cleaning and cooking to do. I can’t have you bedridden with a fever," he murmured with a cruel, mocking smirk.

To him, I was nothing more than an object, and he had just made that crystal clear. A convenient, unpaid tool. Maneuvering the steering wheel with one hand, he steered the car toward the city center, approaching an elite, heavily guarded complex consisting of two towering glass skyscrapers that were entirely out of reach for ordinary mortals.

As we turned toward the entrance, where the security guards instantly and subserviently swung open the heavy wrought-iron gates for him, I felt even more insignificant and pathetic.

Calculating in my head how long my daily commute to university from here would take, my spirits sank entirely, and I absentmindedly bit my lip. I would have to leave an hour early, if not more, and I had no clue where the nearest bus stop was or what routes even ran around here. Did our free campus shuttle even come this far out? The sickening thought that I would have to rely on public transit with multiple transfers made my stomach churn—it would be expensive, and my funds were painfully sparse.

Pulling up to the high-rise, Damian smoothly parked and killed the overhead lights. Inside my chest, every rib ached as a heavy, oppressive alpha pressure closed in around me, growing denser by the second.

The seconds in the sudden darkness seemed to freeze, stretching into an agonizing eternity. Closing my eyes, I swallowed the tight knot of nerves stuck in my throat, desperately trying to disconnect from the sheer terror.

Unbuckling my seatbelt, I forced myself not to look at the male sitting right beside me. It was terrifying—like being locked in a cage with a starving predator who was circling me in the dark, baring his teeth and toying with his prey, deciding where to take the first bite.

That Damian was playing a dangerous, sadistic game with me had been obvious from the very first minute, especially given his mocking, tender pet name—"little bird"—paired with that ravenous hunger burning in his eyes. It was utterly impossible to predict what he might do next.

I had never been left alone with a man before. I had never lived with anyone except my parents, and now I had absolute zero clue how to behave around an Alpha who was lethally dangerous and driven by a dark, territorial obsession to claim me.

"Get out," Damian commanded flatly, stepping out of the car and slamming the door before striding toward the trunk.

The fleeting thought of locking the doors from the inside no longer seemed entirely crazy—just to sit here, wrapped in the relative safety of the cabin. But what then? Nothing. Total blankness.

Crawling out of his car onto the cold, wind-swept parking lot, I reached with shaking hands for my bag, but he wouldn’t let me take it. Snatching the strap, he slung it over his own broad shoulder and roughly shoved me toward the brightly lit entrance of the high-rise.

Following him step for step, as if marching to my own execution, my mind raced relentlessly with ways to find my parents. If I could somehow learn where they were kept and miraculously rescue them from his clutches, maybe we could escape far away. But my parents were elderly and in fragile health; where could I possibly run with them? Hiding out in filthy, cheap rentals, jumping at every single rustle in the stairwell? In the end, a man of his power would track us down anyway.

"Damian, when will you let my parents go?" Standing in the mirrored elevator behind him, I carefully caught the edge of his hoodie sleeve with my fingers and gave it a weak tug.

"As soon as you work off your debt, your parents will return straight to their apartment," the wolf smirked grimly, keeping his gaze fixed on my reflection in the metal doors.

"And me? When will you let me go?" My voice trembled nervously, betraying a primal, animalistic fear despite my continuous effort to calm down.

"We’ll see." At that vague response, a destructive chill instantly slid down my spine, seeping straight into my blood.

"And did those other girls work off their debts to you the same way?" I asked sharply, and the very next second, I terribly regretted ever daring to open my mouth.

Damian turned toward me slowly, with a frightening fluidity, tilting his head to the side like a beast so that his dark hair fell across his face. His gaze slid across my raw nerves like the sharp tip of a knife, and an alarm siren screamed frantically inside my head.

"And if they did?" he clarified grimly, stepping toward me and forcing my shoulder blades back against the cold elevator wall.