The gavel fell and I became theirs, my heavy breasts the price for keeping the orphaned cub under my protection. Connor's eyes on me promised strength I couldn't admit I needed, but his dominance came with a hunger that turned the necessary alliance into something far more dangerous.

Every time his palm pressed to the small of my back, the ache in me deepened, and he took the milk like my body had always belonged to his command. The fight for the cub's power wrapped around that yielding until I could no longer tell them apart.

His fingers now reach for the top button of my bodice while the ledger lies open between us, and I stand frozen between the survival I fought for and the surrender I secretly want.