Chapter 5 The Other Girl

Veronica's POV

The scream echoed through the silence of my room like a blade to the spine.

High. Female. Shredded with something too primal to be faked.

I sat upright, wrists still bound in silk, heart beating fast in my chest. The sound didn't come from a horror movie or a nightmare. It came from somewhere down the hall.

From inside this house.

Damien had disappeared. The belt he'd left beside me now felt like a warning instead of a promise.

Another scream echoed. Softer. Muffled. Then-nothing.

I yanked my wrists free with a force I didn't know I had. The silk tie fell away, and I swung my legs over the side of the bed. My body trembled, but it wasn't fear. Not entirely. It was something darker. Sharper.

I crept into the hallway.

The estate's lights had dimmed to a haunting low, golden glow. Shadows slithered along the edges of the walls like they were watching me.

My bare feet landed softly against the marble. No voices. No footsteps. Just the whisper of silence and the echo of that scream.

I reached a hallway I hadn't noticed before.

A door stood ajar at the end, light spilling from it.

Every instinct told me to turn around but I didn't.

I walked toward it.

One step. Another.

The sound of a voice drifted out.

Not Damien.

A woman.

Whimpering.

Then his voice.

Calm.

Controlled.

Damien's voice, but colder than I'd ever heard it. It was low and commanding.

"You know the rules. Silence. Breath only if you've earned it."

My breath caught.

There was someone else here.

Another woman.

A submissive?

The door opened fully before I could knock.

And Damien stood there.

Shirtless. Hands red from use. Eyes dark from something he wasn't even trying to hide anymore.

He didn't look surprised to see me. Not even curious.

He just stepped aside.

"Come in, Veronica."

---

Damien's POV

I should've locked the damn door.

But a part of me wanted her to see.

To know.

This was the part of me I never shared. The part that destroyed before it devoured. This room was never meant for her. But she needed to understand that what we had wasn't a fantasy. It was a contract bound in fire and consequence.

She walked in slowly. Cautiously. Her eyes found the girl immediately brunette, slim, bound and trembling on her knees near the edge of the platform.

Elena.

My former submissive.

Still begging for pieces of me she no longer owned.

I watched Veronica absorb the sight, watched her fists tighten.

Jealousy.

Disgust.

Confusion.

All the right emotions.

She turned to me. "Who is she?"

"Irrelevant."

"You were-"

"Training her," I said flatly. "She broke. She came back."

Veronica's eyes narrowed. "And you let her."

"Only long enough to remind her why she left."

Silence pulsed between us. The girl whimpered.

Veronica turned back to her. "Does she want this?"

"She thinks she does. Until it hurts. Until it empties her."

Veronica swallowed.

Then she stepped forward.

To Elena.

And knelt.

---

Veronica's POV

I didn't know why I did it.

Why I dropped to my knees in front of a girl who looked like she'd been used, discarded, and still somehow crawled back for more.

Maybe it was empathy.

Maybe it was curiosity.

Or maybe... I needed to understand what I was becoming.

Elena looked up at me. Her mascara had streaked. Her lips were swollen. Her eyes were glassy but lucid.

"Why are you here?" I whispered.

She smiled, but it was hollow. "Because I thought being broken by him meant being loved by him."

I stared.

"And now?"

Her lip trembled. "Now I know better."

I stood up slowly and turned to Damien.

"Send her away."

He raised a brow. "Excuse me?"

"You want to test me? Test me. But not like this. Not with her still here. I'm not a shadow."

His jaw tensed. Then, without a word, he walked to Elena, knelt, and whispered something in her ear. She nodded, stood on trembling legs, and followed a silent figure who emerged from the other door.

Damien turned to me.

And smiled.

But it wasn't victory.

It was something far more dangerous.

Respect.

"You passed."

I shook. "That was a test?"

"Everything is a test."

He stepped closer. Inches from me.

"You think you're still choosing, Veronica? You're not. You chose the moment you signed. But what you earn from now on... that's different."

His fingers trailed along my jaw.

"Strip."

I didn't move.

"Earn it," he said.

So I did.

---

Damien's POV

Her hands trembled as she undressed, but her eyes never left mine.

She was scared.

But not weak.

Good.

I walked behind her. My hand pressed to the small of her back. Her skin was so warm it burned.

"Kneel."

She did.

And I circled her like a predator deciding where to bite.

"Tell me your limits."

"What?"

"Tell me what breaks you. So I don't go too far."

She licked her lips. "I don't know yet."

I nodded.

"Then we learn together."

And I reached for the collar.

---

Veronica's POV

It was velvet.

Black. Soft. But lined inside with something harder. Cold against my neck.

A click.

Final.

My breath stuttered.

Damien's voice was low. "Now you belong to me."

"What does that mean?"

"It means you don't get to run. Not anymore."

I swallowed.

His fingers dipped down my chest, slow, firm, not rushed. He was always deliberate. Always in control.

I closed my eyes.

"Look at me."

I opened them.

And he kissed me, in a deep and rough way.

And I kissed him back.

---

Damien's POV

She kissed like a woman starving.

For power.

For pain.

For pleasure.

I gripped her hips and lifted her, carried her to the bench, laid her down.

"No ties tonight," I said.

"Why?"

"Because I want to see if you stay even when you can leave."

And she did.

God help me, she stayed.

And when I pushed inside her, finally claiming what had already been mine in spirit, she arched like a prayer.

Not a scream.

Not a plea.

Just one word on her lips.

"Damien."

---

Veronica's POV

When it ended, I didn't cry.

I didn't break.

I didn't run.

I curled into him, sweaty and shaking, and whispered, "What happens now?"

He didn't answer.

Because the door burst open.

And a man stepped inside.

Tall. Vicious smile.

Julian Ward.

"Well, well," he said. "Sharing already, Damien? I thought you'd keep this one longer before I had my turn."

I reached for the sheet.

And realized...

The real game had just begun.