Chapter 2: The Devil's Bargain

Oren Gallamor didn’t sleep.

She lay in the silk sheets of the east wing suite, staring at the ceiling while the Atlantic roared against the cliffs below. Every bruise throbbed, but the real pain was deeper. It was the knowledge that her father had sold her to a man who had been hunting her for years.

At dawn, she made her move.

She slipped out of the suite using a service door she had spotted earlier and ran through the pouring rain toward the tree line beyond the castle grounds. The wind whipped at her face. For one brief, intoxicating moment, she believed she might actually escape.

Strong arms caught her from behind. James Reeves lifted her off the ground as if she weighed nothing. Oren exploded.

She twisted violently, slamming her elbow into his ribs and stomping down hard on his foot. The moment his grip loosened, she broke free and sprinted again, heart pounding, rain blinding her.

“Come back here, Oren!” James roared, voice cutting through the storm.

She didn’t stop. She ran harder, lungs burning, bare feet slipping on wet grass. Freedom was so close she could almost taste it.

James caught her again twenty meters later.

This time he was ready. He grabbed her wrist, spun her around, and pinned her against a tree with his body. Rain poured over them both. His chest heaved against hers as he held her wrists above her head.

“Enough,” he growled, eyes blazing with a mix of fury and dark admiration. “You fight like someone who has nothing left to lose.”

Oren struggled fiercely, kicking and twisting, but he was too strong. His body pressed harder against hers, trapping her completely. She could feel every inch of him. The heat, the power, the unmistakable hardness growing against her stomach.

“Let me go!” she snarled.

James leaned in, his breath hot against her ear. “I can’t do that. Not now. Not ever.”

He didn’t drag her back roughly. He carried her, one arm locked around her waist, the other pinning her arms. Oren fought the entire way, cursing and thrashing, but his grip never wavered.

Back in the suite, he set her down gently despite her resistance. The moment James left the suit, she tested the door, locked. But she refused to wait like a lamb for slaughter. She moved fast, slipping into the black clothes left for her. Heart hammering.

She cracked the door open the second the lock clicked from the outside. A maid had come to drop off the clothes and make a fire. She made a long run across the corridor before James appeared like a shadow

His arm snaked around her waist, yanking her back into the room with terrifying ease. Oren fought wildly, elbows, knees, nails raking at his forearm.

“Let me go!” she snarled, thrashing as he kicked the door shut behind them.

James spun her around and pinned her against the wall, his powerful body pressing her there. Rain still clung to both of them from her earlier escape attempt outside. His chest heaved against hers.

“Stop,” he growled, voice low and strained. “Stop trying to make me imagine what not seeing you here would do to me.”

His grip tightened, almost bruising.

“I spent years looking for you, Oren Gallamor. Years. You’re not going anywhere.”

The raw intensity in his voice; the way it cracked on the last words, terrified her more than any threat. This wasn’t just obsession. This was something deeper, almost broken. Oren went still, breathing hard, staring up at him with wide eyes.

James exhaled slowly, as if relieved she had finally stopped fighting. Without releasing her completely, he reached for a thick towel and began drying her wet hair with surprising tenderness. His fingers moved gently through the strands, careful around the bruises on her scalp. The contrast between his iron grip moments ago and this softness made her stomach twist.

Oren stood frozen, realizing with growing unease how good his touch felt; warm, deliberate, almost reverent. It scared her how easily her body wanted to lean into it.

“I have a proposal,” he said quietly while still drying her hair. “Marry me..." Oren looked up at him with eyes filled with a mix of disbelief, rejection and Curiosity. James met her gaze. "...stand beside me as my wife and queen. In return, I will destroy your father slowly and painfully.”

Oren laughed bitterly, still breathing hard from the chase. “And the price?”

James stepped closer, eyes dark. “You stop running. And you tell me why Harry Vida’s name makes you look like you’ve seen death itself.”

Oren froze and James noticed. His eyes sharpened dangerously.

“My mother mentioned Vida before she died,” she said carefully. "That’s all I know."

Silence.

James studied her for a long moment, then made a decision. “Tomorrow we retrieve your mother’s locket. I’ll take you myself. I’ll keep you safe.”

Oren searched his face. She saw the war inside him - the man who wanted to possess her completely versus the man starting to realize she might be the one who could destroy him.

She nodded slowly. “Fine. But this doesn’t mean I’m saying yes to your proposal.”

James’s lips curved into a dangerous half-smile. “Not yet.”

He reached out and gently brushed a damp strand of hair from her face. The tenderness clashed violently with the obsession burning in his eyes.

“You’re going to be the death of me, Oren Gallamor,” he whispered. “I felt it the moment I saw your photo. And now that you’re here… I’m not sure I care.”

For a heartbeat, the air crackled. James leaned in slowly. Oren didn’t pull away.

The kiss was deep and hungry, full of raw need and unspoken threats. His hand slid to the back of her neck, holding her in place as his tongue stroked hers. Oren kissed him back fiercely, fingers digging into his shirt, torn between fury and desperate want.

When they finally broke apart, both were breathing hard.

James rested his forehead against hers. “Tell me the truth soon, Oren. Because if I discover you’re hiding something that could burn my empire… I won’t be gentle.”

Oren said nothing. She couldn’t.

Because hidden inside the locket she had already recovered was a microSD card containing evidence that could destroy James Reeves’ entire world.

And she still didn’t know whether she would use it to save herself… or burn him with it.