I felt him before I even saw him.
That eerie, electric awareness that settled over me like a noose, tightening with every breath. A shiver slid down my spine, my instincts screaming at me to run, to put as much distance as possible between me and whatever darkness had just set its sights on me.
But I didn't move. I couldn't.
Instead, I stood there, my fingers tightening around my drink, my pulse hammering in my ears as I slowly turned my head.
And that's when I saw him.
Thorne.
He didn't just look at me—he watched me. Studied me like he was memorizing every inch, every breath, every tiny movement I made. His dark eyes locked onto mine, sharp, unreadable, and yet somehow, I knew.
He had already decided.
I belonged to him.
It didn't matter that I didn't know his name yet. It didn't matter that we had never spoken a single word to each other. The way he watched me, the way the air shifted between us, thick with something dangerous and inescapable—I knew I wasn't walking away from this untouched.
Somewhere deep inside, in the part of me I had never dared acknowledge, I didn't want to.
Because something told me that Thorne wasn't just going to ruin me.
He was going to own me. And the worst part.?
I'm going to let him.