I woke with a start, my heart hammering a frantic, uneven rhythm against my ribs. For a second, the darkness of the room felt like the hold of a ship—the same suffocating void I’d lived in before he bought me. Then, the jade-green walls materialized in the moonlight, and the crushing weight of reality settled back onto my chest. I was still here. I was still his.

A shadow moved near the window. A heavy, predatory silhouette that cut through the gloom.

"Alessandro?" My voice was a ...