Page 13 of Surrender

Someone had broken in and kidnapped her.

She'd gone back to her parents.

Maybe there was a boyfriend I didn't know about she went to meet.

Possessiveness wraps around my throat, making it ache.

Sometime during my panicked search, Magda lets herself in through the back door of the kitchen, setting her bags down on the table there.

I'm on the phone with Cas in a heartbeat, praying somehow in the middle of the night she sought her out instead of any of the other equally ridiculous scenarios I've imagined.

Serenity has nothing to her name. No phone, no ID, no money, nonothing. She shouldn't be alone right now. Not now that she's in danger from her own family. What if they'd found her? Followed her here? Kidnapped her back. I have no idea where they live or how I could find her again.

Cas answers just as Magda screams, clutching her chest in surprise. I drop my phone and rush to her, terrified.

She's muttering in German but seems relatively okay. There's no blood, and she hasn't fainted.

When I peek around her into the pantry, I see what startled her.

Fire courses through my veins and I see red.

In my pantry, lying on the floor, is my new little ward, blinking up at the light and rubbing her eyes.

I gently edge Magda out of the way before I lose my shit on this little girl.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?!"

I'd been in a full-blown panic for the last half an hour, and she was hiding in the pantry.

Wide blue eyes stare back at me silently.

"I asked you a question, girl!" I fume, a mix of anger, fear, and regret overwhelming any part of my brain that makes good decisions.

Her lower lip trembles before she bites it, tears gathering on her lower lashes.

"Fuck," I grumble to myself, turning away and running my hand through my hair. I fist it and tug at it, needing the bite to get control of myself.

Magda's staring at me, waiting for an explanation or my next move, I don't know.

When I don't say anything, she walks back to the pantry.

"Guten morgen, liebling. Who do we have here?" She asks, gently. I'm still turned away from the pantry, counting my breaths.

"Serenity," she answers quietly, warily.

I walk back to my phone and scoop it up, walking back to my bedroom. Cas is still on the line. I make some lame excuse and hang up on her. I don't feel like explaining to her how the idea that Serenity somehow left in the night sent me spiraling.

I slump onto my bed and hang my head in my hands, willing my heart to slow down.

I've always been a hot head, prone to angry outbursts, even as a child. But I can't keep doing that with her. That's the surest way to get her to leave. I have no idea what her life was like before yesterday. I have no idea what she's been through, and she certainly won't tell me if I keep exploding on her.

Never mind how good she looks wearing my T-shirt with no bra. Laying on the cold floor, the outline of her nipples under the green fabric has my cock standing at attention.

Which adds to my already simmering anger. Spending every night in a sex club, with a buffet of willing and kinking women, honestly has made sex less and less interesting. I've explored every part of my dominating kinks with every type of woman.

I haven't hooked up with anyone in months. I just haven't been interested.

So the fact that the outline of a nipple made me hard pisses me off.

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