Page 1 of UnTrained: Volume Two
1
My heart skips a beat as the words echo in my head.
Call me Sir.
There's a pause on the line, and I wonder if Aiden is realizing what he just asked of me, if he's about to take it back. But he doesn't.
"I'll see you soon," he says instead, and the call ends.
I sit on my couch, phone clutched in my trembling hand, stunned by what I've just done. What I've just asked for. The apartment around me feels both familiar and alien—the same furniture I picked out years ago, the same framed photos on the walls, but now it all feels like it belongs to someone else. To the Lana who existed before.
Mochi slinks into the living room, eyeing me with that mixture of disdain and curiosity that only cats can master. When I first came home, he wouldn't approach me for days, as if he could smell the change on me. Now he tolerates my presence, but keeps his distance.
"I know," I whisper to him. "I'm not sure who I am either."
My gaze drifts to the windows, to the slice of normal world beyond them. People walking dogs, carrying grocery bags, checking phones. Living their ordinary lives, unaware of what's happening behind closed doors. Unaware of women like me, broken and remade in places they'll never see.
I glance at the clock. I don't know how far away Aiden is, how long it will take him to arrive. My palms are slick with sweat as I smooth them against my jeans.
Actual jeans, ones that I chose all on my own this morning. Such a simple thing that still feels like a novelty.
The week since I've been back has been a blur of appointments—police detectives, therapists, case workers, all trying to help me reclaim my identity. Everyone asking questions, everyone wanting pieces of my story. Everyone telling me how to heal, how to move forward.
But none of them understand what I need. None of them can comprehend why I called Aiden.
I’m not sure why I called him, either.
I press my hands against my thighs, trying to still their trembling. What am I doing? Inviting a man I barely know to my home, asking him to be my Master? After everything I've been through?
But that's just it—after everything, after having my will stripped away by force, I find myself craving the surrender. After having control taken from me, I want to give it away. By choice.
Is that crazy? Maybe.
I close my eyes, letting my head fall back against the couch cushions. There's a difference, though. A world of difference between what those men did to me and what Aiden is offering. One was theft. This is... a gift. My gift to give.
When the doorbell rings, I nearly jump out of my skin. I wasn't expecting him so soon. My heart hammers as I cross to the door, hesitating with my hand on the knob. I could still back out. I could pretend I'm not home.
Instead, I open the door.
Aiden stands there, tall and imposing in dark jeans and a black button-down shirt. His blue eyes sweep over me, taking in every detail. He looks different outside the facility—more real somehow, less institutional. More dangerous.
"May I come in?" he asks, his voice that perfect balance of command and question.
I step back, gesturing him inside. "Yes... Sir."
The title feels strange on my tongue in this context—my apartment, my space. But not wrong. Not wrong at all. Not when the way he looks at me makes my skin tingle with awareness.
"Sit down," Aiden says, gesturing toward the couch I just left. His voice is gentle but there's no mistaking the command in it.
I obey without thinking, lowering myself to the edge of the cushion. My hands rest in my lap, fingers twisted together to hide their trembling.
Aiden doesn't sit. Instead, he moves through my living room with slow, deliberate steps, taking in the details of my life. The bookshelf with its rows of children's novels I used to read to my class, the framed photos of me with my college roommates.
"You've done well," he says finally, turning his attention back to me. "Getting your apartment back, taking care of yourself."
I look down at my hands. "Not really. The school held my position because they thought I was having a breakdown and would come back eventually. Everything just... waited for me." My voice catches. "Like my life was on pause while I was gone. Like nothing has changed. But… everything has."
Saying it out loud makes me realize the truth of that statement. And saying it to Aiden makes me wonder if he’s the only one who can understand exactly how I’ve changed.
