Selma coughed. He’d chosen the exact moment she’d taken an enormous bite of bagel layered with cream cheese and salmon to finally break the silence. She shot him a sideways look and realized he was staring down at her from his higher vantage point, taking in every movement of her face and body as if she was an opponent whose next move he was trying to decipher.

“I don't have a mate,” she confirmed after finally swallowing.

“You have been marked.” He narrowed his eyes, probably trying to detect any hint of deceit. “Ringed. Which means you ran from your Procurer. How?”

Selma bit her lip and looked down at her hands next to the well-stocked plate. They shook a little, as they always did when she remembered Marathin and what she’d had to do.

“There was… an incident. I got away while he was busy trying to cover it up.”

A surprisingly gentle touch to her chin made her look up, his dark eyes easily capturing her gaze.

“What did he do to you, Selma?”

She swallowed thickly, something in her heart fluttering at his gentleness. It seemed… real. Even though she knew what they were like, knew how easily they lied and deceived, something in his soft touch and dark eyes made her want to trust him.

“There has never been a recorded incident of a Breeder escaping her Procurer in the entirety of our history. They are taught to be gentle—and, above all else, cautious. If you fled… he did something he shouldn’t have.”

There was a fire in his dark gaze, a smoldering anger on her behalf. Perhaps it was the night they’d spent together—how he’d reined in his own desires to ensure he didn’t harm her. Perhaps her mind was still swathed in his calming scent and influence. Or maybe it was that she hadn’t had anyone to confide in before.

Kain might have been a demon, but he was also the only one who’d ever protected her from others of his kind.

“He…” She swallowed again, unsure how to find the words.

“From the beginning, little one,” Kain said, releasing her chin in favor of wrapping his hand around her knee. It sent a trickle of sensation up her thigh, but he didn’t move it higher and the warmth was comforting. “I need to know everything, from your first meeting with him until you escaped.”

“I was brought into a… a mental health facility.” Her eyes darted to his in search of any judgement, but he only nodded. She supposed it wasn’t entirely unheard of that their Breeders ended up in mental hospitals. Not a lot of doctors took continued talk about demons as a sign of good health.