My job is to break Piper Matthews.

But to leave her breathing afterward.

An important distinction, since I don't walk away from a job without blood on my hands.

That's how I like it. How it needs to be.

I'm comfortable with death. Pain. Cruelty.

No conscience troubled me when I took Piper Matthews deep into the Appalachian woods, intending on fracturing her mind, destroying her.

I never imagined she would destroy me instead.

With her smile. Her laughter. Her forgiving heart that isn't mine to take.

The heart she gives me despite my blackened soul.

My mangled, ruined heart beats only for her. And the feral beast inside of me will tear apart all those who think they can hurt her.

Now my job is to take down the man who employed me to break her so the could own her.

No one in this world will own Piper. No one will hurt her.

Because that pleasure is reserved solely for me.