Aisha placed her hand stiffly on the black silk of Siddharth's arm. The shift from the intimate, terrifying confrontation on the balcony back to the measured calm of their public facade was jarring.

Jaana. The word, a term of endearment, felt like a brand of ownership.

​"The gravity of my situation is clear,"Mr. Raichand ,Aisha murmured, her voice tight, matching his low register for the sake of the listening city. "It is the equivalent of a golden leash."

​He looked down at her, the faint smile still playing on his lips, an expression of cold amusement. "A leash keeps you from running into the traffic, Little Bird. You mistake control for punishment."

​"No," she shot back, a spark of pure anger momentarily eclipsing her fear. "I mistake a prison for a palace. The walls are just better decorated."

​His eyes, the striking blue of a polar winter, narrowed infinitesimally. The smooth muscles of his arm tightened beneath her fingertips, a silent tremor of restrained irritation. He didn't like having his motives-or his methods-analyzed so critically.

​He leaned in, his breath a cool stir against her ear, the gesture deceptively tender. "You possess a sharp tongue,Little Bird use it on the outside world, not on the man who keeps you safe. I suggest you remember that I am the one who defines the rules of this cage."

​He straightened, his composure instantly reset, and began to move them toward the center of the room. The crowd parted around him like water, and Aisha felt a shiver of awareness.

He didn't just command attention, he commanded space.

For a fleeting instant, she thought she caught the faintest shimmer of light bending strangely around him-as though the air itself hesitated to touch him.

She blinked, and it was gone. Imagination, she told herself. Just nerves.

​As they neared a velvet-roped entrance, a new cluster of guests drew their attention. A man in his late forties, heavy-set with an aggressive gleam in his eyes, stood with a cocktail glass. He was the type of wealthy man who considered himself entitled to everything he looked at.

​He didn't look at Siddharth. His eyes, slow and appraising, traveled down the length of Aisha's body-over the diamonds, the silk gown, resting for an uncomfortably long moment on the curve of her hip. It wasn't simple appreciation,it was a hungry, leering survey, the look of a man mentally stripping her bare.

​Aisha felt the violation instantly. Her spine stiffened, and her gaze flickered back toward the man, a flash of pure contempt in her eyes.

​Siddharth, however, didn't need to look. Aisha felt the change in the energy emanating from him. The low, steady vibration she had felt since the elevator ride suddenly dropped a few degrees, becoming pure, implacable cold. His gloved hand, resting over hers, clenched once, hard-a sharp, physical warning.

​"He finds you captivating, my associate," Siddharth's voice was utterly even, but the low tone was now overlaid with a thread of lethal silk.

​Aisha wanted to tell him that his "associate" was not a piece of art to be consumed by his gaze. "He looks like a man who mistakes contempt for interest," she said savagely, her voice barely audible. "Tell him to look elsewhere."

​Siddharth gave a brief, terrifying smile. "There's the strength I require. But you need not worry about the disposition of his gaze. He is no longer seeing you. He is seeing my property."

​He stopped directly in front of the man, whose name Aisha vaguely recognized as Mr. Jaisingh.

​"Jai singh," Siddharth greeted him, his voice smooth and professional. He didn't release Aisha's hand,he drew her more closer to his side, a move that was both possessive and obsessive in public.

​"Raichand. The party is Stunning, Right. ...... And your associate is... unforgettable," Jai singh said, his eyes still flickering back to Aisha with that predatory hunger.

​Siddharth's blue eyes locked on Jai singh's, and for a moment, the world seemed to hold its breath. The coldness in Siddharth's gaze was so profound it seemed to drain the color from the room.

​"She is, indeed. And because,
"She's important to what I do. And because I don't take kindly to anyone who keeps eye on....what's mine, I suggest you keep your eyes on the wall instead. Do you understand how easily your safety could disappear, Jaisingh?"Siddharth's voice dropped to a near-whisper, an intimate threat.

​Jaisingh, despite his bravado, went visibly pale. He nodded stiffly. "Perfectly, Mr. Raichand.
"Is she only a Associate?" "Don't mind my words, Mr.Raichand. I was just curious about Ms.Shar... oh I mean about you
Mr.Raichand."

Siddharth said with a faintly smirk but darkness filled in his eyes.
"You are being very curious Singh."
"Itni curiosity......mujhe Jaane ke liye."
And a dark smile appeared on his cold face.

He turned to leave with Aisha.
He told her to wait and returned and came close to Jai singh instantly, like a breeze.

Jai singh face was pale by seeing his dark side.

Siddharth said " Your curiosity will end today Singh". I TOLD YOU TO NOT LOOK WHAT'S MINE.....
BUT HUMANS DON'T LISTEN OR NOTICE , UNTIL IT'S TO LATE.
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​Siddharth didn't linger. He moved Aisha through the remaining crowd with the speed of a man who suddenly had a pressing engagement.

Within minutes, they were back in the polished steel of the private elevator.

​As the doors closed, sealing them into the metallic silence, Aisha snatched her hand away, rubbing her wrists fiercely. "Don't you ever use me like that again. I am not a shield for your power plays."

​He didn't move. He simply stared at her, the mask of the city's ruler finally falling away to reveal the sheer, unadulterated anger that had been simmering beneath.

It was a cold, terrifying wrath that made her instinctively press herself against the far wall of the elevator car.

​"But you are mine," he said, the words cutting through the silence like shards of ice. "You are my property, my protection, and my focus. Every breath you take is under my control, and every look you receive is a challenge I must address. Do not lecture me on how I choose to remind the city of that fact."

​His anger was a palpable force, pressing down on her. Her heart hammered against her ribs, a frantic rhythm he had noted before.
He caught it again-the rapid flutter beneath her skin-and for a split second, the sound was music. Her pulse was unlike any he had heard in centuries, bright and alive, calling to a hunger he barely restrained.

​Then, just as quickly, the fire in his eyes banked. He took a single step toward her, his expression softening into a look that was gentle only in contrast to the fury of a moment before.

​"But you are right," he murmured, his voice becoming the low, seductive sound that crawled beneath her skin. "I was harsh. Forgive me, Little Bird. It is simply that the idea of any other man's thoughts staining you is... intolerable."

​He reached out a single gloved finger and traced the line of her cheekbone, a caress that felt more like a brand. "I will not have you flee this golden cage out of fear of my temper. You must understand that my anger is reserved for those who threaten what I own. And you are, currently, the most precious thing I possess."

​He withdrew his hand, his eyes demanding her steady gaze.
"We are going home now.

Sleep well, Jaana . You will not see Jaisingh again."
I'll end his very curiosity today.
He wanted to know about you......today he'll know about me ........A DEADLY HANDSOME.........MAN. By saying the last word he smiled wickedly.

The monster was awake

​Hours later, the penthouse was silent. Aisha was in bed, the Chandra-Kiran necklace now resting in its velvet box, still unable to fully banish the chill of Siddharth's anger.

She wondered when pretending to be calm had become easier than breathing. When she started mistaking survival for strength.

The night was heavy, the forest silent
Miles away, in a secluded forest bordering the city limits,the soft rustle of leaves beneath Jaisingh's feet.

He hadn't yet understood the mistake he'd made. That hesitation would cost him. Siddharth stood over Jaisingh.

Jaisingh was slumped against the damp earth, his bespoke suit ruined, his expression a mixture of terror and disbelief.

​"You should have looked at the walls
Jaisingh," Siddharth's voice was devoid of any human emotion. He wasn't wearing his gloves.

​"I... I just looked," Jaisingh stammered, frantically trying to scramble away.

The man tried to scramble away, panic in every movement, but it was too late.

​Siddharth knelt, moving with a silent, terrifying speed. The man's fear, raw and pungent, was an unpleasant appetizer.

​"No. You coveted. You saw my essential possession and your mind soiled her with a fleeting thought of ownership," Siddharth corrected him, his blue eyes no longer reflecting the city lights, but something deeper, older, and entirely unnatural. "Aisha must not know what I am, and how I make others pay when they see what belongs to me."

(He doesn't want her to know what he does to punish or protect what's his - the brutal, deadly consequences ...the "price" people pay when they cross him).

​He gripped Jaisingh by the shoulder, his touch unnaturally cold.

​"But you will understand the gravity of her situation," Siddharth whispered. "The gravity of my protection."

​Then, with a swift, predatory movement that defied his human appearance, he leaned in, and the soft, rhythmic sound of sucking began, silencing Jaisingh's terrified gasp forever. He struggled to get out from his grip but, in few moments.

The life drained out of the man, and the rare, potent taste of his fear-laced blood was a brief, necessary satisfaction.

Cold lips and colder intent. Every heartbeat, a currency he spent ruthlessly. The air tasted of fear, sharp and intoxicating. By the time he withdrew, the world was unnervingly still.

The corpse slumped against the damp earth, bespoke suit ruined, eyes staring blankly at nothing. A warning in every frozen detail: nothing touches what is his.

Siddharth straightened, brushing an invisible speck of dust from his sleeve. The forest didn't mourn, it merely observed. He had claimed his price, precise and complete.

​Siddharth straightened, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He was pristine once more. He looked down at the empty shell of the man who had looked at Aisha with lusty eyes.

​"No one can see what is mine."
You just looked at her with your lusty eyes and see what I have done with you .....think, if you have touched her,I would have killed you brutally.

He smiled and said,
I have given you a easier death.
Sucking blood is the easiest task for me.

I don't waste blood, it's expensive drink for me.

"He said being proud of himself."

​He turned and dissolved into the shadows of the forest, already planning his return to the high-rise cage where his rare blood still slept-unaware of the monster that now stood guard over her.

And miles away, Aisha stirred in her sleep, her heart racing for no reason she could name.
In her dream, she heard his voice-soft, reverent, and terrible.

"Breathe, Little Bird."

Your pulse... waits. And I will taste it one day - carefully, on my terms.

"Stop thinking about me. Jaana".

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