I Am Mustafin

He owns me.

Not as a man owns a woman-as a master owns property. Legally. Completely. Efrem Mustafin, leader of one of the five Rings, the most dangerous man I have ever stood beside, and the only thing standing between me and a death sentence.

My name is Alaki Bea Miller. In the ground above, they call me something else: X.

That's what they call us-the inferior. The ones whose only crime is the blood in our veins. In this world, it is illegal to carry more than one bloodline, and I carry the proof of it in mine. I am not a person here. I am not human. I am an abomination, a flaw the system was built to erase.

So when Efrem saved my life, he could only do it one way the law would allow. He took me as property.

Before the watching eyes, I submit. I lower my head. I belong to him.

In private, it was only ever supposed to be pretend.

He says my word means nothing against his. That without him, I have no rights, no protection, no future. I know he's right. And I can't tell you when it stopped bothering me. Because the scariest part-the worst part-isn't the facade. It's that somewhere along the way, I stopped pretending. The surrender I was performing became real. And he, the man who could lose everything for owning me, risks all of it anyway.

Master Efrem Mustafin, he is.

Subject Alaki Bea X, I was.

My name is Alaki Bea Mustafin.

And in this world, I am Mustafin.