Chapter 212 - Shattered Seduction And Distant Hope

Artem moved swiftly through the hallway with a pace that no longer resembled ordinary urgency so much as the measured advance of a predator who had finally decided to stop pretending patience was enough. His heart raced hard beneath his ribs, but not from fear, not from uncertainty, and certainly not from hesitation, because by now the force driving him had sharpened into something far more dangerous than desire alone. What possessed him in that moment was obsession stripped of disguise, and it gave every step he took the frightening clarity of a man moving toward something he had already decided would be his.