Elena POV:
Kane ran a hand through his hair, his frustration evident. "I was," he admitted. "Before I met you, before the mate bond changed everything." He looked away, his jaw tightening. "It was a way for me to… control something in my life. To let off steam, to keep myself from losing it completely."
His words hung heavy in the air, and I struggled to reconcile this side of him with the man I was beginning to know. "So Ashley… and the others," I said, my voice quieter now. "They were your… submissives?"
He nodded, his expression grim. "Yes. But it wasn't love, Elena. It wasn't even close. It was… transactional. Rules, boundaries, agreements. Nothing more."
I looked back at the contract in my hands, the neatly typed clauses and stipulations blurring together as my mind raced. "And this contract Ashley brought up last night?" I asked. "She said something about a clause."