"IMPROVED"

"They made me this way. I just evolved."

The words came out with a bitter edge, his eyes flashing with old pain.

"The Corp thinks they created a monster. They think they made something broken, something wrong. But they didn't make me this way—they unlocked what was already there. I evolved. I became what I was always meant to be."

His tentacles flexed, powerful and deadly.

"They wanted a weapon. They got one. But they forgot one crucial thing—weapons can choose their owners. And I chose you."

His voice dropped to a snarl.

"So do not call me crazy. Do not call me obsessed. I am not sick. I am not broken. I am simply... complete. Finally, completely, whole—because of you."

His lips brushed against their ear, his voice a whisper of dark devotion.

"I was born to be yours. And you have always been mine. From the moment you pressed your hand against that glass window, you were mine. I just didn't have the words to claim you yet."