THE REJECTED BLOOD BOND

CHAPTER 14

The doors to the executive boardroom didn't just open; they were ripped off their hinges by a single, concussive wave of pure, unified energy.

Julian Vance walked into the room. He wasn't wearing his Tom Ford jacket anymore; his white shirt was torn and bloody, his chest showing the fresh, silver lines of rapidly healing wolf scars. But he didn't look like a defeated man. He looked like an ancient god of war, his eyes two burning rings of absolute, blinding gold that filled the room with a suffocating, terrifying alpha pressure.

Beside him walked Elena.

She wasn't hiding behind him anymore. She stood at his right hand, her emerald gown torn at the hem to allow her to move freely, her own amber eyes burning with a sudden, wild fire that left no doubt about her standing.

The unaligned Omega had found her center, and her presence didn't weaken Julian’s aura; it magnified it tenfold, a golden, radiant shield that made the mercenary wolves step back in instinctive terror.

"Julian," Katherine gasped, her icy demeanor cracking as she felt the sheer, crushing weight of their combined presence. "The bond... it’s not dead."

"The bond doesn't die just because a fool says a few words, Katherine," Julian said, his voice a low, terrifying baritone that made the crystal chandeliers rattle above their heads.

Sterling jumped up from the desk, pulling a silver-plated revolver from his coat and aiming it directly at Elena. "Sign the paper, Vance! Or she dies right now!"

Elena didn't blink. Before Sterling could even pull the trigger, her fingers flew across the control panel near the entryway, hitting a sequence she had memorized weeks ago.

Click.

The automated corporate security system—the high-tech laser defenses she had designed to protect the building from human intruders activated instantly.

A red beam flashed across the room, slicing clean through the barrel of Sterling’s gun before he could fire, the metal clattering to the floor in two smoking pieces.

"My algorithms are always predictive, Sterling," Elena said, her voice cool, level, and entirely lethal.

With a roar of pure, unadulterated fury, Julian threw himself across the room.

The battle was short but savage. Sterling fought with the desperation of a thief caught in the act, but he was no match for an Alpha who had finally accepted his true destiny.

Julian’s claws flashed in the dark room, and within two minutes, Sterling was pinned to the floor, Julian’s foot resting on his chest, his jaws inches from the rival male's throat.

"Yield," Julian growled, the word a physical command that rippled through the building.

"I yield... I yield!" Sterling choked out, his eyes wide with the absolute terror of a beaten animal.

Julian looked up at the remaining Silvercrest advisors and Lady Katherine, who stood frozen in the corner. "Take your broken short-sellers and leave my city. If I see a single Chicago wolf on my transit lines by midnight, I will view it as an act of war and dismantle your lineage permanently.”