The Internship

Second Chance

Xavier

I was drowning again.

The nightmare had me in its claws, dragging me into my mate’s death over and over, and I could feel it all as vividly as the day I let the dagger pierce through my chest. I had begged the moon goddess, screamed for her to end it, for me, for the agony, for the emptiness I had carried since that moment. But she would not. Instead, she forced me to look, to see my life in fragments, broken pieces stitched together with suffering.

See beyond, she whispered, over and over, but I could not. I could not let go. I wanted death, I wanted to finally collapse into nothingness. I wanted to find my mate in the afterlife. But for some reason, it was difficult for me to die.

It has always been like that since I had been trapped here, until today. A faint light shone at the edge of that endless darkness. My ears picked it up first. A heartbeat. Weak but alive. The sounds so clear like it was plugged into my brain.

My breath hitched, though I could not see a body, could not even comprehend the form. I could feel it, reverberating through my own chest, threading through every bone and muscle like electricity. My senses dulled for ten years, screamed alive at it. I could feel it all the way to the tips of my fingers.

The voice came next, this time, urgent, calling my name. “Xavier, it’s time to wake up.”

That voice. So familiar, yet so strange.

What was this strange feeling? Even my wolf began to move for the first time since our mate died.

“Can you see now?” the goddess asked, unmoved by my desperation.

I nodded slowly. “Yes.” My lips moved before my mind could stop them. “Thank you.”

And then… I woke.

It was not a waking in a gentle sense. My body remembered every detail of life and death, muscles tensed after a decade of slumber. My shoulders were broader than I recalled, my the hair seemed to be the only thing growing.

I took in the room before me, I moved towards the mirror, every motion radiated my powers that were slowly returning.

The reflection was a reminder, a ghost of the man I once was. I traced my own face memorizing it.

“I’ll find you,” I shut my eyes and clenched my fist, letting the sound of the heartbeat echo once more. For some reason, my powers were unhelpful, I couldn’t trace its exact location, but I knew who could.

First, I needed a bath. How does one take their first bath after ten whole years?

I filled the tub slowly. When I was okay with the temperature of the water, I stripped carefully and immersed myself into the tub. The water ran over my skin, washing away the residue of death and despair. I shaved each patch of hair, as memories of the man I once was flooded my mind.

After my bath, I took another glance at the mirror. “That’s more like it.”

Dressed finally, I reached for him through the mindlink, my gamma, loyal through every moment I had lain dormant. He answered instantly. “Alpha,” he shuddered, voice cracking. “You’re…”

“I’m awake,” I said. “I’m heading to the company. Be ready.”

Even after ten years, I could feel the world’s edges curve toward me, or shatter at my will. Nothing would challenge me today. Nothing would dare.

I was Xavier Gordoni.

And I had returned.

***

I pushed through the entrance of the reception and paused, letting the room register me. The subtle shift in the air hit me first, murmurs, gasps, the quiet rustle of chairs. Heads jerked up. Eyes widened. Some froze mid-step, others barely dared breathe. They hadn’t expected me back. After ten years, some of them probably thought me dead. I let the moment stretch. Let them feel it. Let them realize that I had returned, and that I was still the ruthless Xavier Gordoni they once knew.

Pride surged through me as they dropped to their knees, shivering under the weight of my presence. My new awakened power throbbed through me, barely restrained, and I let them feel its pressure.

I lifted a hand, a gesture of dominance and control. The tension in the air snapped, their bodies returning to normal, but their awareness of me remained sharp.

“Good,” I said, smirking. Let them taste the authority of their Alpha. “Now. Someone tell me, where the hell is Gabe?”

A hand rose immediately, voice trembling as the information spilled. I nodded once, satisfied, and turned, continuing my ascent upstairs.

The elevator ride up was quiet. Not that it needed to be loud. I didn’t need words, I needed to restore order. By the time the doors opened onto the top floor, I felt the rhythm of the place again.

I went to his office at first, but he wasn’t there. Then I remembered my last words to him before I plunged the dagger into myself: “The company is yours now. Take care of it.”

I asked him to take care of it, not ruin it or make a move to sell it to my enemies.

Sneaky bastard! I balled my hand into a fist as I marched to my office. I let him take over my company and he tries to sell it.

My eyes caught his lanky figure as he leaned back in my corner office chair, smirk in place, arrogance written in every line of his posture. He thought I had softened. He thought I was still bound by the memory of my mate, he didn’t know the truth: my mate’s soul had returned to the world, and that knowledge strengthened me.

“Xavier,” he said with a causal tone, his smirk widening. “So you’ve finally returned. I expected… less.”

“Xavier!” I growled, lunging at him before he could see me coming, yanking him off the chair and slamming him against the door. If he were human, he’d be dead already. Good thing he wasn’t, because I wasn’t ready to kill him yet.

I brushed the speck of blood that had splattered onto my suit aside and settled into my chair, gesturing for him to sit in the one opposite mine.

I didn’t speak immediately, I let him become restless in anticipation. “You will not test me again,” I said, voice low. “You will not question me. Your arrogance belongs elsewhere. I don’t need to remind you, whom you’re speaking to. I am your Alpha.”

“Of course,” he quivered. “I would never think otherwise. You asked me to take over this company, you asked me to be the boss.”

“Not ruin it!” I thundered. “Thought you could ruin this place while I slept?” I asked, letting the words slice through the room. I crossed the table to him and gripped his collar, lifting him just enough for him to see the truth.

He struggled, sputtering out excuses. “I—I didn’t think—”

“You didn’t think,” I repeated, letting the sentence hang like a guillotine. “Do you know what happens to those who doubt their Alpha?”

I let the answer form in his own mind. His arrogance crumbled beneath my stare. Then I slammed him into the chair he had once owned like it was nothing, hard enough that he flinched. I didn’t strike to kill, not yet, but I made him understand his place.

By the end, he was humiliated. A few minutes later, I handed him the transfer papers personally. “Another branch,” I said. “You will remember this lesson every time you think yourself my equal.” Satisfied, I let him go.

The office had already shifted under my presence, the remaining staff straightened instinctively. I turned my attention back to the company. Inefficiency and disloyalty were obvious to me now, mistakes I had not tolerated before would not survive my scrutiny. I dismissed the weak, promoted the loyal, replaced incompetence with capable hands.

By the time I returned to my office, I focused on more pressing matters like finding her. Deep in my thoughts, I heard the sound of footsteps approaching, and raised my head to see my old friend, a look of relief on his face. “So it is true? You’re alive?”

I gestured for him to sit down, shifting focus to a more pressing matter. “Yes, Jack, I am alive. But there’s something more important—“

“What could be more important than our Alpha?” He intoned.

“My mate is alive.”

I caught the horror on his face as he shrieked back, staring at me as if I had gone mad. “It can’t be,” he shook his head.

“But it is.” I leaned in. “I need you to find her.”

Recognition flashed in his eyes immediately. He didn’t ask any more questions. He didn’t need to. He left immediately with a nod.

I remained in the same position until I got his response, hours later in the evening.

My phone buzzed with a notification flashing across the screen. It was her location. She had been found.

I sent for my Gamma, Eggust, through the mindlink. “We’re going to New Orleans.”

He appeared, cautious as ever. “Why the sudden move, sir?”

I allowed a faint smirk. “Looks like we have a company to buy.”