THE STORM BEGAN
1205 Words
The storm began long before Alden set foot inside OMRIS Medical Corporation.
It started the moment Maxine whispered, “Yes, sir,” the moment Mike Urdanzo claimed her with a single, quiet sentence that felt like a lock snapping shut.
But Alden? he only heard the fear in Maxine's breath, her breaking voice, and then he will start to run.
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The Minutes Before the Storm;
The lab felt too cold and trapped into silence.
Maxine stood frozen, staring at the darkened screen of Mike’s phone, the call he ended, the plea he silenced, the man he challenged in just three soft words:
“She’s not going anywhere.”
Her lungs tightened painfully.
“Sir…” Maxine’s voice trembled. “Alden will worry. He might come here. He’ll think...”
“He’ll think correctly.” Mike walked past her, adjusting the cuffs of his black dress shirt, a gesture so controlled it was maddening.
“He thinks I’m a monster.” His lips twitched faintly. “And I don’t intend to prove him wrong tonight.”
Maxine blinked. “What does that mean?”
“It means,” Mike continued, selecting a keycard from the drawer, “that he will arrive. And when he does, he will learn that this floor is restricted for a reason.”
She stiffened. “Sir, please... don’t get him involved.”
Mike paused. Then he stepped closer to her.
“Maxine,” he said softly, “you should worry about yourself. Not him.”
Her pulse raced. “Why?”
He looked at her, not with lust, not even with anger, but with a kind of focus that felt like gravity pulling her inward.
“Because Alden,” Mike whispered, “is not your problem tonight.”
As he turned away, she whispered to herself, "But you are"
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ALDEN CAME;
Alden slammed through the revolving doors of OMRIS headquarters, barely hearing the guard's protests.
“Sir, you need clearance...”
“I don’t give a damn!” he barked, storming past the lobby. “Where’s Maxine?!”
The guards scrambled, shouting after him, but Alden was faster, rage giving him a kind of sharp, reckless clarity. He wasn’t one of the top performing interns anymore. He wasn’t the quiet, soft-spoken lab technician everyone ignored.
Right now, he was on fire, and a threat. He reached the elevator bank and smashed the 47th-floor button.
"Hang on, Max. I’m coming"
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INSIDE THE LAB; The Unraveling
Something in the air shifted. Mike felt it first. He was reviewing the serum logs when his gaze sharpened, his posture straightening slowly.
Maxine noticed instantly. “Sir?”
Mike tilted his head. “He’s here.”
Her stomach dropped. “Alden...?”
Mike didn’t answer. Instead, he tapped his keycard against a console on the wall.
"Clunk" Heavy mechanical locks slid into place.
“W-What are you doing?!” Maxine cried.
“I’m securing the floor.”
“Sir, that’s..."
“Necessary,” he said, his voice remains calm and gentle. “Chaos is inevitable tonight. I intend to control it.”
Maxine's breath was likely broken.
Mike turned to her and looked at her eyes, hands slipping back into his pockets, moving with a calm, elegant, and terrifying.
“Maxine,” he said, “sit down.”
She shook her head. “No. Sir, please, this isn’t...”
“Sit.” Mike said. It was not a command issued with anger. And somehow, that made it worse.
Maxine knees buckled. She found the nearest chair and lowered herself slowly. She didn’t understand why her hands shook so violently.
Mike walked behind her, his shadow stretching long across the floor. "You are safe,” he said.
But deep inside her, she wished those words didn’t sound like a curse.
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ALDEN— The Breaking Point
The elevator doors opened with a ding that sounded far too gentle for the fury roaring in Alden’s chest.
He marched down the hall, only to stop abruptly. He found out that every door was locked. Every hallway sealed.
“What the hell…” He pounded on a glass panel. “MAXINE! MAX!”
But only silence answered him.
Then... A voice echoed through the intercom, smooth and cold.
“Alden Remarque.”
Alden’s blood froze. He knew it, it was Mike.
“You’re trespassing.”
Alden yelled, “WHERE IS SHE?!”
“Exactly where she needs to be.” Mike answered.
Alden’s fists slammed the door. “If you touched her... if you hurt her, I swear...!”
Mike actually chuckled softly.
“Oh, Alden. You’ve been trying to protect her for months. But you don’t understand something essential.”
Alden ground his teeth. “Understand what?”
“That she was already mine long before you realized it.”
Alden’s roar rattled the hallway. “OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!”
“Very well,” Mike said smoothly. And the lock clicked.
The moment the lab door opened, Alden charged inside, but he froze again.
Maxine sat on a lab chair, she looked so pale and trembling.
Mike stood behind her, one hand resting on the chair’s back, relaxed but unmistakably possessive.
Alden’s rage ignited like gasoline.
“Get away from her.”
Mike arched a brow. “No.”
Alden stepped forward, while Mike didn’t move. Didn’t flinch, and he did not even blink.
Maxine sprang up, grabbing Alden’s arm. “Alden, stop, please...”
Alden held her shoulders. “Did he hurt you?”
Mike answered instead. "She’s overwhelmed. Not harmed.”
Alden glared. “You don’t get to speak for her.”
“And you,” Mike replied calmly, “don’t get to drag her out of here like she’s a child.”
Maxine’s heart pounded painfully.
“Alden,” she whispered, “I can explain...”
“No,” Alden said firmly. “You’re leaving with me. Now.”
Mike’s voice sliced through the air: “She’s not leaving.”
Alden snapped, “SHE DOESN’T BELONG TO YOU!”
Mike stepped forward at that slowly. The temperature seemed to drop several degrees.
“She works for me. She is under my protection. And tonight? She stays.”
Alden’s fists clenched. “Over my dead body.”
Mike’s eyes darkened, not with anger, but with something far more dangerous, and certainty.
“That,” he said quietly, “can be arranged.”
“MIKE!” Maxine cried.
The two men stood mere inches apart, fire and ice, chaos and control. Their tension filled the room like a storm ready to detonate.
Maxine’s breath hitched. She stepped between them as fast as she can, now both men froze.
Two sets of eyes… on her.
She whispered, in her cracking voices, "Please… don’t fight over me.”
For a moment, silence hung heavy. Then Mike’s voice cut it through.
“This is not a fight, Maxine.” He looked straight into Alden’s fury. “This is the beginning.”
Alden grabbed Maxine’s hand immediately and Mike grabbed her wrist.
As if Maxine heart stopped. And the chapter ended with one unspoken truth.
Maxine Medina had become the vessel in a war between two men who would destroy everything... including each other, just to claim her.
- Writer
