The Deal Is Sealed
1030 Words
Chapter Eight.
Lydia’s POV.
The walk to his office felt like a death march.
My heart was pounding so hard I could feel it in my throat. My wolf kept whimpering inside of me. She recognized the dominance that rolled off him in waves and wanted nothing more than to submit to him.
I shoved her down.
Xander held the door open for me, his mismatched eyes never leaving my face. I stepped inside and the door clicked shut behind us.
His office was huge. A large desk, bookshelves filled with medical texts and a great view of the city. Not one single thing was out of place.
Just like him.
I stood in the center of the room, arms wrapped around myself, refusing to look at him. My eyes darted to his diplomas. His silver pen. The white coat hanging on the back of his chair.
Anywhere but him.
He leaned against his desk, his eyes remained fixed on me.
The silence stretched. I could hear my own breathing. I felt my wolf press low in my chest like she was trying to hide. His aura filled every corner of the room—stronger and even more impossible to ignore. It made my knees weak.
Regardless, I held my ground.
“So,” he said, finally breaking the suffocating silence. “You came back.”
I opened my mouth but nothing came out.
“I didn’t think,” he continued, his voice softer now, “that you would be stupid enough to show your face here. After you stood me up.”
The word hit me like a slap.
Stupid. My face burned.
I wanted to clap back, say something mean too but his aura was crushing me, my wolf was practically groveling at that point, and I couldn’t form words.
I forced myself to stand straighter and meet his eyes.
“You didn’t give me a choice,” I managed to say, my voice shaking. “The internship—“
“You had a choice. You made it. You chose to run.”
He was right. And I hated him for it.
But I refused to let him win this conversation. Not again.
“What was I supposed to do?” The words tumbled out before I could stop it. “Just show up at your house like a good little plaything? Let you use me whenever you want, wherever you want, with no say in any of it?”
He didn’t answer. He just stared at me with those mismatched eyes.
I took a shaky breath. My voice cracked but I kept going.
“You never bothered to ask me what I wanted. All we ever talked about was what you were taking.”
Quietly, he pushed off his desk and stepped closer. My wolf trembled. My heart beat doubled over but I did my best to remain calm.
“What do you want, Lydia?”
That question landed harder than it should. I stared at him.
What did I want?
I wanted to stop being afraid. I wanted to stop thinking about his hands, his lips, the way he’d looked at me in the elevator.
I wanted to stop wanting him.
And beneath all of that, buried so deep I barely acknowledged it, was something uglier and more embarrassing.
“Ethan,” I heard myself whisper. “I want him to hurt just as much as I did. I want to make him feel small and insignificant, just like he did to me.”
My voice cracked on the last word. I hated myself for admitting it. For being so transparent. For wanting something so petty and so real.
Xander didn’t mock me. He just stared at me with those eyes of his.
“You said you could help me,” I continued, barely audible. “Was that true? Or was that just another one of your—“
He suddenly stepped closer. Close enough that I could smell him—that intense scent I remembered from the elevator.
My wolf perked up.
“I meant every word, Lydia.” He responded quietly.
“You really meant it? You’d help me get back at him?”
I knew I sounded pathetic but I didn’t care. If agreeing to this would give me what I want and some sanity, then so be it.
“I don’t make promises I can’t keep, sis.”
For a moment, I thought about disappearing again and never looking back, just like I had done at the resort.
But another part of me—the part I’d been ignoring for two weeks—whispered something else.
What if he could actually help me? What if agreeing to this gave me more than just a career? What if it gave me the revenge I’d been craving since the moment Ethan humiliated me in front of everyone.
I thought about Ethan’s smug face. The endless cycle of running and hiding away from how I felt, of pretending it wasn’t there and throwing myself into work.
Maybe this was a mistake. Maybe I’d regret this forever.
But maybe—just maybe—it was the only chance I had and would ever get.
I took a shaky breath.
“Okay,” I whispered.
He went still. “Okay?”
“The deal.” I held his gaze. “I’m… I’m in.”
He exhaled slowly. Like he’d been holding his breath. His eyes searched mine like was trying to find something in there.
“Friday,” he asserted. “Seven o’clock. My apartment.”
“Friday,” I repeated. “Seven.”
He looked me over, a small smirk dancing across his lips.
“Don’t be late, little sis.”
I hated when he called me that but for some reason, it sent a shiver down my spine.
Without another word, I turned and walked out of his office, down the corridor, through the gleaming halls of Hopkins.
Friday. Seven o’clock.
Those words echoed over and over again in my head.
Yet, all I could think of as I stepped into the elevator was if I had just made the biggest mistake of my life.
- Writer
