One Night with my ruthless Alpha CEO

The Predator’s Shield

"If you throw up on my shoes, Reina, I’m docking it from your first paycheck."

Xavier didn’t look at me as he spoke. He was adjusting his cufflinks in the tinted SUV's reflection. We were parked in front of the Grand Astoria, the very same venue where I had face-planted into a table of champagne a month ago. My heart was a frantic drum against my chest, and the nausea was a constant weight in my throat.

"I’m fine," I lied, clutching my tablet to my chest like a shield. My new dress, another Xavier-mandated purchase, was a deep emerald silk that hugged every curve I usually tried to hide. It felt like wearing a spotlight.

"You're shaking," he noted, finally turning his head. His eyes were on my body, they swept over me heavily, making the hair on my arms prickle. He reached out, his hand hovering near my cheek before he pulled it back, his jaw tightening. "Stay close to me. Don't talk to anyone unless I tell you to. And for God’s sake, stop looking like you’re waiting for the ground to open up and swallow you."

"In this dress, it’s hard to feel invisible," I whispered.

"You were never meant to be invisible," he growled.

The valet opened the door, and the wall of noise from the gala hit me, flashbulbs, expensive perfume, and the high-pitched tittering of people who had more money than souls. I stepped out, my legs could barely carry my weight.

We hadn't been in the ballroom for ten minutes before I saw her.

Vivian was standing near the bar, draped in cream lace, looking every bit the high society matriarch. She was laughing at something a man was saying, but the moment her eyes drifted toward the entrance, the laughter died. Her face shifted into that familiar mask of cold, sharp disgust.

Beside her, my father looked away. Jimmy, thank God, wasn't in sight.

"Reina?" Vivian’s voice cut through the crowd like a knife. She glided, her eyes scanning me from head to toe. "I thought we made it clear that you weren't welcome at these kinds of events after the last... catastrophe."

I froze. The tablet in my hand felt like it weighed fifty pounds. "I'm here for work, Mother."

"Work?" She let out a short, mocking laugh that made the women around her whisper. "What, did they hire you to be the buffet table? You certainly have the surface area for it."

The heat crawled up my neck, hot and stinging. I wanted the floor to open up. I wanted to disappear. I could feel the eyes of the elite on me, their silent judgment.

"Leave her alone, Vivian," my father muttered, but he wouldn't meet my eyes.

"No, Harold. It’s embarrassing," she hissed, stepping closer to me, her voice dropping so only I could hear. "Look at you. Squeezed into this beautiful dress like a sausage. You look desperate, Reina. Did you buy that with the money you stole from your brother’s drawer? Or did you finally find a man pathetic enough to pay for a night with an overblown baby elephant?"

I couldn't breathe. The air in the room was gone. I felt the tell-tale sting of tears and the sudden, violent roll of my stomach.

"She didn't pay for the dress."

The voice was a low, terrifying rumble that silenced the entire circle. Xavier moved out of the shadows behind me, his presence so massive and dark it seemed to suck the light out of the room. His hand coming to rest firmly, possessively on the small of my back.

Vivian blinked, her mask flickering. "Mr. Voss. I didn't realize you were... acquainted with my daughter."

"Your daughter?" Xavier’s voice was like ice cracking. He looked at Vivian with a level of loathe that made her flinch. "I don't see a daughter here. I see my Executive Assistant, who is currently being harassed by a woman who clearly wasn't taught any manners."

"Now, see here—" my father started, finally gathering some balls, but one look from Xavier silenced him instantly.

"I don't care who you are," Xavier growled, stepping forward until he was towering over my mother. His nostrils flared, and I could have sworn I saw his lip curl back just enough to show his teeth. "If you speak to her again, if you even look in her direction with that pathetic expression, I will strip your husband’s firm of every contract it holds with Voss Seventh.“If she walks out of this room humiliated again, your family won’t recover from it. Do you understand me?"

Vivian went pale. "She’s a disgrace," she whispered, her voice trembling with rage. "She’s nothing but a—"

"She is mine," Xavier barked. The word echoed.

He didn't wait for a reply. He turned me away, his arm wrapping around my shoulders and pulling me tight against his side. He marched me through the crowd, his body a shield against the whispers.

************

We hit the balcony air, the cold wind hitting my face. I gasped for breath, my hand clutching the railing.

"I'm going to throw up," I managed to choke out.

Xavier was behind me in an instant. He grabbed a glass of water from a passing server’s tray and shoved it into my hand. "Here, drink slowly."

I took a sip, my teeth chattering against the glass. "Why did you do that? You just made a scene. She’s going to make my life hell."

"She’s never going to touch you again," he said, his voice still vibrating with that strange, animalistic fury. He stepped closer, pinning me against the railing. "Why didn't you tell me they were your parents?"

"Because I'm a mistake, remember?" I wiped a tear away, my voice breaking. "She’s right. I don't belong in this dress. I don't belong here."

"Shut up," he commanded. He reached out, his hand sliding into my hair, tilting my head back so I had to look at him. His eyes were dark. "You are the only thing in that room worth looking at. And if you ever call yourself a mistake again, I’ll show you exactly how much of a mistake I think you are."

He leaned in, his nose grazing my ear, inhaling so deeply it felt like he was trying to pull my soul out.

"You smell like fear, Reina. Change it. Smell like me."

He pressed his face into the crook of my neck, his lips brushing the skin right over my pulse. I should have been terrified. He was acting like a lunatic. But as his heat soaked into me, the nausea finally began to fade. For the first time, I felt shielded.

I closed my eyes for a second, letting my head rest against his shoulder. Then, the air changed. It wasn't a sound, but a freezing prickle at the base of my spine. Xavier went from solid muscle to vibrating steel.

"Xavier?" I whispered.

I looked down at the railing. A tiny, circular dot of blood-red light was dancing across my knuckles. It flickered to my chest, then up toward my throat. Xavier’s eyes locked on the parking garage across the street, his pupils blown wide.

"Reina," he said, his voice a ghost of a whisper. "Don't move a muscle."