The bite between us

What happened next

chapter 2

Rowan pov

The boardroom was silent.

Not because the executives had nothing to say—but because they were waiting for permission to breathe. I let the pause stretch, fingers steepled, gaze fixed on the city far below the glass walls. Lagos hummed beneath us, unaware that fortunes were decided in rooms like this.

“Continue,” I said at last.

The man at the head of the table swallowed and resumed his presentation, voice tight. Numbers flashed across the screen. Profits. Losses. Acquisitions. I absorbed it all without comment, mind sharp, detached.

Ruthless, they called me.

Good.

Still, as the meeting dragged on, something itched beneath my composure. A wrongness I couldn’t shake. The memory of moonlight filtering through trees. The scent of fear mixed with something sweeter. Familiar.

Her.

I clenched my jaw.

I had left her there for a reason.

“You approved this expansion last quarter,” someone said carefully, pulling me back. “Do we proceed?”

“Yes,” I replied without hesitation. “And fire the regional manager. He hesitated.”

A ripple of unease passed around the table. No one argued. They never did.

The meeting ended swiftly after that. Chairs scraped. Papers gathered. My assistant lingered near the door, tablet hugged to her chest.

“Your nine o’clock client is already waiting, sir,” she said. “Also—HR finalized the new departmental placements.”

“Send them in,” I said. Then paused. “And bring me the list.”

She nodded and left.

When the file appeared on my screen, I skimmed it out of habit. Names blurred past—until one didn’t.

Zainab.

The room seemed to tilt.

I stared at the screen longer than necessary, pulse ticking just a fraction faster than usual. Same name. Same department. Same woman who had stood in the forest last night, eyes wide but unflinching, as if she had recognized me even before she understood what I was.

So this was where she belonged.

In my world.

A slow, dangerous thought settled in my chest.

I had walked away to protect her. Or maybe to protect myself. I wasn’t sure which lie I preferred. But seeing her name here—rooted, unavoidable—tightened something inside me.

I hadn’t followed her home.

I hadn’t crossed the line.

And yet.

I closed the file.

The wolf in me stirred, restless and displeased.

Leaving her in the forest hadn’t broken the bond.

It had only taught her absence.

I exhaled slowly, forcing control back into place.

Zainab worked for me.

And whether she knew it yet or not, that meant the night before was not an ending.

It was an introduction.