CHAPTER TWO
1187 Words
💐 CHAPTER TWO 💐
“I’m not going to repeat the question Miss Chen…What the hell are you doing in my building?”
Cian’s voice cuts through the silence like a blade, and I flinch back into the leather chair.
His dark eyes scan me from head to toe, taking in every detail of my disheveled appearance with clinical precision.
“I asked you a question, Miss Chen.”
The formal address stings more than it should. Six months of working for him, and I’m still just another employee who’s overstepped her bounds.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t think—”
“Of course, you clearly didn’t think.” He leans back in his chair, fingers steepled. “Breaking and entering is a felony. Even if you do have security codes.”
My throat closes up. Of course he knows about the codes. He probably knows everything that happens in this building.
“I can explain—”
“Then start explaining. Fast.” The man’s tone could freeze water. “Because right now it looks like my an employee has lost her mind and decided to commit crimes on my property.”
The word ‘crimes’ hits like a slap. I clutch my bag tighter, suddenly aware of how pathetic I must look. Homeless, desperate, with nowhere else to go.
“I’m not…uhm. I’m not committing crime sir. I needed a place to stay, and…this is the only place I could think.”
He frowned, and I looked away hating the way my eyes were already filling up with tears, and the way my lips were quivering.
Oh how pathetic I must look to the man…who always seizes every opportunity he finds to be rude to me.
“I’m not clear. What happened to your house?”
“They sold me.” The words tumble out before I can stop them. “My family. They sold me to Alpha Thorne like…yeah. They sold me out and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t marry that old man and…”
Something flickers across his face—surprise, maybe—but it’s gone so fast I might have imagined it.
“And your response was to break into my office?”
“I had nowhere else to go.” My voice cracks, “I’m sorry, I’ll leave—”
“Sit down.”
I hadn’t realized I was standing. My legs fold beneath me like paper.
“Alpha Thorne.” He says the name like he’s tasting something unpleasant. “The one who buried three mates.”
“Four.” The correction slips out. “Elena died last month.”
“Ah.” He drums his fingers on the desk. “And your family thinks this is an appropriate match.”
“They think it’s profitable.” Bitterness seeps into my voice. “Apparently that’s all that matters.”
“When’s the ceremony?”
“Saturday.”
He glances at his watch. “That’s in four days.”
“I know.” My hands shake. “I know it’s not long, but I had to try—”
“You’re bleeding.”
The observation stops me mid-sentence. I look down at my hands, noticing for the first time the scratches across my palms from climbing the fire escape.
“It’s nothing.”
“It’s not nothing.” His chair squeaks as he stands. “Stay here.”
He disappears through a side door I hadn’t noticed before, returning with a first aid kit.
When he kneels beside my chair, his proximity sends an unexpected jolt through my system.
“Give me your hands.”
I hesitate. This is not the cold, intimidating Alpha I know from work.
No, my boss would never be caught nursing an employee’s wound.
I stretched out my palm, and stared in shock as he carefully cleaned my hand.
“What changed?” The question slips out before I can censor it.
“What do you mean?”
“Five minutes ago you were ready to call security. Now you’re…” I gesture helplessly at the antiseptic he’s dabbing on my cuts.
His jaw tightens. “Now I’m what?”
“Being kind.”
He pauses, the cotton swab halfway to my palm. “Don’t mistake basic first aid for kindness, Miss Chen…I can’t have you dying on my floor.”
But his tone lacks its earlier bite, and when he resumes cleaning my wounds, his touch is impossibly gentle.
“Why did your family choose Thorne?” he asks quietly.
“Pack alliance. Dad thinks it’ll give him access to the northern territories.”
“And marriage is the price.”
It’s not a question, but I nod anyway. “Apparently I should be grateful. At least I’ll be ‘useful’ for once.”
The cotton swab stills against my skin. When I look up, something dangerous flickers in his eyes.
“They said that?”
“Among other things.” I try to pull my hands away, but he holds them steady. “It doesn’t matter. They’re right—I don’t have anywhere else to go, no one who—”
“Look at me.”
The quiet command makes me lift my eyes to his. Up close, I can see flecks of gold in the dark brown, and something else—something that makes my breath catch.
“You’re not going back there.”
“You can’t just—”
“I can do whatever I want.” His thumb traces over the bandage he’s just applied. “This is my territory.”
The possessive note in his voice sends heat shooting down my spine. I should be intimidated. I should be afraid. Instead, I find myself leaning closer.
“Why are you helping me?”
His eyes drop to my lips, and the air between us shifts to something I couldn’t explain..
“I don’t know.”
The honesty in his admission surprises us both. His hand moves from my palm to cup my face, thumb brushing across my cheekbone.
“I should call your father. Handle this through proper channels.”
“But you won’t.” It’s not a question. Something in his eyes tells me he won’t.
“No.” His voice is rough. “I won’t.”
The space between us disappears.
I’m not sure who moves first—maybe we both do—but suddenly his lips are on mine and nothing else exists.
The kiss is desperate, hungry, like we’re both drowning and this is our only chance for air. His hand tangles in my hair while mine fist in his shirt, pulling him closer.
Heat explodes through my veins, followed by something else. Something that makes my wolf howl in recognition.
Mate.
We break apart, both breathing hard. His eyes are wide with the same shock I feel.
“That’s impossible,” he whispers.
But even as he says it, I can see the truth written across his features. The same truth that’s singing in my blood, in every cell of my body.
“We’re mates.” The words taste like destiny on my tongue.
- Writer
