Chapter 2 — The Pulse Beneath Her Skin
1160 Words
Elara couldn’t move.
The hallway remained eerily silent long after Lucian Vale disappeared behind the black door. Her breath came shallow, sharp, like she’d sprinted a mile instead of simply standing there while a stranger—no, not a stranger, something else—looked at her as if she were a threat… or a possession.
Mine.
The word echoed in her skull, low and chilling, vibrating under her skin like a second pulse.
Her fingers trembled around her badge. She needed to breathe. She needed to think. She needed to run—
“Ms. Hayes?”
She jumped.
The man who had escorted her earlier stood stiffly beside her, his expression unusually pale.
“You… should follow me,” he said, voice tight. “Your orientation awaits.”
Orientation. Right. Normal job things. Computers, paperwork, passwords. Not… whatever that had been.
Elara nodded, forcing her legs to walk even though they felt numb. As they moved down the corridor, she couldn’t shake the sensation of eyes on her. Watching. Studying. Claiming.
Every reflective panel they passed showed her own face—wide-eyed, shaken, color drained from her cheeks.
She barely recognized herself.
They entered a conference room. Bright. Quiet. A small group of new hires sat around a glass table, whispering.
The whispers stopped when she walked in.
All eyes tracked her. Like prey entering a den.
A woman leaned toward another, murmuring, “That’s her.”
Her stomach flipped. Her? What did that mean?
She forced herself into an empty seat.
The man who’d guided her cleared his throat. “We will begin.”
As he spoke about company protocols, security clearances, nondisclosure clauses, and data hierarchy, Elara tried to focus.
She couldn’t.
Her wrist still tingled where Lucian had touched her. Every few seconds, a sharp pulse shot through her chest—like her heartbeat kept tripping over itself, responding to something it didn’t understand.
She pressed a hand to her ribcage.
What was happening to her?
A sharp buzz vibrated against her hip.
Her badge.
Again.
She froze and looked down. The screen embedded in it flickered—static, glitching—before it stabilized into a single line of text.
REPORT TO: CEO—L. VALE
TIME: NOW
Her blood ran cold.
A murmur rose around the table as others noticed. No one said anything out loud, but the fear in their eyes was unmistakable.
No one got called by the CEO.
Not on their first day.
Not ever.
The orientation leader swallowed hard. “Ms. Hayes… you’ll need to go.”
Elara nodded slowly. Her mouth had gone dry.
As she stood, the room fell silent again.
Every instinct screamed run.
Every survival impulse told her don’t go.
But the badge buzzed again—harsher, like a command.
She stepped out of the room and began walking back toward the black door at the end of the hallway—her pulse loud enough to choke her.
The door loomed ahead. Closed. Dark. Unwelcoming.
She hesitated.
Then—
The door slid open on its own.
Cold air rushed out, brushing over her skin like fingers.
“Enter.”
The voice wasn’t loud.
But it vibrated through her like a summons.
Elara stepped inside.
The office was massive. Walls of black glass. A long window overlooking the city. Shadows pooling in corners where the light didn’t dare reach.
And at the center—
Lucian Vale behind his obsidian desk, silver eyes fixed on her as if she were the only thing that had ever existed.
“Close the door,” he said softly.
It shut the moment she turned.
Lucian rose.
Slow. Controlled. Dangerous.
Her heartbeat punched against her ribs.
“You feel it,” he murmured.
She shook her head. “I… I don’t know what you mean. I just—something is wrong with my heartbeat, and you keep—”
“Calling you,” he finished. “Yes.”
Elara stiffened. “Stop doing that.”
He tilted his head slightly. “You misunderstand. I am not calling you.”
His gaze locked onto her chest—right over her heart.
“It is you, Elara Hayes, who is calling me.”
Her breath hitched.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It shouldn’t.” He stepped closer. “Because you shouldn’t exist.”
She backed up until she hit the glass wall. Cold seeped through her blouse.
Lucian stopped inches away—too close, too tall, too intense. His presence pressed into her lungs until she could barely breathe.
He lifted one hand, hovering it near her cheek.
Not touching.
Just close enough that she felt heat roll off his skin.
Her pulse jumped violently.
Lucian inhaled slowly. Deeply.
“As I suspected,” he muttered. “Your heartbeat reacts to my presence.”
Her voice cracked. “Why? What are you—”
His eyes flashed—bright silver cutting through the dim office.
“Not human.”
Her throat tightened.
Before she could respond, a sharp crack split the air—her badge, glitching again.
Lucian’s gaze snapped downward. His expression darkened.
“Your clearance updated…” he whispered. “How did they—”
He stopped.
Something shifted inside him. Hard. Cold. Final.
He reached out suddenly, grabbing her wrist—not painfully, but firmly.
Elara gasped as another electric shock tore through her.
Lucian’s jaw clenched.
“This bond,” he whispered, voice rougher than before, “should be impossible.”
She stared at him, breath shaking. “What bond?”
He leaned in, lips brushing the air beside her ear.
“The kind,” he said, “that happens only once every thousand years.”
Her knees nearly buckled.
“And you,” he murmured, “were never meant to be chosen.”
Elara’s pulse skittered wildly as he pulled back just enough for their eyes to meet.
Silver. Sharp. Unyielding.
“For both our sakes,” he said quietly, “pray that I find a way to undo it.”
Her voice trembled. “Undo what?”
Lucian stepped away from her—slowly, deliberately—as if each inch of distance required restraint.
“The bond that ties you to me,” he whispered.
“The bond that marks you as mine.”
Elara froze. Her lungs forgot how to work.
Because she finally understood something—
This wasn’t attraction.
This wasn’t intimidation.
This wasn’t even desire.
This was something ancient.
Something forbidden.
Something she had no escape from.
Lucian Vale turned his back to her, voice low and lethal.
“You may go. But understand this…”
He glanced at her over his shoulder, eyes glowing faintly.
“…your life no longer belongs only to you.”
The lights flickered again.
Her badge buzzed one last time.
Elara stumbled out of the office, heart thundering, breath broken, mind spinning.
Whatever she had walked into at Vale Industries…
It was already too late to walk back out.
- Writer
