Emery POV

My heart was still hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs as I navigated the corridors to the Liaison Department. The lingering scent of rain and burning amber from the CEO's office clung to my senses, a ghostly reminder of the man who had looked at me with such raw, inexplicable hatred.

Pull yourself together, Emery, I scolded myself. You are here to work. You are here to survive.

The Liaison Department was a sprawling open-plan space encased in glass, offering a panoramic view of Seattle's grey skyline. Heads turned as I entered. I could feel the weight of their gazes—curious, dismissive, predatory.

Janice Spears was waiting for me near a corner office, her arms crossed over her chest. The fake smile was back, plastered onto her face like a sticker.

"You survived," she said, her tone suggesting she had bet against it. "Alpha Madden can be... intense."

"He's passionate about the company," I lied smoothly, refusing to let her see my rattled nerves. "Where do I start?"

Janice's eyes glinted. She picked up a thick red folder from a nearby desk and held it out. "We have a situation. The Crimson Fang Pack. Their Alpha, Marcus Thorne, is in Conference Room B waiting to finalize the annual joint training protocols. It's a formality, really, but he insists on a face-to-face."

She stepped closer, lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "Honestly, nobody else is available. If you can get his signature, you'll prove to everyone—including the CEO—that you belong here. Unless, of course, you're not up for it?"

It was a challenge. I could smell the deception on her—it smelled like sulfur and cheap perfume—but I didn't have the luxury of refusing. I needed a win.

"I'll handle it," I said, taking the folder.

Janice's smile widened, showing too many teeth. "Excellent. Don't keep him waiting."

I walked toward the conference room, ignoring the pitying looks from the other staff members. I straightened my blazer, took a deep breath, and pushed open the heavy glass door.

The room was soundproof, cutting off the hum of the office instantly. Seated at the far end of the long mahogany table was a man who looked less like an Alpha and more like a caricature of one. Marcus Thorne was heavy-set, with greasy blonde hair slicked back and a suit that strained at the buttons.

He didn't look at the file I placed on the table. He looked at my legs.

"You're new," Marcus drawled, his voice thick and wet. "Blackwood usually sends me old men in grey suits. I like this change."

"I'm Emery Travis, the new Liaison Officer," I said, keeping my voice professional and cold. I opened the folder. "We need to review the liability clauses on page four, Alpha Thorne."

"Boring," he grunted, waving a hand dismissively. He stood up and began to circle the table, moving with a predatory slowness. The scent of him hit me then—stale cigar smoke and unwashed musk. My inner wolf curled her lip in disgust.

"I don't care about clauses, sweetheart," Marcus said, stopping right behind my chair. "I care about hospitality. And Blackwood has been very... cold lately."

I stood up abruptly, putting the chair between us. "If you aren't interested in the contract, I can reschedule."

"Sit down," he snapped, his eyes flashing a muddy yellow. "You think you can dismiss an Alpha? You're just a little Omega bitch in a skirt."

He lunged.

It wasn't an attack to kill; it was an attack to dominate. He closed the distance before I could react, his hand gripping the back of my neck. He yanked me forward, forcing my head to the side.

"Let's see if you smell as good as you look," he hissed, burying his nose toward my scent gland.

It was a violation. In our world, scenting another wolf without permission was an act of claiming, a prelude to assault.

"Get off me!" I shouted, stomping my heel down onto his foot.

Marcus howled in pain and loosened his grip. I scrambled back, my back hitting the cold glass wall.

"You little whore!" Marcus roared, his face turning purple. "I'll tear this alliance to shreds! I'll have your Alpha begging on his knees before I—"

BOOM.

The double doors didn't just open; they exploded inward, slamming against the walls with a force that shook the floor.

Aiden Madden stood in the doorway.

He wasn't the CEO anymore. He was pure, unadulterated violence. His suit jacket was gone, his sleeves rolled up to reveal forearms corded with muscle. But it was the air around him that terrified me. It crackled with black electricity, the pressure in the room dropping so sharply my ears popped.

His eyes were pitch black. The wolf was in control.

Marcus froze, the color draining from his face. "Alpha Madden, I was just—"

"Silence."

The command wasn't shouted. It was a low, guttural growl that vibrated through the very marrow of my bones. It was the Alpha's Command.

Marcus dropped to his knees as if invisible hands had crushed him. He gasped for air, clutching his throat, his eyes bulging with terror.

Aiden didn't even look at him. He crossed the room in two long strides, placing himself directly between me and the kneeling Alpha. The scent of storm and pine enveloped me, thick and suffocatingly protective.

Mine. Safe. Mine.

The voice in my head was deafening. Aiden's back was a wall of tension, his shoulders heaving as he fought for control.

"You touched her," Aiden said. His voice was devoid of humanity. It was the sound of a monster contemplating murder. "You dared to touch what is in my territory."

"She... she disrespected me!" Marcus wheezed, trying to resist the crushing pressure of Aiden's aura.

"The alliance is terminated," Aiden stated, his tone final. "If you are not out of my building in thirty seconds, I will remove your head from your shoulders and mail it to your Beta."

"Get. Out."

The pressure lifted just enough for Marcus to scramble to his feet. He didn't look at me. He didn't look at Aiden. He ran, stumbling over his own feet in his haste to escape the predator that had just filled the room.

Silence descended, heavy and suffocating.

I stared at Aiden's broad back, my breath catching in my throat. He had saved me. The man who looked at me with hatred had just nearly killed an ally to protect me.

Slowly, Aiden turned around. The black was fading from his eyes, replaced by that turbulent, stormy blue. He looked at me, his chest heaving, his expression a war zone of fury and... something else. Something that looked terrifyingly like possession.

"Are you hurt?" he demanded, the words sharp and clipped.

I shook my head, unable to speak.

He didn't offer comfort. He didn't ask what happened. He just stared at me, his jaw clenched so tight a muscle ticked in his cheek, as if my very presence was a torture he couldn't escape.

Aiden POV

The beast inside me was pacing, clawing at the back of my skull, demanding blood. It took every ounce of my restraint not to chase Marcus Thorne down the hallway and rip his throat out. He had touched her. He had dared to put his filthy hands on what the Moon Goddess had decided was mine.

Mine. The word echoed in my head, a taunt rather than a comfort.

I turned my back on Emery. I couldn't look at her. If I looked at her—at those wide, terrified eyes and that trembling mouth—I would lose the fragile grip I had on my control. I would claim her right here on the conference table, consequences be damned.

Instead, I focused my rage on the incompetence that had allowed this to happen.

Janice Spears stood near the door, her face a mask of crumbling plaster. She reeked of fear—sour and acrid.

"You," I growled, my voice low but carrying the weight of a thunderclap.

Janice flinched. "Alpha Madden, I... I didn't know he would—"

"Silence."

The command slammed into her, snapping her jaw shut. I stalked toward her, the employees in the open-plan office parting like the Red Sea. They kept their heads down, submitting to the aura of violence rolling off me.

"You sent a junior liaison into a room with a known predator," I said, stopping inches from her. "You failed to vet the client. You failed to secure the perimeter. You failed to protect a member of this Pack's staff."

"It was a test," she whimpered, sweat beading on her forehead.

"A test?" I laughed, a dark, humorless sound. "You gambled with my assets. In my Pack, stupidity is a crime."

I looked around the room, meeting the gaze of every terrified onlooker. "Janice Spears is hereby stripped of her title. You are demoted to Junior Assistant in Archives. If I see you on this floor again, you will be terminated. Permanently."

I didn't wait for her response. I turned on my heel and stormed toward the elevators, forcing myself not to glance back at the conference room where Emery still stood.

Hours later, my office felt like a cage.

The scent of her—wild lavender and rain-soaked pine—was haunting me. It clung to my clothes, my skin, my very soul. I tried to focus on the acquisition reports on my desk, but the letters blurred.

Suddenly, a sharp spike of irritation pierced my mind. It wasn't mine.

My head snapped up. The bond—that thin, unwanted thread connecting me to her—vibrated with a foreign presence. It was faint, muffled by the distance and the fact that we hadn't completed the mating process, but I could feel it.

A male presence.

It was sliding into her mind, familiar and possessive.

Who is he? My wolf snarled, pacing aggressively in my mind's eye. Kill him.

I couldn't hear their words, but I could feel the texture of the connection. It was intimate. Comfortable. She was opening her mind to another male while I sat here, fighting a war against my own instincts.

The intercom buzzed. "Sir," Ferdinand's voice came through, hesitant. "You asked for an update on... the new Liaison Officer."

"Speak," I gritted out.

"She has left the building. She has a reservation at The Gilded Antler for three."

"Three?"

"Yes, sir. She met a man and a woman in the lobby. The man... he seemed very close to her."

My pen snapped in half, ink exploding over my hand like black blood.

So, she had a lover. And she was parading him around my city, eating at my restaurants, mocking the bond that was currently tearing me apart.

"Get the car," I ordered, standing up. The chair flew back and hit the wall. "Now."

The Gilded Antler was dim, smelling of roasted venison and old money. The maître d' froze when he saw me, his face draining of color, but I ignored him. My eyes scanned the room, hunting.

I found them in a secluded booth near the back.

Emery was sitting there, her back to the wall. She looked beautiful, which only fueled my rage. But it was the man next to her that made my vision swim with red.

He was the one from the airport. The one who had touched her arm. The one whose scent was all over her.

As I watched, the man leaned over and wrapped his arm around the woman sitting next to him—a woman with long dark hair, similar to Emery's. He pulled her in and kissed her deeply, a display of affection that was nauseatingly public.

And Emery? She was smiling.

She was watching her lover kiss another woman, smiling as if this depravity was normal. Was this what she was? A woman with no morals? A woman who shared her bed and her heart with whoever was available?

The betrayal tasted like ash in my mouth. I had almost killed an Alpha today to protect her honor, and here she was, spitting on mine.

I didn't just walk toward their table; I marched toward it like an executioner approaching the scaffold. The air in the restaurant grew heavy, the chatter dying out as my Alpha aura suffocated the room.

I stopped at the edge of their table. My shadow fell over them, cold and absolute.

Emery looked up, her glass of water halfway to her lips. Her eyes widened in shock, and for a second, I saw fear. Good. She should be afraid.

"Mr. Madden?" she squeaked, her voice trembling.

She didn't know. She had no idea that the man standing above her wasn't just her boss, but the husband she had betrayed before the ink on the marriage certificate was even dry.

And I was going to make sure she regretted every single second of it.

Emery POV

The air in the restaurant didn't just grow heavy; it solidified, pressing against my lungs like wet concrete. The chatter of the other patrons vanished, replaced by a ringing silence that screamed of danger.

"Mr. Madden?" I whispered again, my voice trembling.

He didn't answer. He didn't even blink. His eyes, swirling with a storm of black and gold, were fixed on me with a hatred so palpable it felt like a physical blow. Then, his gaze flicked to Jonah. The look he gave my cousin was one of pure, unadulterated disgust—like Jonah was a disease he needed to scrape off his shoe.

"You dare," Mr. Madden snarled, his voice a low rumble that vibrated through the floorboards. "You dare parade your filth in my city."

"Excuse me?" Jonah stood up, his chair scraping loudly against the floor. "Watch your tone, pal. I don't know who you think you are, but—"

"Sit."

The command wasn't shouted, but it hit the room like a shockwave. It was an Alpha's Command, laced with ancient, undeniable power. Jonah's knees buckled instantly. He slammed back into his chair, his face twisting in shock and fury as his body betrayed him, forced into submission by a rank far superior to his own.

Juliette gasped, clutching Jonah's arm, her eyes wide with terror.

I couldn't move. I was frozen, a rabbit caught in the headlights of a predator. Mr. Madden turned his attention back to me. He looked at me not as an employee, or even a person, but as a stain on his honor.

"I will not be tethered to a whore," he stated, his voice ice-cold and loud enough for the surrounding tables to hear.

My breath hitched. "W-what?"

He didn't explain. He simply delivered the execution.

"I, Aiden Madden, reject you, Emery Travis, as my mate."

The words hung in the air for a fraction of a second before the pain hit.

It wasn't a gradual ache. It was a violent, tearing sensation, as if an invisible hand had reached into my chest and ripped my soul in half. I screamed, but no sound came out—only a choked gasp as darkness swarmed the edges of my vision. My hands flew to my chest, clawing at my dress, trying to stop the agony that radiated from my very core.

"Emery!" Jonah roared, fighting the invisible weight pinning him down, veins bulging in his neck.

Through the haze of blinding pain, I saw Mr. Madden turn his back on me. He didn't look back. He walked away with the cold indifference of a king leaving a battlefield, leaving me shattered on the velvet seat, gasping for air that wouldn't come.

Aiden POV

The moment the elevator doors of the parking garage closed, my knees nearly gave out.

I staggered toward my car, my hand clutching my chest. The bond—that thin, irritating thread I had just severed—snapped back with the force of a whip. A jagged, burning pain seared through my ribs, stealing my breath.

You fool! My wolf howled, throwing himself against the bars of my mind. You hurt her! You hurt our mate!

"She betrayed us," I gritted out, forcing myself to unlock the car door. My hands were shaking. "She is not ours. She belongs to the streets."

I collapsed into the driver's seat, slamming the door shut to seal myself in the silence. But there was no silence. There was only the echo of her gasp, the look of utter devastation in those wide, terrified eyes.

Why did it hurt this much? I had won. I had cut out the cancer before it could spread. I should feel relief.

Instead, I felt like I was bleeding out.

I gripped the steering wheel so hard the leather creaked, gasping for air, waiting for the agony to subside. It didn't. It settled deep in my bones, a cold, hollow ache that whispered of a mistake too great to measure.

The drive back to the Madden estate was a blur. When I walked into the main living room, the fire was dying in the hearth, casting long, dancing shadows across the floor.

My grandmother, Lucia, was sitting in her high-backed armchair. She didn't look up from the book in her lap, but I knew she was aware of my presence. The air around her crackled with disapproval.

"You reek of misery, Aiden," she said, her voice sharp.

I poured myself a drink from the crystal decanter, my hand still trembling slightly. "I did what had to be done. I rejected her."

Lucia closed her book with a snap that echoed like a gunshot. She turned her steel-grey eyes on me. "You rejected the gift from the Goddess because of your pride."

"Pride?" I spun around, the whiskey sloshing in my glass. "I saw her, Grandmother! I saw her with him at the restaurant. He had his arm around another woman, kissing her right in front of Emery! And she smiled! She sat there and smiled like it was acceptable!"

"And that is why you condemned her?" Lucia stood up, her small frame radiating a power that rivaled my own. "Because you saw a warrior kiss a woman?"

"He is her lover!" I roared, the beast inside me pacing aggressively. "He touched her at the airport. He was with her tonight."

"An Alpha's eyes, when clouded by jealousy, see only what his rage wants him to see," Lucia said quietly, stepping closer to me. Her gaze was piercing, stripping away my defenses. "You saw him kiss a woman. But tell me, Aiden... did you truly see which woman he kissed?"

I froze.

The memory replayed in my mind, but it was jagged, red-tinted by my fury. I saw the man. I saw the dark hair of the woman he pulled close.

Emery has dark hair.

But so did the other woman.

"Are you willing to condemn your soul based on a shadow?" Lucia whispered, placing a hand on my arm. "Because once that door is closed, grandson, it does not open again easily."

I pulled away from her, turning to stare into the dying fire. "I know what I saw," I said, but my voice lacked its usual iron.

Later, in the oppressive silence of my bedroom, I lay staring at the ceiling.

The scent of her—wild lavender and rain—still clung to my senses, a phantom limb I couldn't shake. I closed my eyes, and all I could see was her face in that final moment. The shock. The pain.

There was no guilt in her eyes. Only confusion.

What if...

My wolf whined, a low, mournful sound that vibrated in my chest.

I rolled over, burying my face in the pillow, but sleep was a distant memory. The victory I had claimed tasted like ash in my mouth, and for the first time in my life, I was terrified that I had been the villain in my own story.