---

It started with the pen.

Aria had been organizing Kael’s weekly calendar, typing with rapid precision, when a dull click-click-click pulled her attention away. She looked up, and through the frosted glass, she could see Kael’s shadow—seated, still, clicking his pen repeatedly like he was waiting for something. Or holding something back.

Click. Click. Click.

It wasn’t loud, but there was something… tense about it. Like the pen was the only thing keeping his fingers from doing something more destructive.

She hadn’t seen him since their morning meeting. Most CEOs were on the move, attending conferences, meetings, dealing with fires. But Kael hadn’t left his office all day.

It was almost eerie, the stillness of it all.

Aria sighed and turned back to her screen. “He’s probably just a workaholic. Or a sociopath,” she muttered under her breath.

She went back to scheduling but couldn’t shake the feeling creeping over her skin.

It wasn’t just him.

It was the air. Thick. Charged. Like static clinging to her arms. The building’s AC hummed like normal, the fluorescent lights were calm—but she could feel something shifting. Something invisible and heavy, like invisible eyes were watching.

Aria brushed the thought away.

Professional. Calm. Unshakable. She repeated the mantra, but her pulse still fluttered in her neck.

---

Inside Kael’s Office

Kael Blackthorn sat behind his desk, fists clenched, jaw locked.

The scent of her had grown stronger throughout the day. At first, it had been faint—just enough to distract him. But now?

It was consuming him.

Lavender. Vanilla. Warmth.

He could smell her through the walls, through the wood, through everything. His senses had never been sharper. The bond was strengthening, slowly syncing with his wolf, and the beast inside him was growing restless.

Claim her.

Kael’s knuckles turned white.

No.

She is yours.

She doesn’t even know what I am.

His wolf snarled, pacing inside him like a caged beast.

Kael stood abruptly, unable to sit still a moment longer. He walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows, clenching the back of his neck as if the pressure building inside him might explode.

His wolf was scratching to get out. The instincts were undeniable.

She was his.

Every cell in his body screamed it.

And yet… he couldn’t tell her. Not yet.

The last time he trusted a mate, it nearly destroyed him.

Kael shut his eyes and forced a long breath. His control—his hard-won, ironclad control—was beginning to crack.

He couldn’t afford that.

Not now.

Not again.

---

2:15 PM – The Printer Room

Aria was grabbing a stack of printed documents when she noticed something strange: one of the thick steel cabinets had been yanked open, the handle twisted as though it had been ripped.

Frowning, she reached out and touched it. The metal was still warm.

“Odd…” she murmured. These cabinets were commercial-grade—impossible to bend without tools, let alone bare hands.

She heard a sound behind her and turned quickly.

Kael was standing in the doorway, half-shadowed, his eyes unreadable.

“Problem?” he asked.

She blinked. “Not exactly. Just noticed… this.”

He followed her gaze. “I’ll have maintenance take care of it.”

No explanation. No concern. No comment on the fact that it looked like someone had broken it in half.

“You okay?” she asked before she could stop herself.

A flicker of emotion—too fast to read—flashed across his face.

“I’m fine.”

He stepped inside, not looking at her, and reached past her for the reports on the counter.

She was suddenly hyperaware of how tall he was, how close, how his presence swallowed the space around them.

Something inside him was... wild.

She could feel it now.

The tension in his shoulders. The way his hands curled slightly at his sides. Like he was holding something back.

“Are you sure?” she asked softly.

Kael’s head turned toward her, and for one breathless moment, their eyes locked.

And she saw it.

Not just coldness. Not just control.

Pain. Fire. Longing.

It hit her like a wave, raw and unspoken.

He blinked once. The walls slammed back up.

“I don’t need concern from my employees, Miss Lane.”

She stepped back, nodding quickly. “Understood.”

He left the room without another word.

But the tension didn’t leave with him.

---

Later That Night – Shadowfang Pack Grounds

Kael stood in the middle of the training field, shirtless, barefoot, his muscles straining as he delivered blow after blow to the reinforced combat post. The wood cracked under his fists. Splinters flew.

Still not enough.

He shifted, bones cracking, fur bursting from skin as his wolf took over for a split second. Claws slashed through the post, reducing it to splinters.

Then he shifted back, gasping.

Sweat poured down his chest.

Still not enough.

“Kael,” a voice called from the edge of the field.

He turned to see Darius, his Gamma, standing with arms crossed. “You’re losing it.”

“I’m fine.”

“Bullshit. You’ve been tearing through training posts every night for the last week. You’ve never let the wolf ride this close to the surface during work hours.”

Kael said nothing.

“You found her, didn’t you?”

Silence.

Darius cursed under his breath. “Is she wolf?”

Kael shook his head. “Human.”

Darius’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding.”

Kael glared at him.

“Holy shit,” Darius muttered. “That explains the attitude. What are you going to do?”

Kael didn’t answer.

“She doesn’t know what you are, does she?”

“No.”

“You’re going to have to tell her eventually.”

Kael turned away. “Not yet.”

“You think you’ll scare her away?”

“No.” His voice lowered. “I think I’ll break her.”

Darius sighed. “You can’t fight the bond forever. You know that.”

Kael’s jaw tightened.

“I already lost one mate,” he said. “I’m not losing another.”

---

Midnight – Aria’s Apartment

Aria sat in bed, unable to sleep.

The day kept replaying in her mind. The broken cabinet. Kael’s intense presence. That look in his eyes when he thought she wasn’t watching.

There’s something wrong with him.

But not in a dangerous way. No—he didn’t scare her. Not exactly.

It was something else.

Something about him doesn’t feel human.

She laughed to herself, shaking her head. “Get a grip, Aria. Your new boss isn’t a werewolf.”

But even as she said it, the thought wouldn’t go away.

Because every instinct in her body told her otherwise.

---

Kael’s Penthouse – Balcony

The moon hung full and bright above the city, silver light spilling across Kael’s bare skin as he leaned on the railing.

He didn’t sleep. Couldn’t.

Aria’s scent lingered in his lungs.

He could still feel her heartbeat from memory—steady, strong, meant for him.

The wolf inside him growled low.

And Kael whispered the truth he refused to say aloud to anyone else.

“I don’t know if I can stay away.”

---