Danae’s POV
I chose the examination chair farthest from him and perched on its edge.
My palms were damp.
I made my voice behave better than my body.
“I’m sorry, sir.
Have we met?”
A dangerous hint of a smile appeared as he stepped toward the center of the room.
Even dressed like this, he seemed incapable of moving without making the space acknowledge him.
“You can sleep with me and forget my face?”
Softly spoken.
Nothing soft beneath it.
I twisted my fingers together in my lap.
“No.
That’s not what I—”
The explanation failed under his gaze.
Pressure seemed to gather around him, making it difficult to find the simple words I needed.
I hated how quickly my attempted composure had unravelled.
A moment ago, I had managed a polite question.
Now my own voice sounded uncertain, and he could hear every bit of it.
Before I could try again, he was beside the chair.
His shadow fell across me as he took my injured wrist.
Firmly, but with care.
His attention settled on the red marks Galen had left.
“Why did he hit you?”
He watched my face as closely as the injury.
His attention missed nothing: the impulse to pull away, the wince I couldn’t quite suppress, the effort it took to sit there while he examined what Galen had done.
His careful handling should have reassured me.
Instead, it made the conflicting feelings harder to separate.
I tried to draw back.
His touch brought too many feelings with it, none of them welcome in this room.
“I rejected him.
Three days ago.”
A faint smile touched his mouth.
He placed both hands on the chair’s armrests and leaned down, trapping me between them.
His face was close enough that I felt his breath against my cheek.
“Brave little human.
Rejecting the wolf who was about to become my Delta.”
I nodded.
My heart was going so fast there was no chance his werewolf hearing had missed it.
He straightened a little.
Long fingers moved near my neck.
“Danae Ashgrave.
My investigation got that right?”
Another nod.
A hard swallow.
He turned away and paced the small room, restless as a confined animal.
When he looked back, the blue of his stare pinned me in place. Get faster updates on g.com.
“Four nights ago.
The hotel.
Explain it.”
Each clipped phrase carried the weight of an order.
I went pale, but once I started speaking, the words grew easier.
Galen’s laptop.
The messages.
Drusilla and their son.
The documents showing how he meant to use our bond to gain standing, then reject me when I had served my purpose.
I told Caspian how I’d found the betrayal, what had driven me from the apartment, and how I’d planned to escape the wedding.
As I spoke, the grief gave way to the anger I’d been carrying for days.
It steadied my voice when fear of him could not.
These were not suspicions I had invented after drinking.
There had been messages I could read, pictures I could see, a son whose existence had been concealed from me.
Telling it again hurt, but it also reminded me why I had left.
I had barely finished before he moved again.
Suddenly he was leaning over me, hands braced on either side of the chair.
Close enough for me to see the lighter flecks in his irises, close enough to feel warm breath near my ear.
“So you went looking for a stronger connection to the Ashmoon.
A human discarded by a future Delta, aiming higher.
You seduced me to secure your place.”
His voice was quiet and threatening.
Fear widened my eyes.
Something else moved beneath it, but anger was the part I could use.
“I already told you.
I didn’t go there to find you.
You happened to be in the bar.”
I met his gaze despite the shaking in me.
“It was convenient.
That’s all.”
His face hardened.
For a heartbeat, gold flashed through the blue.
His fingers tightened, and the chair’s wooden armrests creaked.
“Convenient.”
The word sounded frozen.
“The Alpha’s heir was a convenient instrument for punishing your ex?”
I sat straighter.
Fury came to my rescue again.
“With all due respect, Alpha sir,” I said, making every syllable precise, “go fuck yourself.”
I stood abruptly.
He had to step back.
“You’ve had your explanation.
When I leave this room, we go back to never having met.”
I walked around him with my head up.
I could feel that attention following me, and keeping my head raised cost more effort than I wanted him to know.
I had already given him an explanation.
I wasn’t going to stand there and beg him to believe it.
I pulled the door open and went out.
My heels clicked sharply against the polished clinic floor.
It was the only last word I needed.
Outside, I paced the sidewalk, swearing under my breath while my thumb swept through job advertisements.
“The entire Ashmoon Pack has lost its mind.”
An administrative assistant vacancy caught my attention.
Possible.
Anything possible mattered now.
What remained of my savings wouldn’t last after all the money poured into the wedding.
I needed a job quickly.
More than that, I needed a way out of this city.
Away from Galen.
Away from Caspian Jorah and the motives he insisted on assigning to me.
Away from werewolves who seemed to consider possession a substitute for decency.
The clinic door opened.
Eirwen emerged with a neat white dressing over her cheekbone.
I put the phone away and hurried to her, touching her uninjured cheek gently.
“What did they say?”
She gave me a crooked smile.
“I’ll be hideous for a few weeks.
Lucky I work in fashion, not as a model.”
“Impossible.
You’re always beautiful to me.”
I hugged her carefully.
She winced a little, but hugged me back.
“Apparently they aren’t deep enough to leave permanent scars.
I just need to keep them covered and clean.”
We headed toward the way out while I calculated what it would take: work, somewhere to live, distance from Galen.
Eirwen was keeping me afloat, but I couldn’t ask her to do that forever.
Near the main entrance, a security guard approached.
“Miss Ashgrave?
Mr.
Jorah asked me to pass these on.”
He held out Eirwen’s car keys.
“The car has been brought to the front.”
I accepted them, bewildered.
“He arranged that?
Where is he?”
“He had another appointment.
He’s already gone.”
The guard gave me a sleek business card, its Jorah Group logo embossed in silver.
“If you have any problems, he said you’re to use this number.”