Bryce remained rooted to the spot for what felt like an eternity, incapable of processing everything at once. His entire body trembled, yet he fought desperately to keep the terror from showing on his face.
Every instinct urged him to dismiss everything he had just heard as impossible. People transforming into wolves? Him being one of them? It sounded absurd.
Yet he couldn’t deny it.
Every word Leah had spoken perfectly explained everything that had happened since he met them. The strange awakening inside him. The overwhelming strength. The impossible pull toward Vincent. The mark on his neck. None of it could be dismissed as coincidence anymore.
Beyond the disbelief, countless emotions crashed into him all at once.
The thought of hunting people horrified him more than anything else. The possibility that he could lose control and become a monster filled him with dread.
And about his origin.
Not only had he spent his entire life without knowing who his parents were, he had now discovered he didn’t even belong to the human world. Whoever had brought him here had sent him unimaginably far from the place where he was born.
How unwanted had he been?
How unwanted did someone have to become before they were abandoned in an entirely different world?
As though that rejection alone wasn’t cruel enough, the man he had loved for years tried to replace him, which now felt like another rejection.
And if that still wasn’t enough...
In the very world where everyone was supposedly destined to have a mate, the person fate had chosen for him had despised him long before ever laying eyes on him.
If he had been born a woman, his mate would have taken nothing more than what he needed from him before casting him aside as though he had never existed.
The thought alone made Bryce’s chest tighten painfully.
He couldn’t understand how the man he had admired as disciplined, respectable, and hardworking could be capable of something so utterly heartless.
The memory of sleeping with Vincent... of kissing him again only moments ago... and the realization that they would probably have gone even further if Leah hadn’t walked in sent a violent surge of hatred crashing through Bryce. He hated himself for allowing Vincent to touch him at all.
More than that, he hated Vincent for being willing to use another person so shamelessly before casting them aside.
His body still ached with relentless need, and something deep inside continued pulling him toward Vincent with maddening force, but Bryce no longer looked at him the same way.
Standing beside Leah, they looked frighteningly alike.
Cruel.
Calculating.
Heartless.
Whatever invisible force continued dragging him toward Vincent, Bryce no longer wanted any part of it.
He couldn’t understand why Vincent was still refusing to reject him when Leah had insisted it was something he had planned for years. No matter how Bryce looked at it, he could arrive at only one conclusion.
Vincent still wanted him for his own gratification.
Otherwise, there was no reason to keep delaying something he had supposedly wanted for so long.
"I reject the bond."
The words escaped Bryce before he could stop them.
Both Vincent and Leah stared at him, unmistakably caught off guard.
A heartbeat later, satisfaction spread across Leah’s face.
"Oh, I like this," she said with an amused smile. "Such an obedient little good boy. Although that’s not how it’s done. I’ll teach you that as well."
The words scraped painfully against Bryce’s pride.
Obedient?
Good boy?
He swallowed every bitter response threatening to leave his mouth.
For the first time since Leah had begun speaking, Vincent intervened.
"Do you have any idea what you’re doing?" He asked him.
"I do." Bryce answered without wavering.
His gaze shifted toward Leah. "I don’t even understand why you’ve both been treating me like I’m your enemy. I didn’t ask for any of this. I simply found myself caught in something I knew nothing about, doing things my own mind couldn’t even explain. If I had been thinking clearly, I would’ve never done something like that."
He drew a slow breath.
"So if rejection ends everything and allows us to forget this ever happened, then let’s end it."
His voice softened.
"And... if possible... I’d still like to work here. Treat me like any other employee among the thousands working in this company. I’ll make sure our paths never cross again."
Every word felt painfully heavy as he forced it out.
Leah stepped away from Vincent and approached Bryce once more. "You really want to work here, don’t you?"
Amusement danced across her face.
Bryce remained silent.
The truth was...
He didn’t.
Not anymore.
But what choice did he have?
He had nowhere to live.
Once he graduated and received his certificate, he could resign and apply elsewhere. Better still, if he managed to save enough money, he could establish his own fashion design company one day.
Designing clothes had always fascinated him far more than jewelry ever could anyway.
"Very well," Leah said.
Instead of relief, Bryce felt unease settle inside him.
"Since you’re so determined to stay here, you’ll start from the bottom. Only after you’ve learned how to behave will you earn the right to step anywhere near the position you actually want."
Bryce frowned.
"What do you mean... the bottom?"
"I can’t think of anything more suitable than making you a janitor."
Her smile widened.
"You’ll clean every floor in this building. Every office, including mine. If I find so much as a trace of dust anywhere, you’ll be dismissed immediately. Consider yourself responsible for the entire building."
She shrugged carelessly.
"The salary is still respectable... at least for someone like you."
A bitter laugh escaped Bryce before he could suppress it.
He was desperate.
But not that desperate.
A job was a job, and under different circumstances he would have accepted honest work without complaint, but this wasn’t about work.
Leah wasn’t offering him employment. She was offering him degradation, she only wanted to humiliate him.
Bryce couldn’t understand it.
He had already made it clear he wasn’t her enemy, so why was she still determined to crush him?
"No." He shook his head. "I’ll pass."
"No, you won’t." Leah’s amused expression didn’t changed.
"You slept with my husband, and the more I think about it now, the less willing I am to overlook it. You’ll either work here as a janitor... or walk away."
Her smile turned colder.
"And I promise you..."
She took another step closer.
"You’ll spend the rest of your life going from one company to another, only to be rejected every single time. Your qualifications won’t save you. I’ll make sure of that."
She paused.
"And once you lose even this opportunity... you won’t be welcomed here either."
Bryce felt his heart stop as the weight of her threat settled over him.