Cassian acknowledged him with a slight inclination of his head.
“You requested to see me?”
“I did.” The physician opened the folder and carefully arranged several medical reports across the desk.
“Your annual examination was completed this morning, and after reviewing the results, I believe there are several changes that require your attention.”
Cassian’s expression remained composed.
“What changes?”
“Your heart rate has remained consistently elevated for the past several hours.
Your body temperature is above your normal baseline despite the absence of any infection, your adrenal activity has nearly doubled, and every neurological marker associated with your wolf has become significantly more active.”
Adrian folded his arms.
“That doesn’t sound like an illness.
Dies it?”
“I don’t believe it is,” the physician admitted.
He turned another page before continuing.
“The timing is too precise.
Every change began shortly after the National Pairing Authority finalized your compatibility assignment.”
The room fell silent.
Cassian lowered his eyes to the reports spread across the desk before calmly asking, “You’re saying this is connected to the mate bond.”
“I believe so.” The physician nodded thoughtfully.
“I’ve treated countless mated pairs over the years, but I’ve never documented a dormant wolf awakening after nearly three decades.
That alone makes your case highly unusual.
What concerns me isn’t that the bond has formed, Alpha.
It’s the intensity of your body’s response.”
He pointed toward one of the highlighted charts.
“These readings are unlike anything preserved in our modern medical records.”
Adrian frowned.
“So we don’t know what happens next.”
“I’ve already contacted the Ashford family’s historical archives.
Your bloodline is among the oldest surviving royal bloodlines in werewolf history, and if anything similar has ever occurred before, it will most likely be recorded there.”
Cassian leaned back slightly in his chair.
By now the unfamiliar warmth beneath his ribs had become impossible to ignore.
It pulsed steadily through his chest—not painfully, but with a quiet insistence that seemed to grow stronger with every passing hour.
His senses felt sharper than they had that morning, and beneath the calm discipline he had maintained for most of his adult life, ancient instincts had begun to stir.
His wolf had awakened and not with rage and neither with violence, but simply with awareness.
It was as though a part of himself that had slept in complete silence for twenty-nine years had finally opened its eyes.
Cassian slowly curled his fingers around the armrest of his chair.
He already knew this was not an illness.
He knew exactly what had awakened it: Lena Hartwell.
What neither he nor anyone else understood was why a simple mating bond felt powerful enough to awaken instincts that should have remained dormant for decades.
For the first time in many years, even Cassian Ashford found himself facing a future he could neither predict nor control.
There was no danger of him losing control of himself or his actions.
Cassian had spent his entire life mastering his instincts, and he had no intention of allowing a newly awakened wolf to change that.
Silence lingered in the office, broken only by the steady rhythm of rain striking the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city.
Cassian leaned back slightly in his chair, his gaze lingering on the reports spread across the desk.
“How long?”
The physician understood the question immediately.
“I’ve already requested an expedited search.
The archives are extensive, but I should have an initial report within a few hours.”
“I don’t want an initial report,” Cassian said calmly.
“I want an answer.”
“Understood, Alpha.
I’ll have the archivists search every record concerning dormant wolves, delayed awakenings, and unusually intense mate bonds.”
“Good.” Cassian’s gaze shifted to Adrian.
“And keep this confidential.
No one outside this office is to know about these results.”
Adrian immediately nodded.
“Of course, Alpha.”
Cassian’s eyes returned to the physician.
“If you discover anything that could explain what’s happening to me, I want to know immediately.”
” And Adrian, assist him in everything, I will be occupied with these files and probably later go home…
You don’t need to stick around….
Don’t disturb me unless the archives return something.”
Adrian exchanged a brief glance with the company physician before both men inclined their heads respectfully.
“Yes, Alpha.” Without another word they gathered the remaining reports from the desk and quietly left the office, the heavy doors closing behind them with a muted click that left the executive suite enveloped in complete silence once again.
Cassian remained where he was for several moments before straightening himself in his chair.
A stack of acquisition reports, investment proposals, and billion-dollar contracts waited neatly on the polished mahogany desk before him, demanding the same ruthless attention that had built Ashford Global Holdings into one of the largest corporate empires in the country.
Under ordinary circumstances he would have finished reviewing every page before the hour was over.
Today, however, the words might as well have been written in another language.
His gaze rested on the open file, but not a single sentence registered in his mind.
The unfamiliar warmth beneath his ribs had returned, pulsing through his chest with persistence that refused to be ignored.
It was not painful, nor was it uncomfortable, yet with every passing minute it became increasingly difficult to separate his own thoughts from the instincts of the wolf that had remained silent for nearly twenty-nine years.
At last Cassian closed the file and leaned back in his chair, allowing his eyes to drift shut as he drew a slow, measured breath.
For a few moments, the rest of the world seemed to disappear, there was nothing except the steady rhythm of his own heartbeat and the distant sound of rain sweeping across the skyline.
Then another sensation gradually emerged from the quiet, so faint that it almost seemed imagined.
It was another heartbeat, softer than his own yet unmistakably real, accompanied by a delicate fragrance carried through the invisible thread connecting them.