My eyes remain fixed on Annika because I can't get enough of her beautiful, tanned flesh, imagining what it would be like to trace my lips over her collarbones or caress her arms with my fingertips. The thought alone has my mouth watering as if I’m hungry and she’s a delicious, tempting meal that appeals to my inner wolf. I bite my bottom lip, eyes still glued to her as she stands up from her desk and walks toward the door.
My heart is racing like it did last night when she walked over toward me, the fated mate bond humming quietly under my skin, crawling with the awareness that the woman I’m meant to mate with for life is right across the room.
It has little to do with her being the key to me regaining my elemental magic and a lot to do with how irresistible sheis. I can just imagine it now—running my fingers through her long, silky black hair, pulling her closer to stare in her chocolate-brown eyes, and then kissing her plump lips and drinking in her moans when I have my fingers down her—
“Mr. Ralph…?”
I’m snapped out of my fantasy by the vixen herself, standing in the doorway of my office, wearing a stiff expression, a clipboard and file clutched to her chest.
“Yes, Annika?” I ask, my voice lower than usual.
“The meeting is in five minutes,” she reminds me before turning on her heel and disappearing down the hall without waiting for another word from me.
My jaw drops as I turn my eyes to the time on my computer screen, realizing that I’d spent nearly two hours drooling over Annika instead of getting my work done. And now, I have a meeting with the board of Alpha Pharmaceuticals, and I don’t even feel prepared.
It’s not like anything can prepare me for being in the same room as Annika. Before the ritual, life was relatively easier, since I wasn’t consciously aware that Annika was my fated mate. Perhaps subconsciously, I always knew. Maybe that’s why I’ve always felt oddly comfortable around her, and it’s why she works well as my personal assistant, perfectly suited for what I’ve needed these past four years.
I know it sounds self-centered, and maybe I’m a bastard for being so territorial, but I’ve been blocking her from ever leaving her job. Maybe that’s why she hates me so much; she hardly gives me a second glance when I walk into the boardroom, and she hands me a file.
Of course, she’s already compiled key notes about the meeting with the potential investor I met last night at the gala dinner. She remains standing behind me as the investor walks in, and I lean over to greet the doctor.
“Dr. Ambrose,” I nod, mentally clocking the female doctor for a second time. All I could think about last night—apart from how gorgeous Annika was in that dress—was how much Anastasia would have loved to have a chat with Dr. Ambrose.
They share the same vision, even though one is a medical doctor in the human world, and the other is a healer in a wolf pack hiding in the Bitterroot Valley.
Anastasia Clarke isn’t just the healer of The Silver Stone Pack, she’s also the sister of my best friend—the beta I lost a few months ago to a demon attack. She’s also the only werewolf who knows about my secret life as the director of this company, because she’s the one who’s been helping me these past five years with the research and development of different pharmaceuticals we’ve been manufacturing.
“Mr. Henry Ralph, it is a pleasure to meet you again,” Dr. Ambrose smiles at me, and I step up to her seat and pull it out for her.
“Please, Dr. Ambrose.”
“Thank you, Mr. Ralph,” she says as she takes the seat. “But please, you can just call me Sharon.”
There’s a mischievous glint in Dr. Sharon Ambrose’s eyes as I push her chair in—one that I hadn’t noticed last night—and it makes me feel uncomfortable. I smile nonetheless, even offering for her to call me by my first name, but as soon as I straighten, I’m met by accusatory brown eyes narrowed at me.
A shiver courses down my spine, and I gulp hard, like I’d been caught committing a serious crime. I make my way back to my side of the boardroom table with cautious steps, passing Annika, and that’s when I catch a whiff of her scent.
My airways are arrested, and my eyes flutter closed as I pause for a moment to take in the sweet scent that comes as if to remind me that my fated mate is here in my midst. Her presence alone demands my attention, and even if it wasn’t jealousy I saw in her eyes just now, I realize that perhaps it was possessiveness.
It’s the kind of territorial sense she probably isn’t even aware of, but it’s evident in the way her eyes glow. I know what’s happening—it’s the first stirrings of her magic awakening through the fated mate bond I’ve just discovered, and just like Damian’s fated mate did, Annika will eventually emerge as a witch—a descendant of the extinct Ashclaw Pack from the south of the valley.
They’d been wiped out of existence decades ago by the demons because firepower was the only thing lethal to a demon. But the alpha of the Ashclaw Pack mated with a witch—his fated mate—and left behind descendants of fire magic in the human world.
Damian’s mate, Sophie, is one of those descendants, and so is Annika. She just doesn’t know it yet, and I have no idea how to tell her about it. While the meeting goes on, when the other members of the board arrive, and we close a deal with Dr. Ambrose, who wishes to fund our cancer research, all I can think about is how to convince Annika to agree to marry me and accompany me to the valley.
By the time the meeting comes to an end, I barely pay attention to Dr. Ambrose’s starry gaze, my mind too focused on what needs to be done. There is no time to waste whenit comes to claiming my fated mate, because the demons are unpredictable, and it’s only a matter of time before they attack again.
I need to get Annika to the valley, and soon. I need to reveal the truth to her soon, too.
But as the boardroom clears and I turn to her, there’s a certain glint in her eyes that makes her seem intimidating.
I shouldn’t be feeling this way, because I am, after all, the alpha of the Silver Stone Pack. How can I feel intimidated by a human?
“She’s not just any human, but your fated mate, Heinrich…"my inner wolf purrs in my head, as if it's licking its lips, my chest tightening with its feelings and pulling me closer to her as if there’s a magnetic force in the room.
The force of it is extraordinary. I decide on the spot to rip off the Band-Aid and do what needs to be done. My strength relies on it, just like my pack relies on me, and I have to marry and mate with Annika Singh before the demons take another werewolf's life.
“Annika,” I say, voice short and blunt enough to stop her at the doorway just as she’s about to follow the last person out. When she turns, as slow as a predator, I find myself fascinated by her eyes.
