Page 9 of Howl About That

His jaw tightened almost imperceptibly, the only sign that her words had landed. "Yes. I made a mistake."

"A mistake?" The words came out sharp enough to cut glass. "You destroyed my life with your mistake. That land—" Her voice cracked slightly, and she hated herself for the weakness. "That was my pride's land. And you threw around ten million dollars like it was pocket change just to—what? Prove a point?"

Keiro's eyes flashed molten gold for just a moment before he controlled himself. "I was trying to help."

"Help?" Poppy laughed, the sound bitter and raw. "You helped me right into bankruptcy. You helped me prove to every male in my pride that I'm exactly as incompetent as they always suspected."

Her lioness snarled at the admission, furious that she was showing this much vulnerability to anyone. But the exhaustion and desperation had stripped away her usual careful control.

Keiro moved around the desk with deliberate steps, his scent growing stronger as he approached. "Poppy?—"

"Don't." She backed up a step. "Don't come any closer."

"I bought that land for you," he said quietly.

Poppy stared at him, certain she'd misheard. "What?"

"I bought it for you." Keiro's voice remained steady, but she caught the faint tension in his shoulders. "When I realized howdesperately you needed that land, when it seemed like you were risking too much, I reacted without thinking."

Her world tilted sideways. "Why would you do that?"

"Because you're my fated mate," he said simply, as if it explained everything.

FOUR

KEIRO

The silence that followed Keiro's declaration stretched like a taut wire, vibrating with tension and unspoken possibilities. His wolf had surged forward with complete certainty as if those words explained the complexity of buying ten million dollars' worth of land for a woman he'd never spoken to before.

But watching Poppy's face cycle through shock, fury, and something that looked dangerously close to betrayal, Keiro realized his wolf's logic made absolutely no sense to anyone with a functioning human brain.

"This meeting is over." Poppy's voice cut through the charged air like a blade. She pivoted toward the door, her shoulders rigid with wounded pride and barely contained rage.

Panic hit Keiro like a blow, his chest constricting as his mate strode toward the exit with the kind of determined fury that suggested she might never speak to him again. His wolf clawed at his consciousness, demanding action, demanding he stop her before she disappeared from their territory and their life.

"Surely you two can work something out," Gerri's voice cut through his rising desperation like a lifeline. The matchmaker had remained silent throughout their explosive exchange, butnow she stepped forward with the kind of calm authority that made even Alphas pay attention. "You're both reasonable adults with a mutual problem that requires a creative solution."

Poppy paused with her hand on the door handle, her knuckles white with tension. "There's nothing to work out." Her voice carried the bitter edge of someone who'd been offered charity disguised as kindness too many times before. "I'm not taking handouts from him, mate or no mate. I handle things on my own, and I was handling it just fine last night until he overstepped."

The accusation hit unexpectedly hard, and Keiro's hands clenched into fists. She was right—he had overstepped, had let his protective instincts override his common sense, had made decisions about her life without consulting her. But watching her prepare to walk out of his office, possibly forever, felt like watching his future crumble in real time.

Don't let her leave. Whatever it takes, don't let her walk away.

"Poppy, wait?—"

But she was already pushing through the door. Keiro's control, cultivated through sixteen years of leadership and countless high-stakes negotiations, snapped like an overstressed cable.

He moved without conscious thought, his long stride eating up the distance between them as she headed down the hallway toward the elevators. His hand closed around her upper arm—not hard but firm enough to stop her forward momentum.

"Please, just?—"

The moment his skin made contact with hers, the world exploded.

The mate bond, dormant until this instant of direct touch, activated like a lightning strike. Every nerve ending in Keiro's body ignited simultaneously, sending waves of electricawareness cascading through his system. His wolf roared to the surface, demanding immediate claiming, immediate possession of this perfect, impossible woman who smelled like wildflowers and rain and everything he'd never known he needed.

Mine.

Poppy gasped, her pupils dilating until only thin rings of blue remained visible. For one heart-stopping moment, she swayed toward him, her body responding to the same primal recognition that was currently short-circuiting his higher brain functions. The air crackled with possibility, with the kind of raw attraction that could rewrite the laws of physics.