Chapter 2

Declan, is something wrong with your thinking?"

He stared at me for a few seconds, then suddenly smiled.

"Fine. We'll bring this to the Alpha at tomorrow's meeting and let him decide. But Wren..." He dropped his voice, and there was a pleased, certain quality to it. "Using this kind of tactic to get my attention? Honestly, a bit below you."

The next day. The mid-level and senior management meeting.

When Cain walked into the conference room, every person at the table sat up straighter without thinking.

I watched him from behind the thick lenses of my glasses.

Straight posture, sharp eyes, the hem of his jacket brushing the table as he sat down, revealing a few faint creases in the white shirt underneath. The boy I remembered had grown into someone who moved without giving anything away.

He listened to Declan's Operations Division report.

One hand rested loosely on the table. He nodded occasionally. His face gave nothing.

Then, without warning, he turned his head and glanced in my direction.

I didn't move fast enough. For one second, my heart skipped.

But he seemed to only look. Then his gaze moved away.

"This expense submission from Operations." His voice wasn't loud, but the room went quiet immediately. "Special case. I'll approve it."

Vivienne shot me a triumphant, mocking look.

After the meeting, Declan caught me in the hallway. He smiled at me, not warmly.

"Rules are rigid, people aren't. You've lived this long and you're still this stubborn. Haven't you learned enough the hard way?"

I held my files and looked at him. "You rejected the claim based on protocol. The Alpha approved it based on his authority. I then processed it based on that approval. You're the Operations Director. Is that chain of events actually hard to follow?"

He laughed once. "Wren, you and I—"

"Director Pemberton."

A voice from behind me.

Cain stood in the middle of the corridor with both hands in his pockets, no expression on his face.

"Come to my office."

My stomach tightened a little.

The Alpha's office.

We sat across from each other at the large desk.

"The new policy rollout puts the most pressure on Finance. The transition period means friction. Keep that in perspective."

His tone was level. Pure authority, nothing personal. He went over a few more work matters, his pace steady, organized, giving off a calm and distant quality — completely different from the young man in my memory, the one who always had a bit of a teasing edge when he talked to me.

I felt something loosen in my chest.

"Understood. Alpha."

His assistant came in with tea. He reached down and opened a drawer, and pulled out a small dark blue velvet box. He slid it across the desk toward me.

I didn't touch it.

His assistant smiled. "Director Pemberton, this is a small welcome gift for each of the division heads. A pen. Everyone else has already received theirs. You're the last."

Cain took a sip of tea. His hand settled lightly on top of the box, one finger tapping.

"Do you want it?"

He said it quietly.

Maybe it was just the warm tea in his voice. Those two words came out soft, with heat in them. Like they slipped through something.

A familiar shiver went through me.

Suddenly my mouth was dry.

"Do you want it?"

"Do you want some, big sis?"

Five years ago. A stretch of blazing highway through the Northern Wildlands.

Six months of memories with Cain. All of it tangled up in skin.

I grew up following every rule that existed.

My father taught at a high school, my mother at an elementary school. To everyone who knew me, I was obedient, quiet, no trouble. The good kid in every room.

But I was the only one who knew the truth.

I was a coward. I had no opinions of my own. I went along with whatever anyone said. I was afraid of conflict, afraid of disappointing people, afraid of taking one wrong step.

I couldn't breathe.

I hated myself more and more.

So at twenty-eight, I made the most reckless decision of my life.

I quit my suffocating job. I dyed my hair into wild waves. I took off my glasses. I put on a light sundress.

I rented an RV and hit the Northern Wildlands Highway alone.

That was where I found Cain.

He was twenty-three then. He'd hurt himself during a solo bike ride. He was sitting by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, looking deflated, eyes full of a darkness he couldn't shake.

Like an animal caught in something it couldn't see.

I stopped. I pushed my sunglasses down my nose and called out to him with a bright smile.

"Hey. You need a ride? I'll take you part of the way."

He refused without a word.

Got up and started walking, limping and pushing his bike.

I drove off.

But I didn't get far before I turned around.

He ignored me.

I cruised alongside him, coaxing and joking.

"I'm not a bad person, I just want to do a good deed."

"It's going to rain. You really want to get soaked out here?"

"I heard there's something on this road at night..."

He stopped.

He turned to look at me. His face was blank.

"You talk a lot."

"So are you getting in or not?" I grinned.

He got in.

I could tell he was in some dark place in his life. I didn't ask about any of it. Wasn't everyone who came out here alone carrying something?