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Chapter Eight

S tephen

When Lina’s fear had blossomed, I’d rushed to her side, intending only to offer comfort.

But the moment her breathless whisper—“Stephen”—escaped her lips, laced with such raw want, it had shattered my control.

Within seconds, my lips were on hers, craving the connection, needing to assure myself that she was okay.

As Lina’s beautiful lips opened to me, it was like a match striking kindling.

The hunger I’d worked so hard to keep at bay ignited with searing intensity, coursing down every nerve ending and filling me with insatiable need.

Protectiveness charged through me like a jolt of electricity, compelling me to wrap my arms around her, drawing her closer until every inch of space between us was obliterated.

My wolf, who had been prowling just beneath the surface, restless since her panic had erupted, surged forth—driven by the primal instinct to be close to our mate.

I felt the needs of my beast mingle with mine, and we both wanted one thing: to drink down her greedy moans as I marked her with our claws.

My breath grew ragged as Lina pressed her lower body against mine, her softness and heat pressed against the hardness already straining through my pants.

She’d followed my commands earlier, matching her breaths with mine, but now, as our panting breaths mingled, the other commands I wanted to give her filled my thoughts.

I imagined pushing her against the elevator wall, her legs wrapping around my waist as I urged her, “Open for me, Darlin’. ”

She’d obliterated the careful facade I’d maintained the last couple of weeks, but as she quivered beneath my kisses, I couldn’t find it in myself to give a damn.

I wanted her, plain and simple. The thought sent a thrill through my body, emboldening me to tighten my hold on her locks, dragging her hair down so that she tilted her mouth up to mine more, my fingers gliding possessively down her exposed neck.

But just as I felt like we could tumble into something more—something raw and all-consuming—the sudden hiss of the metal doors sliding open shattered the moment. A group of repair workers appeared in the doorway, flashlights cutting through the darkness with blinding beams, ruining our sanctuary.

“You all right, folks?” One of the maintenance crew asked.

“Fine, thanks,” I ground out, having to stifle the protective urge to draw Lina into me, wanting to shield her from their eyes. In the light, her lips looked beautifully bruised, and her hair was tussled.

“I’m taking the stairs,” Lina blurted before barreling out of the lift and past the maintenance team.

I followed her, the need to protect her still riding me hard.

“Lina?” I called after her. “Wait a moment.”

She paused, and we both stopped, catching our breath as the air around us thickened with unspoken words and lingering heat. In the quiet of the corridor, the moment felt loaded as if anything might still happen. But then, Lina pushed through the door to the stairs, and I hurried after her.

Once in the stairwell, she turned around. “Can we just…forget that happened?” She couldn’t meet my eyes. The distance she placed between us felt like a chasm, but I felt how right she was.

“Yes, that’s for the best,” I agreed.

Lina’s gaze snapped to mine now, and whatever she saw there only caused her resolve to strengthen because she looked even more distant. “See you Monday, Stephen.” Her tone was clipped, devoid of warmth, but I still heard the way she’d uttered my name in the darkness.

“See you, Monday,” I echoed. The familiar weight of our strained dynamic settled between us as if another presence were here, stifling us.

It is—Magnus’s.

My father’s presence weighed down with all the force it always did, smothering all chance of a life with my mate. I’d tasted her sweetness again, but I had to remind myself that life wasn’t mine. I let Lina’s footfalls fade as the distance opened up between us.

I regretted losing control back in the elevator, allowing my instincts to guide me in ways that didn’t make rational sense. I reminded myself that the cold fire of vengeance against Magnus was the one that fueled my life, not the passionate blaze that had consumed me in the elevator.

Once alone, I descended the stairwell. By the time I entered the parking lot, Lina’s car was gone. My resolve not to involve myself with her was once more in place. I couldn’t jeopardize Magnus’s trust in me.

Yet, as I drove back to my apartment in the city, the lingering memory of our encounter in the darkness flickered to life within me, teasing me with whispers of how desperately right it had felt.

My heart still pounded with the furious protectiveness that her fear had ignited in me.

I knew deep down, alongside my quest for vengeance against Magnus, I’d stop at nothing to ensure Lina was protected.

Friday night loomed ahead as I arrived at Club West, where the weekend buzz hummed quietly. Magnus was back in town, and I had a meeting with him. I ordered two Manhattans, my father’s drink, partially to steady my nerves but also to remind myself of the bond I was expected to honor.

When Magnus arrived, the ma?tre d’ served our drinks, and I felt the weight of tension settle between us as Magnus kicked off the conversation I’d been dreading.

“Carson and Finn found signs of habitation at the power plant Lina claimed she’d been held in,” Magnus informed me. “Her story checks out, but something in it still isn’t sitting right with me.”

The sharp twist of unease flared low in my gut, a reminder that I’d slipped up the night I’d interrogated Lina in front of my father. I’d demanded to go to investigate the power plant too eagerly. I knew from tonight’s events that had been my wolf’s protective instinct flaring.

I knew I’d displayed more emotion than I should have that night, something I intended to rectify. Once again, my body language was too tense, betraying too much emotion, and I knew I had to give an explanation.

“Lina Silvermoon is your intended,” I said, forcing the words out. “If these rogues did abduct her, then it’s a direct insult against you and our pack.” I clenched my jaw before taking a sip of my drink. “Just like Mother’s murder was.”

Magnus’s bushy eyebrows shot up, surprise flickering across his face. “You don’t talk about her often, son.”

I grimaced at his use of the word “son.” No matter how many years passed, the gaping wound of my mother’s loss never closed. “This situation with Lina reminds me that our enemies succeeded in taking her from us. We must remain vigilant. I swear I won’t fail you again in protecting your mate.”

Magnus regarded me, an unsettling intensity flickering in his dark brown eyes. “I know you won’t, Stephen,” he replied.

I forced my fingers to relax around my glass.

I’d been away at Yale when my mother was murdered, but the painful memories clashed with those of my visits home in the months leading up to her death.

Magnus had pressured her to change long-held traditions within the pack—changes she disagreed with vehemently.

I remembered how her gaze had grown increasingly jaded, the light fading in her eyes as he pushed against her will.

Just days after her death, he had enforced the changes she had been holding out against with no shame.

The same rage that had simmered within me back then flared now as I pictured my mom walking along our private beach, where her savaged body had been found.

The story Magnus had spun—about how she was the victim of a “rogue wolf”—was one I’d later turned to my advantage as I established my secret rogue pack against him, relishing establishing the very enemy he’d concocted.

Yet here I was, tangled in a web of duty again—ever the dutiful son seeking his father’s approval. I had to pivot the conversation back to something I could control. “Even if those rogue wolves didn’t imprison Lina, they killed her parents. I think we’re her allies because we share a common enemy.”

“Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary working with her?” My father pressed.

Out of the ordinary? Lina was anything but ordinary. Her aptitude for working through business dealings was like nothing I’d ever seen.

I found her extraordinary in everything she did, but I only said, “She’s been quick on familiarizing herself with our deals and helped a lot. As you know, she brought Hamilton on board.”

Magnus sipped his drink, his eyes distant as he mulled things over.

“She carries herself with confidence,” Magnus said, “But at times, I think she’s a little uptight, like she’s hiding something. It shows in her body language, don’t you think?”

“Yes,” I said, carefully. “But that could be trauma from the rogue attack at the ceremony,” I suggested.

Magnus had seen Lina a few times this week in meetings and presentations at Blackthorn Corporation before he’d flown to Los Angeles.

Again, I thought of Lina’s panic attack in the elevator, and I hated how right my father was.

I hated the thought of someone hurting Lina and causing that fear.

I wanted to know where she’d been these five years but for very different reasons than my father.

All she’d told us was that she’d been staying with friends in Philadelphia since she’d escaped the rogues.

She hadn’t made any attempts to go see anyone.

While I watched her at Blackthorn, my father had packmates watching whenever she left Blackthorn Villa.

Once again, the desire to protect and destroy anyone who might be responsible for the change in Lina made me take extra care of my expressions and tone. Luckily, reining in my anger in front of my father was second nature.

“I suppose so,” Magnus agreed. “But I want you to keep watching her closely. Understand?”

“Understood, Alpha,” I said.

Soon, Magnus dismissed me, and I left the club.

But as I left, it hit me that I’d made a massive error tonight.

My mind had been so full of Lina leaving Blackthorn tonight that I hadn’t considered the CCTV device fitted in the elevator.

Even with the power down, the security cameras would have recorded everything as they were powered by individual batteries to maximize security.

With tension straining through every fiber of me, I drove back to the office. I went to the monitoring room, relieved when no security personnel greeted me. They must have been making their patrols.

I’d soon found the right cam, but…as I tried to play the footage, an error message came up on the screen. I kept rerunning the footage, only to be met with the same thing.

That is…convenient, isn’t it?

As I let myself out, riding the now-fixed elevator back down to the parking lot, I knew that only one other person had just cause to want to delete that footage.

Lina.

With astonishment, I realized she must have double-backed, as I had now, and had beaten me to erasing the footage.

In a moment, I was searching the security footage of the parking lot, playing back the last few hours since Lina left to see if she had returned.

But the only car after Lina’s car left was mine.

Now, I was even more perplexed. Even I had to come on site to access the closed circuit to delete the footage.

The only way Lina could have succeeded in wiping the footage remotely was if she’d bugged our network.

I thought of how I hadn’t let her out of my sight these last two weeks, but I knew that she’d somehow succeeded in slipping past me.

The usual blend of infuriation and admiration confused the hell out of me as thoughts of Lina burned through me.

As much as I knew I needed to keep her at arm’s length to prevent something like what had happened in the elevator from occurring again, I knew that I was going to have to keep an even sharper eye on her than I had been.