iana

aring pain of the rejection was a physical weight, settling in my bones, making my legs tremble. I stumbled, my shoulder hitting the cool, unforgivin

it was. I flipped it over. Hailee. A picture of her and Gabe, his arm wrapped around her, her head nest

te it. I blocked the number. The action was swift, clinical. A tiny, insig

y focus narrowed to the exit sign glowing at th

elt it. A gaze.

ht around him. I couldn't see his face clearly, but the sheer force of his presence was a physical thing, a change in the atmospheric pressure of the hallway. His knuckles rapped a silent, impatient rhythm ag

s scrutiny, a new disturb

you dare walk

g down the intersecting corridor. Her heels clicked angrily on the marble floo

eep baritone that rumbled with arctic cold

. "Our families have an agreement! You can't just ign

ught. He wasn't just handsome; he was terrifyingly beautiful. Sharp, aristocratic features, dark hair swept back from a hig

brow furrowed in a minute expr

emotion, "is cancelled. All business between Sinclai

u can't do that." She reached for hi

ch. A man who had been standing silently behind him, an assistant of some k

said calmly. "Perhaps we can

ollapsing into a messy, public spectacle. Staf

and penetrating, landed directly on me. He had been aware o

humiliations. I kept my eyes fixed on the exit, trying to ma

level with him

mething elemental. Snow-covered pines and the clean, sharp scent of ic

is dark irises into black pools. I saw his jaw clench, a muscle twitching violen

i

al roar that crashed through my mind,

ow in my belly, a stark contrast to the icy ache of Gabe's rejection. It was the recognition. The fated mate bond,

me, a wall of muscle and power, blocking my escape. The air crackled b

ilted my head to look up at him, my neck aching fr

g hands, the faint scent of my own tears that I was trying

with pleasantries.

stated, his voice a low, magnetic rumbl

our. The pain from Gabe's rejection was still a raw, open wound, and this stranger, this impossi

nsane," I

nal space, his sheer size overwhelming.

st publicly rejected. Your pack will see you as damaged goods. Your family will eit

a cold, hard

ng pressured into a union I have no interest in." His eyes flicked back to the direction of the VIP lou

h. A shield. A. He was right. My grandfather would be furious. My family would see me as a failed investment. They wou

was unlike anything I had ever felt. It was an inferno to Gabe's flic

a choice.

it was the on

f him filling my lungs, steadying

my voice clear a

ossed his features, so fast I almost missed it. T

nodded. "F

into step behind him, walking towards the registration desk, towards a fu