26. Tell Me The Truth.

ROSE POV

I didn’t sleep well the night before.

I didn’t even pretend to try.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw him in that elevator ....the way his hand had wrapped around my waist, the way his voice had pressed into my skin like heat:

“If you know what’s best for you, stay away from me.”

I’d replayed those words over and over, dissecting them, turning them inside out, trying to understand them. Trying to understand him.

But Adrian Wolfe was a puzzle I couldn’t solve .... and the pieces cut every time I touched them.

When I walked into the office that morning, I wasn’t expecting to see him. Not today. Not after the mess inside me. But fate is annoying like that.

“Rose,” my team lead said, waving a stack of files, “You and Daniel are coming to Wolfe Enterprises this afternoon. Partnership renewal interviews. Dress professional.”

Professional.

Right.

I nodded, even though my pulse started racing like it was running from something I couldn't see.

And maybe it was.

---

Wolfe Enterprises’ headquarters was carved into the skyline like it owned gravity. Glass, steel, impossible detail. The kind of place where power didn’t just walk ....it echoed.

Inside, everyone moved like they’d been trained to not waste seconds. I tried to breathe normally. I tried not to scan the place like a madwoman looking for him.

But I did.

I saw him the moment we walked into the conference room.

Adrian Wolfe.

The world tilted for a moment.

He sat at the head of the table .... a posture that didn’t try to hold power, but was power. Caleb stood behind him, arms folded like a silent guardian.

Adrian didn’t look at me.

Not even once.

Not even when the presentation began.

Not even when I spoke.

His jaw was tight. His eyes sharp and distant. He didn’t blink much .... and when he did, it looked like he was forcing himself to.

I spoke through the presentation anyway, my voice steady, my heart nowhere near steady.

Daniel spoke next.

Caleb occasionally whispered something to Adrian.

But Adrian?

Nothing.

Not a flicker.

Not a breath.

Not an acknowledgment that I existed at all.

When the meeting ended, chairs scraped, handshakes exchanged, polite smiles were thrown around like glitter.

And still .... Adrian didn’t look at me.

He stood to leave, long coat brushing behind him as he turned toward the hallway.

I didn’t think.

I moved.

My hand reached forward and grabbed his wrist.

And that’s when it happened.

The entire world froze.... suddenly...how?

Daniel’s words hung in the air ...suspended.

Lucy’s eyebrows were stuck mid-motion.

Caleb’s hand was halfway into his pocket and didn’t move.

Nothing moved.

Nothing but us.

My breath left me in a silent gasp.

The air around us shimmered like heat, bending reality itself.

I stared at Adrian .... really stared ....and I finally saw what I’d been pushing away:

He wasn’t human. Not even close.

“What… did you just do?” My voice cracked, soft, almost shaking.

He didn’t pull his wrist from my hand.

He didn’t try to hide it anymore.

His eyes ....God ... they were no longer just dark.

They were deep.

Ancient.

Hauntingly familiar.

"I stopped time in here....for awhile, to have this private conversation" he replied causally

" Is this even possible?" I said holding his wrist tighter.

"For the Alpha of Alphas of the wolves clan...yes".

Then I came closer to him.

“Stop,” he said quietly. “Please.”

“I can’t,” I whispered. “Not anymore.”

The silence between us wasn’t empty ....it was full of every moment we’d ever shared and every moment we’d been trying to pretend we didn’t.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” I said. My voice sounded smaller than I wanted. “You won’t look at me. You won’t talk to me. You act like that night didn’t happen and I don’t understand....”

“Rose.”

The way he said my name almost broke something inside me.

So I asked him the question I had been swallowing for weeks ... the question that was rotting me from the inside out:

“Do you love me… or was everything that happened between us not supposed to happen?”

The room felt too alive and too dead at the same time.

Adrian’s jaw clenched.

His eyes flickered.

Something inside him shifted .... something I recognized from the woods, from the accident, from that night when his touch set my bones on fire.

For a moment .... just a breath ....I saw the truth in him.

A truth he didn’t want to speak.

And then....

ADRIAN ....POV

She was never supposed to mean anything.

Never.

She was a human. Fragile. Soft. Breakable.

A flame in a world that could burn her alive.

And I had let myself touch her.

I had let myself want her.

I had made a mistake.

Her hand on my wrist was small ....so impossibly small ....and yet it held me in place like chains forged by the moon itself.

She didn’t understand what she was asking.

She didn’t understand what loving me meant.

Death.

War.

Blood.

A destiny soaked in centuries of conflict.

She would break under it.

I would break her.

And I couldn’t allow that.

No matter how much my body screamed for her.

No matter how much my wolf tore at the walls of my mind trying to get closer.

She waited for my answer.

Her eyes were so open. So brave. So painfully honest.

I had to hurt her to save her.

So I did.

“No,” I said.

The word tasted like ash.

“I don’t love you.”