Chapter 2

Forced Proximity

She looks precisely the same, and that infuriates me. Same trembling lower lip, same stubborn chin cocked up at me like she believes she’s untouchable. But there’s something different too - something shadowy in her violet eyes that wasn’t there before. Fear? No. It’s deeper. Grief covered in steel. My wolf snarls at the sight of it. 

 I watch my guys bring her towards the private elevator, every inch of me quivering with wrath and need. Five years. Five fucking years, and she thinks she can simply stand here staring at me like I’m a nightmare she wanted to forget. Like I wasn’t the one left crying on those hotel linens when she went without a trace. 

 “Wait,” I snap, my voice slicing across the air like a whip. 

 The guards pause promptly. She stops trying, her chest heaving with heavy gasps. Slowly, I go towards her, each foot reverberating over the marble floor, purposeful and predatory. 

 “Let her go,” I demand. 

 They release her arms. She falls forward, catching herself on the elevator railing. Her perfume reaches me full of vanilla and wild violets, tempered with the salt of her tears. My gut twists terribly. I want to bury my face in her neck and inhale till I can’t smell anything else. 

 She lifts her chin, eyes damp but flaming. “What do you want, Lucian?” 

 God, her voice. Softer than I recall. Tired. Broken. And it pulls open something deep inside me that I thought I’d buried alongside every memory of her. 

 “I want answers.” I approach closer, squeezing her against the mirrored wall. Her mirror looks back at me - hair curling messily about her hot face, eyes rimmed with sparkling tears. Beautiful. Infuriating. Mine. 

 Her lips part, trembling. “I don’t owe you anything.” 

 My jaw clenches so tight I taste blood. “You think running away absolved you? You believe vanishing without a word removed what transpired between us?” 

 Her hands ball into fists. “There was nothing to erase.” 

 The elevator hums around us as I hold my palms on either side of her head, caging her in. Her smell swells with her terror, heightening my wolf’s dominance. She trembles under me but glares angrily up at my face. 

 “Look me in the eye and say it again,” I mumble, voice raspy with controlled wrath. 

 She swallows, throat bobbing. Her violet eyes flash with something - remorse, sorrow, want. “There was… nothing…” 

 I tilt my head, watching her twitching mouth. “Liar.” 

 Her breath catches as my lips touch her cheekbone, not kissing, just feeling. Just reminding her. Her skin is heated and moist, smelling of panic and memories I’ve spent years trying to obliterate. 

 “Five years, Elara.” My voice is soft, lethal. “Five fucking years I searched for you. Five years wondering whether you were dead in a gutter someplace, if some vampire drained you dry, or if you were shouting my name under another man.” 

 A faint gasp leaves her lips. Her eyes fill with tears that run softly down her cheeks. My wolf howls in delight and anguish at the sight. Good. Let her weep. Let her feel an ounce of what she left in her wake. 

 “You’re insane,” she murmurs. “You don’t own me, Lucian.” 

 “No?” I giggle faintly, the sound bitter. “Then why do you still smell like mine?” 

 Her eyes expand, pupils dilating in shock. She pulls her face away, but I grasp her chin, forcing her to look at me. 

 “Did you really think I wouldn’t find you?” My voice softens dangerously. “Run again, and I will find you. You’re not leaving me twice.” 

 She shudders when my thumb strokes her lower lip, feeling its smoothness. God, I missed this mouth. Missed her flavor, her warmth. My cock throbs with agonizing intensity, but I ignore it. I won’t touch her like that yet. Not until she pleads. 

 “Let me go,” she rasps, tears streaming freely now. “Please…” 

 I lean in till my forehead lays against hers, my eyes closed, inhaling her in. “I can’t,” I mumble. “Don’t ask me to do the one thing that would kill me.” 

 She sucks in a ragged breath, her chest straining against me. For a tiny second, none of us moves. Her perfume wraps around me like a narcotic, powerful and delicious, scorching through my veins with each inhalation. I nearly forget why I’m upset. Almost. 

 “Why did you leave?” I speak against her trembling lips. “Tell me.” 

 Her eyelids clench tight, tears pouring from the corners. “I can’t.” 

 “Tell me.” 

 She opens her eyes slowly, and what I see there makes my stomach fall. Pure catastrophe. Guilt so deep it spills into her aura, wrapping around my senses with the sour flavor of sorrow. 

 “I had to,” she murmurs. “You don’t understand.” 

 “Then make me understand.” 

 But she doesn’t talk. Just shakes her head sadly, lips trembling. My wolf snarls in fury. I want to shake her until the truth slips out. Instead, I push myself to breathe through the wrath seething in my chest. There will be time for confessions later. For now, I need her under my control. 

 I move back, arranging my face into cool indifference. “Fine. Don’t tell me. But you will.” 

 She flinches when I straighten and indicate to my guys. “Take her to the penthouse. I’ll join you shortly.” 

 “Lucian, no ” Her voice breaks as the soldiers hold her arms again, forcing her into the elevator. She thrashes, eyes wild with terror and treachery. “Please, Lucian! Don’t do this!” 

 I say nothing. Just watching her, my mouth clinched so tight my teeth ached. Her sobbing resound down the marble corridor as the doors close between us. 

 For a minute, the world is silent save for the tremendous sound of my own heartbeat. I close my eyes, placing the heel of my hand on my chest. Five years ago, I let her slip away. This time, she remains. Secrets and guilt be damned. 

 “Sir?” Marcus, my Beta, approaches warily. “We have the quarterly reports from Voss Industries. Do you want them now?” 

 “Later.” My voice is hoarse. “Prepare the rooftop for tonight.” 

 “Yes, Alpha.” He bows and exits without further word. 

 I exhale shakily, my hands locked at my sides. Control, Lucian. You’ve waited five years. You can wait a few more hours. 

 But as I turn to the ballroom windows and gaze out at the city lights glistening like fading stars, a cold conviction sets in my chest: 

 Whatever secrets Elara is hiding, they’re huge enough to make her escape from her fated partner. And if they’re huge enough to make her run from me… they’re big enough to ruin us both. 

 I look into the night, my wolf roaring beneath my skin, and swear quietly - “Whatever she’s hiding, I will rip it from her piece by piece, even if it destroys what little is left of my soul.”