CHAPTER 4: The Devil’s Contract

LYRA

“We meet again.”

The words slid through the room like smoke, curling around me before I could brace myself. His voice was deep, low, and too familiar like a song I’d forgotten but somehow knew the rhythm to.

My spine stiffened. We meet again?

No. That wasn’t possible. I’d never seen him before today.

“Sorry, sir… have we met?” My voice trembled before I caught it. I tried to sound steady, but it came out like a whisper lost in his presence.

He stood from behind his desk with deliberate slowness. His movements weren’t rushed they were calculated, confident, the kind that made your instincts scream run, even as your body refused to obey. The air in the room shifted with him, thickening until it felt like I was breathing heat.

Each step he took stole space between us. My back hit the wall before I even realized I was moving. My pulse pounded so hard I could hear it in my ears. He was close enough now that I could catch the faint scent of cedar and smoke. Masculine. Dangerous. Addictive.

Stop it, Lyra. Don’t let him see you flinch.

But I couldn’t tear my gaze away. His eyes gold, bright as a wild flame caught mine, and something deep inside me jolted. It wasn’t attraction. It was recognition. My body reacted like it knew him, like it had been waiting for him.

And that terrified me.

“You still look the same, Lyra.” His voice dropped, soft but edged with something sharp enough to cut.

The same? My breath hitched. The same as what?

I wanted to ask, but the words tangled in my throat. He took another step, and his presence consumed everything scent, space, air. My mind scrambled for logic, for balance. But all I could feel was the heat of him and the thunder of my own heartbeat.

“You…” I forced the word out, trying to sound unbothered. “You’re mistaken. We haven’t met.”

“Do you want to know?” His lips tilted in a smirk that didn’t reach his eyes. There was a promise buried in his tone dark, teasing, dangerous.

Before I could decide whether to move or speak, his hand closed around mine. Warm. Solid. My breath caught. My body reacted before my mind could form a thought leaning forward, tilting up.

“Yes,” I whispered, barely hearing myself.

His eyes darkened with satisfaction. “Yes, we have met.”

The words brushed against my skin like a touch. They didn’t make sense, yet they felt true in a way that made my stomach twist. I should’ve pulled away, demanded answers, but my body betrayed me frozen, trembling, drawn in by the gravity of him.

“Where?” I managed to breathe out.

Instead of answering, he leaned down. The distance between us vanished. His fingertip traced the bridge of my nose, slow and deliberate, leaving fire in its wake. “You’ll know soon,” he murmured.

My knees nearly buckled. What kind of game was this man playing?

And why did part of me want to keep playing?

Just as quickly, he withdrew. The air shifted again colder now. Detached. He turned back toward his desk, every inch of him composed, as if that moment hadn’t just scorched the space between us.

“You start tomorrow,” he said simply.

“Tomorrow? But… tomorrow is Saturday.”

“I know.” He glanced up, gold eyes slicing through me. “You’ll be accompanying me to a feast.”

A feast? The word sounded wrong coming from his mouth. Too old-fashioned, too heavy, like something from another era. I didn’t even know what to say.

He slid a folder across the desk. “Sign here.”

My eyes caught on the first line and the world tilted.

Salary: $100,000 per month.

My breath hitched. Was this a joke? No assistant made that kind of money. It was absurd tempting but absurd. Still, the thought of what I could do with that money pulsed louder than reason. My chest thudded. One year here, and I could start my dream business. One year, and I’d be free.

Before I could second-guess myself, I picked up the pen and signed.

The sound of the nib scratching across paper felt louder than it should. Binding. Final.

I glanced up, but he was already watching me, a faint smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. I didn’t know it then, but that was the moment I stepped straight into his world blindfolded.

MALAKI

She hadn’t changed.

Not in the ways that mattered. Not where it counted.

Lyra. My Lyra.

Even after all this time, she still carried that same light stubborn, wild, and dangerously human. She had no idea what she’d just done. No idea that by signing her name, she’d sealed a bond that went far deeper than ink.

She was looking at that contract like it was her salvation. She didn’t see the chains hidden beneath the gold.

When she finally walked out, the room felt quieter. Too quiet. I watched the door she disappeared through, watched the echo of her smile fade in my mind.

A smile that didn’t belong to me.

It shouldn’t have mattered, but it did. The ache in my chest was old, familiar one I thought I’d buried long ago.

My Lyra, I whispered, her name a curse and a confession all at once.

The door opened again. Daniel stepped in, tension rolling off him in waves. His grip on the folder was too tight, his eyes fixed anywhere but me.

“Boss,” he began, voice unsteady. “I found what you asked for.”

“Give it here.”

He hesitated a fraction too long. I didn’t repeat myself.

He handed it over, and as the papers brushed my fingers, a photograph slipped free face down. The edges were worn, the color faded. I turned it over.

And everything stopped.

Roland.

My vision tunneled. The name was enough to drag every buried memory to the surface—blood on snow, the stench of ash, screams swallowed by fire. The hunter. The man who’d razed my pack to the ground.

And he was her father.

A sound tore from my throat before I could contain it half growl, half broken breath. The wolf inside me surged, hungry, furious. My claws pushed against my skin, splitting it open.

The wood beneath my hands cracked.

The air in the room grew heavy, shimmering with power I fought to keep down. I could feel my teeth sharpening, my bones threatening to shift. Not now. Not here.

“Are you sure?” My voice came out low, guttural.

Daniel nodded quickly, eyes wide. “Yes, Boss. I verified it twice. There’s no mistake.”

A bitter laugh escaped me. Fate—no, the Moon Goddess herself—was playing a cruel joke. The girl I had longed for, searched for, waited for… was the daughter of the man I swore to destroy.

The irony burned hotter than rage.

I closed my eyes, forcing my breathing steady. Inhale. Exhale. The beast pressed against my ribs, desperate to break free. The smell of blood lingered in the air mine.

I couldn’t decide if the ache in my chest was fury or heartbreak.

Fate was mocking me, weaving love and vengeance into the same thread and I had no idea which one would strangle me first.