Chapter 3

Aurora’s Pov

Rio didn’t flinch. He let his hand drop slowly from my shoulder, giving Smith a respectful nod before moving down the stairwell. He didn’t look sorry either but for sure looked like a man who’d gotten exactly what he wanted, even for a few seconds.

I stood there gripping my folder, feeling the sting where his thumb had touched my neck. It didn’t fade as a normal touch should have. It sat there, warm, the way the bond used to feel before I broke it.

“I told you not to touch me, Calloway,” I said, though Smith hadn’t been the one to touch me at all.

“I didn’t touch you,” Smith said, stepping closer. “He did and trust me when I said I felt it anyway.”.

“Marcus told me you have months left,” Smith said. His voice was quieter now, stripped of the command it carried in the boardroom. “If you don’t revoke the rejection.”

“Marcus talks too much.”

“Marcus loves you enough to be scared for you.”

“I’d rather choke on my own blood than submit to another tyrant,” I said, and I meant it, even as the words tasted like something I’d said too many times to believe anymore.

Smith’s face didn’t twist in anger the way I expected. It softened instead, “I don’t want your submission, Aurora. I want your weight against mine.”

He walked away before I could answer. I stood in that hallway a long time after he was gone, my hand pressed flat against the bleeding spot on my chest, trying to breathe normally.

********

The lobby was worse.

I saw Victoria before she saw me, all white dress and narrow waist, moving through the entrance like she owned the marble beneath her feet. Four guards trailed her, though I doubted she needed them. Women like Victoria didn’t fight their own battles. They just waited for someone else to lose first.

“Aurora Voss,” she said, spotting me. Her smile was fast and fake. “How brave of you to show your face here.”

“I go where my pack needs me,” I said. “Move.”

“Still so hostile.” She stepped closer. “Do you really think a man like Smith wants a broken Beta from a minor pack? You were a distraction, honey. Nothing more.”

I didn’t answer her. Then Smith’s voice cut through the lobby, sharp enough to turn every head. “Victoria.”

She transformed instantly, her whole face rearranging itself into something adoring. She crossed to him quickly, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him in front of everyone, guards and strangers and me.

Smith didn’t push her away. His his eyes found mine over her shoulder, and he held my gaze the entire time, like he needed to see what it did to me.

I gave him nothing. I turned and walked out into the rain instead, because that was the only thing I had left to give anyone that day.

********

The drive back should have taken twenty minutes. I don’t remember most of it.

The pain started, a stretch behind my sternum, easy enough to breathe through. By the time I reached the edge of the industrial district, it had spread through my whole chest, hot and heavy, pressing down until the streetlights blurred into long yellow streaks.

I pulled the car over two blocks from the safehouse. My hands wouldn’t grip the wheel right anymore.

I told myself so I tried and made it maybe a hundred feet before my legs gave out beneath me, the wet pavement rushing up fast, and the last thing I remember was the sound of my own name, far away, someone shouting it as it mattered.