2

RAYNE 

"Are you alright, sir?" Finn, his beta, stood with concern in his tone.

I wanted to sink into my seat and into the ground as my cover as a human had been blown. My fear was the Alpha fishing me out.

But now it turned out to be that I was mated to him. Just what sort of setup was that? 

An Ashford mated to a Kade was like a lunar eclipse happening in sunlight. I wasn't sure what my Alpha's reaction to that would be. That made me glad I hadn't wired the whole place.

"Mate..." he repeated as he looked away from my direction, keeping my heart rate on steady acceleration. "Matrix... I meant something was wrong with the trading matrix I checked." 

I heaved a low sigh of relief as he walked past and made his way to his seat. Why didn't he call me out right away? That was the only question on my mind as I wondered just how I would sit through that entire meeting. 

His intimidating but inciting scent made it hard to breathe let alone focus on the report I was meant to give. 

It was happening just as Diane had described it. I was creaming terribly for him. I was scared of looking down at my skirt as I feared I would see marks of wetness there.

"It's been fixed sir. I think the systems are in perfect working order now," Finn said as he sat in his seat which was directly at Roman's right hand. 

I was fearfully waiting for the time I would be called up to give the report. I could only hope something would come up before I would—

"Rayne," Finn calling my name felt like a gun being pointed at me. "Please go ahead and give the report."

"Oh..." I forced a smile as I put my glasses on. "Okay sir... Thank you..."

I managed to keep my balance on the heels I wore. My legs were shaking as all they were aching for him to split them apart.

"Focus..." I stole a sigh as I stood up and walked to the screen where my slide presentation was projected. 

"So... Tell me," Roman's unexpected speech frightened me. "Miss Rayne Ash..." It sounded like he was about to call my actual surname till he glanced at the document in front of him. "...Ashton, go ahead and tell us how we've been doing."

"Overall, we've been in the greens. It's safe to say we own the markets at this point." It took everything in me to stay sane and professional. 

I went on to run through the numbers I had spent the night and the early morning hours memorizing. It was awkward as I barely looked them in the eyes as I gave the presentation. 

The sound of their applause felt like the sound of the bell after a grueling round. I stole a glance at my skirt just to make sure there hadn't been any sign of wetness. 

"Impressive..." Roman said with a nod. It took a while before his gaze left me. "Let's move on to the next..."

The rest of the meeting happened in a blur as I just couldn't think of anything else besides the end of the meeting. I was beginning to doubt if I was the one for the mission as the most unexpected twist had happened.

I stole some glances at Roman and wondered just how he had been still and unshaken with me right there. I knew how wolves were around their mates, but he was just cold. 

"Alright guys, good job. I really appreciate your work. Keep it up." Roman said, as he stood. "At this rate, we might just buy a country."

Everyone laughed at that though I didn't find any of it funny. 

"Alright everybody. Back to work." 

With that, I picked up all my files and headed straight for the door, hoping I could just head home from there. 

At that point, I couldn't care less about the suspicion that came with being the first to leave the room. Fortunately, no one called me back. 

I had no idea how awkward I had been acting till I was back at my desk and saw everyone staring at me. 

"Ashton...in the boss's office now."

Just as I was about to conjure up my composure once again, Finn called for me in a way that spelt trouble. 

I got up in a flash and tried in vain to walk like nothing was going on. The eyes on me didn't leave but I was more concerned about the Alpha who was probably going to interrogate me till I gave up my cover. 

I kept going through all the possible ways out of the possible questions he could ask. But I didn't have enough time to rehearse all that. I was standing at his door which had "ROMAN KADE" written on it boldly. 

"You may go in," Finn opened the door, and motioned for me to go in. 

Roman stood with his back turned on me, with his focus on the glorious view of the city outside the glass wall behind his desk. He had taken off his suit to reveal his finely sculpted physical build. 

I felt like I was being thrown into the lion's den all by myself. About to be devoured mercilessly.

But then his alluring scent made me feel like doing the devouring first. I had never been that turned on in my life. I was almost exploding and I wasn't sure if I would be able to survive the next minute without having that yearning satisfied.

That had me wondering if that was why he had called me there. Did he just want to watch me burn?

"Why did you pretend to be human?" He turned around and looked at me with a calmness that surprised me. It looked like he couldn't feel half the tension I was under. 

"For personal reasons." I stilled my nerves and faced the moment as it came. One wrong slip up and my life could go for it.

“Personal reasons?” He wasn't going to be fooled easily by that. “You either have something to hide about your true identity or you have something against the wolves here. So I'm going to ask again…”

“Fine.” I cut him off, hoping I wasn't coming off as desperate. “Most of the opportunities here are only open for wolves only from the Kades. So being neutral was the only option I had to get this job, knowing that I'm good at it.”

He had his eyes on me as he drew closer to me, almost like a predator sizing up his prey. The attraction was getting to him even though he tried to conceal it. My breathing was getting even harder with each step he took towards me. 

I was scared. So scared that I wouldn't be able to resist if he made any advances at me. That would complicate the mission but my wolf had lost touch with consequences.

“Uhm…” I managed to get some words out of my mouth, “For the sake of the job we are doing here… I think we should just reject each other…” 

I tried to take a step back, “I, Rayne Ash—”

His hungry lips swallowed mine before I could say one more word.