Chapter Two - Inside The Car

POV: Freya

The silence that followed my desperate plea was deafening, cut only by the heavy drumming of the rain against the ground.

The stranger didn't move. His iron grip remained clamped around my waist, keeping me pressed against his massive frame. Up close, his dark alpha scent was overwhelming, pure, unadulterated dominance laced with the sharp crispness of winter rain. It flooded my senses, momentarily clearing the thick, suffocating fog of the whiskey.

His eyes narrowed, scanning my face.

"You're drunk," he said. His voice was a low, gravelly baritone that vibrated right through my chest. "And you’re bleeding, little wolf."

I looked down vaguely. A shard of glass from the shattered whiskey bottle must have nicked my ankle when it broke. A thin line of crimson blood was smearing against my heel. I didn't care. The pain in my heart was a thousand times worse.

"I don't care," I choked out, my fingers tightening further on his collar as the alcohol surged back through my veins. "Just take me away. Don't you want me? Everyone else treats me like garbage. Just...make me forget."

A harsh, humorless breath escaped his lips. He let go of my waist, his hands moving to my wrists, peeling my fingers off his coat with humiliating ease. "You don't know what you’re asking for. Go back inside to your handler, girl. I don't play with broken toys."

He dismissed me. Just like Silas. Just like the rest of them.

Something inside me violently snapped. The rejection from Silas had torn me open, but being pushed aside by this stranger made my blood boil with an unprecedented rage. I wasn't going back inside that ballroom. I wasn't going to let anyone push me into the dark ever again.

As he went to step past me toward the grand glass doors, I threw my entire body in front of him, blocking his path.

"I don't have a handler!" I screamed, the rain beginning to mist over my face.

A few valets near the entrance paused, their ears twitching as they turned their heads toward us. High-society wolves loved gossip, and a hysterical, bleeding girl screaming at a powerful man was prime material.

The stranger froze. His broad shoulders squared, and the air around us instantly grew heavy. A suffocating pressure descended on the entrance, his Alpha aura expanding, silent and lethal. The valets immediately averted their eyes, bowing their heads in terror.

"Then boyfriend or whatever you girls call it these days but get out of my way," he growled, the silver in his eyes practically glowing in the dim light. "Before I make you."

"No," I defied him, staring straight into the mouth of the beast. My inner wolf was trembling, screaming at me to submit, but my human mind was too broken to care about survival. "Take me with you. Or I’ll make a scene right here. I'll scream until every camera out there turns this way."

He stared at me for three agonizing seconds. I could see the restraint in his jaw, the hard line of his mouth.

Suddenly, his hand shot out. Before I could even blink, his fingers wrapped firmly around my upper arm. He didn't hurt me, but his grip was unyielding as he violently yanked me down the steps and dragged me straight toward an armored black luxury sedan idling at the parking lot.

The driver instantly scrambled out, throwing the rear door open.

The stranger practically tossed me into the back seat, stepping in right after me and slamming the heavy door shut. 

"Drive," the man ordered harshly, not even looking at the driver.

The car glided away smoothly. Inside, the space was dark, illuminated only by the faint blue ambient lighting along the leather dashboard. It smelled of rich leather and the stranger's suffocatingly potent scent.

Now that the adrenaline of the confrontation was fading, a sudden wave of panic washed over me. I pressed my back against the leather door, my breath hitching as I looked at the massive silhouette sitting across from me. He was taking off his wet overcoat, tossing it carelessly onto the opposite seat, revealing the flawless fit of a tailored charcoal three-piece suit.

"Who...who are you?" I stammered, my voice small.

"You didn't care who I was thirty seconds ago," he replied coldly, leaning his head back against the headrest. He closed his eyes, his profile looking like it was chiseled from granite itself. "Sit there, shut up, and sober up. I'll have my driver drop you at a hotel downtown. You're a liability I don't have time for."

The rejection stung, reigniting the raw, agonizing image of Silas backstage, offering to keep me as a dirty secret.

No. I wasn't going to sit in a corner and cry anymore. Driven by pure humiliation, I unbuckled my seatbelt. Before the stranger could react, I crawled across the gap between the seats. I threw my legs over his lap, straddling his thighs, and slammed my hands onto his broad shoulders.

He opened his eyes, his silver gaze snapping to mine in genuine shock. "What the hell do you think you're..."

I didn't let him finish. I leaned down and crashed my lips against his.

The kiss was messy, desperate, and filled with the taste of cheap whiskey and bitter tears. I poured all my pain, my rage, and my humiliation into his mouth, moving my lips against his with a fierce, demanding hunger.

For a second, he was entirely stuff beneath me. Then, his hands came up, gripping my waist with iron strength. With a low growl, he forcibly tore my face away from his, pinning my hips down so I couldn't move.

"Stop," he commanded, his chest heaving against mine. His breath was hot, his scent flaring dangerously. "I told you to stop. You're out of your mind, girl."

"I don't want to be in my mind!" I cried out, my voice breaking as tears finally spilled over my cheeks, hot and fast. "Just touch me. Please. Make his hands fade. Erase him."

I didn't give him a choice. I leaned down again, ignoring the iron grip on my waist, and pressed my lips to his a second time.

But this time, something changed.

As my emotions flared, my unique scent-calming ability began to bleed out of my pores, triggered by my intense distress. It was an involuntary defense mechanism meant to soothe even the most aggressive Alphas.

It was one of the reasons Silas still kept me.

The moment that unique, intoxicating scent hit his senses, I felt his iron discipline completely shatter.

A deep growl rumbled from the very depths of his chest. The grip on my waist tightened until it was almost bruising. He didn't push me away this time.

Instead, his hand shot up to the back of my head, his long fingers tangling in my hair, and he flipped our positions. In a fraction of a second, he pinned my back against the leather seat, his massive body looming over me, entirely trapping me beneath him.

He kissed me back. It was a devastating, consuming claim.

Without breaking the bruising, intoxicating kiss, his silver eyes flared bright amber in the car. He reached over, blindly striking the intercom button on the door panel.

"Change of plans," he growled into the receiver. "Take us to the penthouse suite at the Grand Horizon. Now. And lock the partition."

Before the driver could even answer, a thick, black privacy glass slid up, sealing us into total darkness.