Chapter 8 — She Is in Our Blood

Susan walked down the hallway of Rurik Motors feeling her heartbeat pulsing deep in her chest, a kind of primitive echo vibrating under her skin. It was more than nervousness — it was instinct. A visceral response to his presence.

“What the hell just happened in that room?”

She held the clipboard against her chest as if it could contain the energy still coursing through her body. The touch had been brief, accidental. But real. Hot. Almost fierce.

“He desires me.”

It was impossible to deny. Dmitry’s gaze was no longer merely analytical or calculated. There was something embedded deep in the sharp blue of his eyes. Raw desire. A fire held back by force. And she knew, the moment she looked back at him, that he was fighting against it. Against her.

But it was already too late.

The magic in her blood, the silent heritage of the Goddess Morrigan, was already calling to him. She had called him in the dream. She had provoked him on the spiritual plane, even without realizing it. And now, her physical body clamored for her as if every cell recognized the inevitable destiny. Her blood fed his obsession like dry straw on fire.

And if she ran away… it would only make everything worse.

She entered the elevator and pressed the button for the marketing floor, trying to breathe deeply. Her eyes closed for a moment.

Dmitry Rurik was not just a man. He was an Alpha Lycan. Cold, dominant, lethal. And now, consumed by a desire she herself had awakened. Not by choice, but by essence. By something ancient and uncontrollable.

“Damn it,” she murmured, opening her eyes exactly as the elevator doors opened.

She needed to stay calm. To think. There were ways to weaken the call. The amulet around her neck, a gift from her mother, forged with silver and ancient enchantments, was supposed to hide her trail, mask the desire her blood awakened. But something had changed.

The spell was failing. Perhaps because of the connection that had been established… Or maybe because it was already too late.

Still, there might be an alternative. In her mother’s old book, the one she kept locked in a box under the bed in the apartment, there might be something. An enchantment. A stronger protection. When she got home, she would analyze every page.

For now, she needed to keep control.

She walked to her desk, trying to focus on work. Every breath was a battle. Every thought returned to him. Dmitry. His eyes. His scent. The way the air around him seemed to mold itself to his presence. He had already invaded her mind and, in a way, her body too.

But she would resist. There was still time. Maybe.

“Hey, Susan! Shall we have lunch?” Maki’s cheerful voice pulled her back to the surface of reality.

Susan blinked, trying to regain control of her expression before smiling.

“Sure!”

Maki, always vibrant, was with Tatiana and Igor. Susan joined them as they headed to the cafeteria, trying to appear calm. Normal. But inside, her world was collapsing in silent chaos.

Lunch was filled with laughter and light conversation. They chose a table near the window, as usual. Natural light, relaxed atmosphere. Nothing that matched the chaos boiling inside her.

“So, Susan, how has your first day been so far?” Maki asked.

“Busy… but good,” she smiled, picking up her fork. “The team is amazing.”

“And our dear CEO?” Tatiana raised an eyebrow.

Susan forced a laugh.

“Tense. But professional.”

“‘Professional,’ sure,” Maki laughed. “I saw the way he looked at you in the meeting.”

“You’re seeing things where there aren’t any,” Susan murmured, even though she knew it was a lie.

“He desires you,” Tatiana said with the casualness of someone commenting on the weather. “Everyone saw it.”

“He’s married,” Susan retorted, her tone firmer than she intended.

“And has that ever stopped anyone from having desires?” Igor commented, and Maki laughed loudly.

Susan didn’t answer. Because deep down, she knew. Dmitry desired her. There was no longer any doubt. And she… was trapped in it.

The conversation continued, but Susan was no longer listening clearly. In her mind, a single certainty formed, cold and inevitable:

He would come after her.

And when that happened, there would be no amulet strong enough to hold back what was being born between them.

***

Dmitry had not left his office since Susan had walked through that door hours earlier.

The hands of the clock turned in a rhythm he completely ignored. The desk remained cluttered with papers, reports, and documents that had always received his meticulous attention. But now, nothing interested him.

Not even hunger. Or rather… he did feel hunger, yes. But not for food.

The memory of the sensation made him clench his jaw. That irritated him more than anything else that day.

As if the internal turmoil wasn’t enough, now he also had to deal with that… abstinence. A constant craving, a fire burning under his skin. The raw, instinctive need.

Ridiculous.

“I’m not a kid in his first heat,” he growled to himself, eyes fixed on some lost point on the wall in front of him.

“No. It’s worse.”

The deep voice of the Lycan echoed in his mind, loaded with dark provocation that scraped at the edges of his sanity.

“She’s consuming us.”

Dmitry sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, irritated by the insistence.

“Shut up.”

“You desire her.”

“This isn’t desire. It’s… irritation. A constant annoyance. Like a headache.”

The Lycan’s hoarse laugh reverberated in his mind.

“It’s instinct. Our Predestined is here. And you’re resisting like a coward.”

He closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the chair.

“I can’t… I shouldn’t.”

“But you want to.”

Dmitry didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. The silence was enough to confirm what even he didn’t want to admit.

Yes. He had felt her.

That tiny, almost casual touch that had set every nerve under his skin on fire. The heat that raced through his veins like lightning. The way his instinct had awakened, in absolute alert. As if it had finally found what it had been searching for. What had been missing.

And that realization left him on the brink of madness.

His fingers were clenched into fists on the arms of the leather chair, so tense that the skin over his knuckles had turned pale. His breathing came out irregular, heavier with every second. A slight tremor ran through his jaw.

“She is in our blood now.”

The creature’s murmur sounded low, almost reverent. As if it admired the connection that was beginning to take root there, fierce and inevitable.

“She is embedded in your body, Alpha. You need her.”

“I need… to maintain control,” he murmured through clenched teeth, a weak lie.

“Then prove it.”

In a sharp impulse, Dmitry spun the computer monitor and accessed the internal camera system. It was a routine check. A quick look, nothing more.

Of course.

But when the image of the cafeteria appeared on the screen, the trap closed.

There she was. Susan.

Sitting with her department colleagues, her red hair loose over her shoulders, glasses slightly slipping down her nose, while her smile opened like a ray of sunlight between clouds.

Dmitry didn’t blink.

That curve of her lips. The way she tilted her head to the side, as if genuinely paying attention to what she was hearing. And then… she laughed. A light laugh, silent in the image, but he heard it anyway.

Or imagined he heard it. It was enough to make him lose his breath for a second.

“Beautiful.”

The Lycan purred, as if appreciating the show. Dmitry felt something contract in his chest, a primitive impulse rising along with the heat spreading through his body.

But then the scene changed.

A man.

Tall, broad-shouldered, with stubble, an appearance too casual for his taste. Dmitry knew that look. The way the man leaned a little closer than necessary. How he spoke directly to her, eyes fixed on hers.

And she… she was smiling.

The snap was sharp. A hollow, quick sound.

Dmitry looked down and saw that the mouse in his hand was in pieces, crushed effortlessly, the plastic fragments piercing his skin. Blood trickled between his fingers, hot and thick.

But he felt no pain. Only hatred.

The image remained there, cruel and provocative. Aleksandr Volkov. His charming, relaxed, intrusive smile. His hand resting casually on the table, too close to hers.

And Dmitry saw. He imagined…

Aleksandr’s hands brushing Susan’s wrist. That arrogant smile getting too close. The deep voice whispering something just for her. The touch on her fair skin. His gaze sinking into her green eyes.

The beast roared inside him with fury. Something wild. Almost uncontrollable.

Dmitry gritted his teeth so hard he tasted the metallic flavor of blood in his mouth. His breathing came in short gasps, as if he were about to shift right there.

“He… touched her?” His voice came out low, guttural, as if the question were a sentence.

“He wants to. You know he does. He’s going to touch her. He’s going to provoke her. He’s going to steal that smile that should be yours alone.”

“I’ll rip his hand off if he tries,” he growled.

“Ah… So now you admit it.”

“She is…” Dmitry stopped, the words dying in his throat. What was she?

His? Property? Predestined? Or simply the ruin of his sanity?

He turned off the screen with force. He stayed there, breathing with difficulty, his heart beating wildly in his chest. He felt the beast clawing at the walls of his self-control. Screaming.

“She’s messing with everything. With you. With me. With us.”

“I don’t need her,” he insisted, trying to convince himself.

“Then why is it becoming unbearable to stay away?”

He said nothing, because it was true. And what scared him wasn’t the intensity of the desire. It was the fact that he no longer wanted to resist.