All Chapters of The Price of a Second Chance: Chapter 181 - Chapter 190

The clock marked 8:00 a.m. when I entered the company. The sound of the trainees' footsteps down the corridor irritated me more than usual. My office was on the top floor, and the panoramic glass gave me a view of the entire city. People looked like ants down there, insignificant and predictable, running without knowing that their lives depended on me more than they thought. The smell of fresh coffee arrived before the desk, and the familiar sound of the tray landing on the table made the environment tolerable.The phone vibrated twice. Messages, reports, meetings. I ignored everything. Had already spent the night solving problems with the wolves of the council. Some wanted to “review” my leadership, as if they had forgotten who put food in their mouths and who saved them from the human hunt. Ingenuity. None of them would have the courage to face me alone. And whoever had it would disappear before the next moon.But what really corroded me was not the council. It was the name that kep

Control is an illusion. And at that moment, I began to feel the exact weight of this lie on my skin. The whole body was throbbing, as if something alive were writhing under the flesh.The cut in my hand had already closed. I took a deep breath, trying to drive away the heat that was rising from my back, but it spread quickly, like fire. The tie began to tighten, the collar burning against the neck. The air in the office became thick. Dense. The first snap came on the shoulder. I knew him too well. The joints are preparing, the bones adjusting. The body remembers what it was. And then the second. The third.The breath turned into a growl. The air was warm. The skin tingled. I could feel the heart beating in places where it shouldn’t, on the palms, on the ribs, at the base of the tongue. The whole body seemed about to tear.I walked up to the wall, trying to support myself, but the touch of the wood seemed distant. The nails began to grow too fast, tearing the tissue of the hand, sharp

The house seemed to breathe with me. Naomi remained by the window, motionless, her arms crossed over her chest. Everything in it was calm, and that’s exactly what drove me crazy."You should go," she repeated, lower this time.But there was no way to go. I felt the air vibrate, heavy, pulsating. Every sound was amplified: the ticking of the clock, the cracking of the woods, and the rhythm of her breath. The body began to respond to all this as if it were a command."Naomi…" I tried to speak, but my voice came out broken and hoarse.She looked at me with a frown. "What is it?"The first snap came soon after. Shoulder. Then spine. Small sounds, like branches breaking under the weight of something much larger. Closed my eyes hard. The air entered and did not leave."Casper?" She took a step."No." My voice sounded almost like a growl. "Stay there."But she didn’t. Naomi never stayed where they sent her.I took a step back, my hand going up to the wall, looking for support. The heat began

Her sentence was in the air as a blow. "Because I did not learn to hate you right."For a second, I thought she said it without thinking. But her eyes said otherwise—she knew exactly what she was saying.The body reacted before the mind. The heat rose quickly, from chest to neck, burning inside. The wolf understood those words in his own way—not as a confession, but as an invitation."Repeat it." My voice came out lower than I intended." Casper…""Say it again."She shook her head, a small but steady movement. "No.""Why not?" I took one step, then another. The distance between us disappeared in seconds. "Are you afraid of what happens if you say it again?"The pupils began to dilate. I felt it. It was as if the world were getting smaller and she, bigger. Her smell took everything—the skin, the sweatshirt, the hair. Every detail mixed in the air left me alert. She noticed. I saw the moment she realized something was wrong. Her eyes moved, trying to calculate the distance to the door,

I decided it was better to show up at Lancelot’s cafe. I still wasn’t sure if I would tell him what happened with Casper. Likewise, I didn’t want to have to tell something that wouldn’t add up to anything, but I also didn’t want to create friction in our relationship. Lancelot was already going through a lot of difficulties, and I didn’t want it to become another bad trigger for his control problems. However, Casper seemed to be going through the same situation. Was there a possibility that he was faking a lack of control just to be near me? I feared that this was possible; after all, today’s Casper was not like the Casper I met years ago, and whom I was in love with. It was almost as if I were meeting a new person.When I opened the door of the cafeteria, I noticed the smile on Lancelot's face. Although the controversies with him have not passed, something seemed to return to normal. The place seemed to be with the movement returning to what it was before. I identified some wolves si