All Chapters of HIS FORBIDDEN REJECTION : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Maya POV“Wake up, Maya.”His voice echoed through my apartment like a command, not a greeting. I jerked awake, heart racing, realizing I hadn’t given him the key. But the door was open.Zane stood there, dressed in black, his expression carved in stone. He held a small paper bag in one hand, his phone in the other.“What are you doing here?” I whispered, clutching the sheet to my chest.“Your schedule starts now,” he said, as if I had asked about the weather. “You have a meeting at nine, lunch with the client at one, and your wardrobe’s been updated. You’ll find it in the bag.”My stomach twisted. “You can’t just barge in here, Zane—”He set the bag on the table, eyes glinting. “I can do whatever I want, Maya. Remember? You agreed to let me ‘protect’ you.” His tone sharpened on that word, as though protection was a joke only he understood.“I didn’t agree to be your prisoner,” I said, pushing back the covers and standing.His gaze flicked over me — the oversized T-shirt, the bare fee

Maya POVThe moment Zane’s smirk vanished into the shadows below my window, I shut the curtains and pressed my back against the wall. My heart wouldn’t stop racing. It thudded in my chest so hard I could feel the pulse against my throat.He had looked straight at me — like he already knew what I was thinking. Like he could taste my fear from the courtyard.I didn’t sleep that night. Every creak of the wooden floor made me flinch. The wind outside howled like a warning, rattling the glass panes as if begging me to run.But run where?Zane had control over everything — my job, my phone, even the guards stationed around the estate. I couldn’t take a breath without him knowing. Still, I couldn’t just stay and wait for him to break me.Morning came too soon. The sun barely touched the horizon when I dragged myself out of bed. My body ached, my eyes burned, and I could still taste the bitterness of last night’s wine on my tongue.“Late again,” Lisa muttered as I entered the office. She was

Ray POV“Tell me everything you found.”My voice came out sharper than I intended, rough enough to cut through the midnight silence of my office. The man standing across from me—a lean, gray-eyed investigator named Clarke—shifted uneasily, his fingers brushing against the envelope in his hand.He looked exhausted, like he hadn’t slept in days. The circles under his eyes told me this wasn’t just another surveillance update.“Alpha…” He hesitated, then stepped closer, lowering his voice. “You were right to ask me to dig deeper into Zane.”Something cold twisted in my stomach. “Go on.”He placed the envelope on my desk. The thick paper crinkled, and for a second, the faint scent of iron and ash filled the room. My wolf, Kael, stirred restlessly under my skin, pacing, sensing danger.“I followed the money trail,” Clarke continued. “And it leads somewhere dark. Zane’s been funding a private operation under the name Black Veil. It’s not registered under pack jurisdiction. Off the grid. Hidd

Ray’s POV“I told you to stay away from him!” Zane’s voice had rung in my head all night. The way he’d said it, calm but lethal, haunted me like a curse.Hours had passed since that dinner, but I couldn’t let it go. Not the look in Maya’s eyes when she saw Zane. Not the faint, glowing mark on her wrist—proof of something I didn’t yet understand.And certainly not the heartbreak in her voice when she said, You already lost that chance.Now, sitting alone in my car parked across her apartment building, I stared up at the faint light in her window. She was home. Probably pacing, probably confused. I knew I should leave her alone. But something deeper—something raw and consuming—dragged me out of the car.My boots hit the pavement hard as I crossed the street. The night smelled of rain and iron. Thunder rumbled somewhere far off, but I barely noticed. All I could think about was the ache gnawing at my chest.When she opened the door, she froze. Her hair was wet, like she’d been crying in

Ray’s POV“Don’t go near him again.”The words came out sharper than I intended, slicing through the silence that had filled the penthouse since dawn. Maya froze halfway across the room, her trembling hands clutching the mug she hadn’t drunk from. Steam curled into the air like smoke between us, vanishing before it reached either of us—just like the fragile peace we’d had last night.Her eyes met mine. Red-rimmed, exhausted, still hauntingly beautiful.“You can’t tell me what to do, Ray,” she whispered.“I’m not asking,” I said, stepping closer. “I’m telling you.”The line between command and plea blurred in my voice, but I didn’t care. The image of the red scope from last night—the bullet shattering the window inches from her head—kept replaying behind my eyes.Zane wasn’t bluffing anymore.He’d gone from manipulation to blood.Maya set the mug down on the counter. The soft clink of ceramic against marble was the only sound before her voice broke through, low and trembling.“He came