All Chapters of Mated To The Billionaire Wolf: Chapter 1 - Chapter 6

I was still thinking about that handshake three days later. Which was insane, because it was just a handshake. People shook hands all the time. It was literally the most normal thing in the world. You meet someone, you shake their hand, you move on with your life. You don't spend the entire weekend replaying the moment in your head like some kind of crazy person. "Earth to Maya." My best friend Jess waved a hand in front of my face. "You've been staring at that coffee cup for like five minutes. What's going on with you?" We were at our usual Sunday brunch spot, a little café in Capitol Hill that made amazing avocado toast and didn't judge you for ordering mimosas before noon. I'd been trying to tell Jess about the job offer for the past twenty minutes, but my brain kept getting stuck on stupid details. Like how Damien Sterling's hand had been warm. Really warm. And how his eyes had done that weird flash thing that I was ninety percent sure I'd imagined. And how he'd sa

The claws were what got me. Not the glowing eyes—I'd been seeing those for days. Not the fangs, which looked like they could tear through steel. It was the claws, wickedly sharp and utterly real, extending from fingers that had been perfectly human thirty seconds ago. My knees buckled. Damien was moving before I hit the ground, catching me with those same clawed hands that should have terrified me but were somehow gentle. He lowered me into a chair, his partially shifted form crouched in front of me at eye level. "Breathe," he said, and his voice was different—deeper, rougher, like gravel wrapped in silk. "Maya, you need to breathe." I sucked in air, my vision tunneling. "You have claws." "Yes." "And fangs." "Yes." "Because you're a werewolf." "Yes." He said it so calmly, like we were discussing the weather instead of the complete destruction of everything I thought I knew about reality. I pressed my hands to my face, trying to force my brain to work. "This is

VANESSA'S POVI made it to my car before the shaking started.My hands were trembling so badly I dropped my keys twice before I managed to unlock the door. Once inside, I gripped the steering wheel and forced myself to breathe.Forty-eight hours.Damien had given me forty-eight hours to prove I wasn't a traitor. To find out who was feeding information to Marcus Kane. To save my own skin.If only he knew the truth.My phone buzzed. I didn't need to look to know who it was, but I checked anyway.Dad: I saw the little show Damien put on. Very dramatic. I hope you're not getting any ideas about confessing.My stomach twisted. I typed back with shaking fingers.Me: He gave me 48 hours to find the leak. What am I supposed to do?The response came immediately.Dad: Find someone expendable and throw them to the wolves. Literally. You've always been good at self-preservation, Vanessa. Don't disappoint me now.I stared at the message until my vision blurred.This was my father. The man who'd ra