All Chapters of Rejected By The Alpha Billionaire : Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

8 Chapters

Chapter One

Aria’s POV"You have five minutes, Miss Blackwood. Don't waste them."That was the first thing Damien Cross said to me.Not good morning. Not welcome. Five minutes, as though three years of my life could be compressed into a countdown.I smoothed my blazer with trembling hands and walked to the front of the boardroom. Twelve people sat around the mahogany table, all of them in suits that cost more than my rent. I was wearing my best outfit — a navy blazer I'd bought from a clearance rack two winters ago and pressed so many times the fabric was starting to thin at the elbows.I didn't belong here. Every face in that room told me so.But I had my designs. And my designs were brilliant. I knew that much.I set up my laptop, connected it to the projector, and pulled up the first slide. Cross Tower. Three years of calculations, revisions, sleepless nights, and skipped meals. I had poured everything into this proposal, because if Cross Industries accepted it, my career would finally begin.

Chapter Two

Damien’s POVShe was gone before the elevator doors closed.I stood at my office window and watched the street below until I saw her — a small figure in a navy blazer walking fast, not looking back. My wolf slammed against my chest so hard I had to grip the windowsill.Go after her.I didn't.I turned away and poured myself a drink I didn't finish. The envelope was still on the desk. She hadn't taken it. I stared at it for a long moment, then locked it in the drawer and told myself it was over.It wasn't over.By midnight, the pain had started.It began as pressure in my chest — dull, persistent, like a bruise that wouldn't settle. I ignored it. I went through three meetings, reviewed two contracts, and attended a dinner with Vanessa that I barely remember. She talked about venue options for the engagement announcement. I nodded in the right places.When I got home, I sat on the edge of my bed and couldn't move for twenty minutes.My wolf had gone quiet in a way that frightened me. No

Chapter Three

Aria’s POV"You're doing it again," Lucas said."Doing what?""Staring at nothing like it owes you an apology."I pulled my eyes away from the window and looked at him across the kitchen counter. He was leaning against it with his arms crossed, watching me the way he always did — steady, unhurried, like he had all the time in the world and planned to use most of it making sure I was okay.Three years ago, I wouldn't have known what to do with that kind of loyalty.Three years ago, I had nothing.The night I walked out of Cross Industries, I took the bus to my apartment, packed one bag, and left. I didn't cry until I was on a midnight train heading south with no destination decided. Then I cried for four hours straight, silent, with my forehead against the cold window, while my wolf sat broken and still inside me like a candle that had been snuffed out mid-flame.The pain of the rejection had been physical. That was the part no one told you. It wasn't grief the way humans described gri

Chapter Four

Damien’s POV I stared at the folder for a long time.Marcus didn't speak. He sat back in his chair and let me read, which told me he already knew how bad it was going to be.The first page was a photograph. A woman, elegant and severe, standing at the head of a conference table with the kind of authority that didn't need a title beneath it. The caption read: Elena Silvermoon, Luna and CEO, Silvermoon Pack — North America's largest wolf dynasty.I turned the page.A birth record. Partial, damaged at the edges, but legible enough. A daughter born twenty-five years ago to Elena Silvermoon and her mate, Thomas. The child's name had been redacted, but a handwritten note in Marcus's careful script sat beside it.Aria. Kidnapped at four months. Never recovered.I set the page down."She's the Silvermoon heir," I said."Yes.""The missing one. The one Elena has been searching for.""For twenty-five years." Marcus folded his hands on the desk. "Whoever took her hid her well. No pack, no blood

Chapter Five

Aria’s POV "You don't have to do this tonight," Lucas said."I know.""We can leave. Make him sweat another six months. The contracts are already —""Lucas." I straightened my clutch under my arm and looked at him. "I'm not doing this for the contracts."He studied me for a moment, then nodded once and stepped aside.The hotel had a private terrace off the east corridor, accessible through a side door most guests didn't notice. I had scoped it out before the event because I had learned in the last three years that walking into any room without an exit plan was a habit I could no longer afford. I pushed the door open and stepped out into the cool night air and waited.He came two minutes later.Damien Cross looked exactly like I had spent three years training myself not to think about. Tall, dark, jaw set the way it always was when he was controlling something he didn't want to show. He stopped a few feet away and the broken bond stirred in my chest immediately, dull and aching, like

Chapter six

Damien's POVI watched her process it.Aria didn't panic. She didn't demand explanations or fill the silence with questions. She stood with her hand still on the door handle and looked at me the way someone looks at a map they're realizing has been wrong the whole time."Sit down," she said finally.Not a request. I sat.She stayed standing, which I suspected was deliberate."Tell me everything you know. Start from the beginning and don't leave anything out to protect me."So I did.I told her about the cameras — how I'd found them two weeks after she left, hidden in the ventilation housing above my desk and behind the bookshelf panel. Professional installation. Not something Vanessa had done alone. I told her how I'd had my security team sweep the entire floor and found three more in the conference room adjacent to my office, all of them active.I told her how I'd confronted Vanessa and she had smiled — not denied it, not explained it, just smiled — and said, "You were always going t

Chapter seven

Damien's POVMarcus found the room.Third floor, east wing, a private boardroom the hotel kept for corporate events. He had a key inside four minutes, which told me he'd planned for this possibility before we arrived. I didn't ask how. With Marcus, some things were better left alone.Aria walked in first. Lucas came in behind her and closed the door. I stood near the window and Marcus took the chair at the head of the table like he'd been sitting there his whole life.Nobody spoke for a moment.Then Aria put both hands flat on the table and looked at Marcus directly."You've known about Selene Ashworth.""Yes," he said."How long?""Longer than I should have stayed quiet about it." He didn't look away from her. "I want to say I was protecting you by gathering more information first. That's partially true. The other part is that I wasn't certain how much Damien could handle at once, and I made a judgment call I'm no longer certain was right."I looked at him. "You should have told me."

Chapter eight

Aria's POVVanessa was standing near the champagne table when we walked back in.She saw Damien first. Then she saw me beside him and something crossed her face so fast I almost missed it. Not surprise. Recalculation.She was good. I'd give her that.Damien didn't look at me when he said, "Give me three minutes."I nodded and moved left toward a cluster of guests near the center of the room. Lucas materialized at my shoulder without being summoned. Marcus drifted to the right, casual, positioning himself where he could see both Vanessa and the entrance where Selene was still standing with her champagne and her careful smile.I didn't watch Damien cross the room. I didn't need to.I focused on Selene.She was older in person than in the surveillance photographs. Late fifties, well maintained, the kind of woman who had learned to make stillness look like power. She hadn't moved from her position near the entrance since we'd come back down. She was holding her ground, which meant she was

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