iana
aring pain of the rejection was a physical weight, settling in my bones, making my legs tremble. I stumbled, my shoulder hitting the cool, unforgivin
it was. I flipped it over. Hailee. A picture of her and Gabe, his arm wrapped around her, her head nest
te it. I blocked the number. The action was swift, clinical. A tiny, insig
y focus narrowed to the exit sign glowing at th
elt it. A gaze.
ht around him. I couldn't see his face clearly, but the sheer force of his presence was a physical thing, a change in the atmospheric pressure of the hallway. His knuckles rapped a silent, impatient rhythm ag
s scrutiny, a new disturb
you dare walk
g down the intersecting corridor. Her heels clicked angrily on the marble floo
eep baritone that rumbled with arctic cold
. "Our families have an agreement! You can't just ign
ught. He wasn't just handsome; he was terrifyingly beautiful. Sharp, aristocratic features, dark hair swept back from a hig
brow furrowed in a minute expr
emotion, "is cancelled. All business between Sinclai
u can't do that." She reached for hi
ch. A man who had been standing silently behind him, an assistant of some k
said calmly. "Perhaps we can
ollapsing into a messy, public spectacle. Staf
and penetrating, landed directly on me. He had been aware o
humiliations. I kept my eyes fixed on the exit, trying to ma
level with him
mething elemental. Snow-covered pines and the clean, sharp scent of ic
is dark irises into black pools. I saw his jaw clench, a muscle twitching violen
i
al roar that crashed through my mind,
ow in my belly, a stark contrast to the icy ache of Gabe's rejection. It was the recognition. The fated mate bond,
me, a wall of muscle and power, blocking my escape. The air crackled b
ilted my head to look up at him, my neck aching fr
g hands, the faint scent of my own tears that I was trying
with pleasantries.
stated, his voice a low, magnetic rumbl
our. The pain from Gabe's rejection was still a raw, open wound, and this stranger, this impossi
nsane," I
nal space, his sheer size overwhelming.
st publicly rejected. Your pack will see you as damaged goods. Your family will eit
a cold, hard
ng pressured into a union I have no interest in." His eyes flicked back to the direction of the VIP lou
h. A shield. A. He was right. My grandfather would be furious. My family would see me as a failed investment. They wou
was unlike anything I had ever felt. It was an inferno to Gabe's flic
a choice.
it was the on
f him filling my lungs, steadying
my voice clear a
ossed his features, so fast I almost missed it. T
nodded. "F
into step behind him, walking towards the registration desk, towards a fu
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