Chapter 6: Her Wolf Stirs

Coletta’s POV

Damien didn’t speak at first. He just looked at me, I mean, really looked at me with those storm-dark eyes that made my skin heat and my heartbeat flutter against my ribs. Then he nodded once and motioned to the chair opposite him. “Sit.” That voice… deep, controlled, velvet over steel. It hit low in my belly, waking something I had buried long ago. I lowered myself onto the chair, my spine stiff, every sense sharpened. He didn’t stop watching me. Not even to blink. “I reviewed your file,” he said finally. His elbows rested on his desk, fingers steeple. “Everything checks out. You’re healthy. Fertile. Young. And desperate enough to take this job.” The bluntness cut, but the accuracy stung even more.

He wasn’t mocking me, just stating facts the way a king would state the outcome of a war. Clear and unavoidable. “I’m offering you the position.” My breath hitched. The air shifted. Something in him softened just enough to be noticeable. I wondered why he was being nice to me contrary to his famous personality. “You’ll be compensated generously,” he continued. “Your mother’s surgery, bills, follow-ups… all covered. And complete privacy.” It felt like being handed a lifeline wrapped in barbed wire. I swallowed. “And the terms?” I curiously asked.

"Your compensation has been doubled," he rasped. I whipped my head up, surprised. That didn't sit well with me. With all those added benefits? “Read the terms. If you agree, sign.” His voice dropped lower. “If not… don't.” He passed the envelope to me. And that’s when my world cracked open. With just nothing but a brush of our fingers, my world cracked. At first it was a pressure. A faint pulse. Then a jolt-like lightning striking the center of my chest. I stood abruptly. The chair scraped. Damien rose at the exact same moment, eyes narrowing.

Something inside me snapped awake. Heat crawled across my skin. Electricity danced down my arms. My heart, goddess, my heart pounded like it was trying to break free from my ribs. Then… “Coletta.” A faint small voice inside me. It was soft, trembling, and fragile. My wolf. The wolf I thought had died. I staggered, gasping. My hand flew to my chest. Damien was already moving in a blur of speed. He was around the desk and crouching beside me before I even blinked. “What is it, little wolf?” His voice was sharp, commanding but beneath it was something else. Something almost like… fear.

“I, I don’t know.” My breath came out broken. “Something’s… what have done to me?” Or am I finally healing? Warmth flooded me. There was a presence, a consciousness. It was weak, but real. For the first time in years, she whispered, “Coletta…mate!” My knees nearly gave out. WHAT? Mate? No. No, goddess, not again. Not now. I stumbled back, putting distance between us. Between me and the man who suddenly felt far too familiar. “You,” I whispered, voice trembling. “Who are you and what have you done to me?” He walked slowly, graceful and predatory. Too calm for how violently the world had just shifted.

“The better question,” he murmured, stepping toward me, “is what you are to me.” His eyes flickered gold, just a sliver but enough to make my pulse thunder. My wolf whimpered, pushing toward him, claws scraping at the walls of my mind. I backed up until my spine hit the wall. “You did something. This is, this is a trap,” I said. “I haven’t done anything wrong,” he replied. “Fate just revealed a woman it owed me.” His voice dropped to a deep, intimate rumble that curled around my spine like warm smoke. 'Owed' like I was commodity. “You can deny me, fight me, run from me.” He leaned in, close enough that I could feel his breath against my cheek. “But your wolf will feel me again. Stronger next time.”

He placed the envelope in my hand, his fingers brushing mine. The slightest touch. Yet it sent a shiver racing across my skin. “When you’re ready… come back with it signed,” he said, turning away. “Or don’t.” I was dismissed just like that, dismissed by a king who felt like a storm tied to my soul. I fled. And as the elevator doors closed, my wolf whispered again clearer this time, desperate and certain, or should I say hopeful? “He’s ours.” I pressed my trembling fingers to my lips. And for the first time since being exiled, I didn’t know whether the fear inside me was because of danger… Or hope.

Later That Day: Third Person POV

Coletta sat motionless on the edge of the small guest bed, the untouched cup of tea cooling beside her. Moonlight filtered through the thin curtains, turning the room pale and quiet. Her wolf hadn’t spoken again, but she could feel her. The bottom line was, she was alive, awake but restless. Coletta wrapped her arms around herself, staring at the envelope Damien had pressed into her hands. Her chest still tingled from the moment their eyes met, or their fingers brushed, from the way her body had reacted to his presence.

She could still smell him, cedarwood, musk, storm-scent. That intoxicating Alpha aroma that shouldn’t have affected her… not after what she’d been through. And yet she could still feel the pull. The recognition. Her heart clenched painfully as memories of Darian, her first mate, rose in a wave she wasn’t ready for. His touch, his rejection, his cruelty masked as dominance. The humiliation, the beatings and the exile. She had vowed never to feel that vulnerable again. But, now Damien didn’t just scare her, he unraveled her. And that terrified her even more.

Her wolf shifted restlessly and weakly inside her, brushing against her mind like a caged creature trying to escape. 'He’s ours.' Coletta buried her face in her hands. “Why now?” she whispered. “Why a second chance mate this early?” She didn’t know if she was finally waking up… Or falling straight into another nightmare.