Chapter 9
Rowan sat in the leather chair behind his office desk, the city lights beyond the wide window casting faint reflections against the glass. Papers lay scattered in front of him—reports, contracts, schedules—yet none of it held his focus. His mind was back at the coffee shop.
Back on her.
Clara.
Even her name tasted right when he turned it over in his thoughts. Simple. Soft. Human.
He rubbed a hand across his jaw, a low growl humming in his chest. She was more than just a human woman running a coffee shop. He knew it the moment her scent had hit him—warm, sweet, threaded with something he couldn’t place but that called to him with unmistakable clarity. His wolf had stirred violently, clawing at the surface, demanding he claim her.
But he couldn’t. Not yet.
She didn’t know what he was. She didn’t know what she was to him. And if he pushed too hard, too fast, he risked scaring her away.
“Alpha?”
The voice drew him back. Elias, his Beta, stood in the doorway, his expression carefully neutral. Rowan knew what that meant—concern, buried under deference.
“You haven’t touched those reports,” Elias said after a beat. “We need your signature before morning.”
Rowan leaned back in his chair, forcing a breath through his nose. “I’ll get to them.”
Elias tilted his head. “This is about her, isn’t it?”
Rowan’s silence was answer enough.
“She’s human,” Elias reminded softly, though his tone lacked judgment. “The pack will question it. Some already do.”
“They’ll fall in line.” Rowan’s voice was sharp, certain. He never left room for doubt when it came to his authority. But inside, he knew Elias was right—the pack’s loyalty was strong, but fragile where tradition was concerned. An Alpha taking a human mate? That would unsettle even his most trusted wolves.
Still… he couldn’t ignore what the bond inside him screamed. Clara was his.
“I won’t risk her,” Rowan said at last, his voice low, edged with the growl of his wolf. “She doesn’t know what walks beside her in that town. She doesn’t know the danger.”
Elias studied him carefully. “So you’ll protect her from the shadows?”
“For now.” Rowan’s gaze shifted back to the city lights. No—the town. Her town. “She needs time. I need to approach her in a way that won’t send her running. She has to choose me, Elias. Not because she’s afraid, not because I force it. She has to want me.”
Elias nodded slowly. “And until then?”
Rowan’s jaw tightened. He thought of the way Clara’s laugh had sounded, soft and unguarded, when she spoke with her friend. The way her eyes had widened when their fingers brushed. She felt it too—he was certain of it. Even if she didn’t yet understand.
“Until then,” he said, his voice a quiet vow, “I’ll keep her safe. From others. From myself, if I have to.”
His wolf snarled at the thought, restless beneath his skin, but Rowan silenced it with sheer will. Strategy mattered. Control mattered. If he lost either, he risked losing her.
And that was something he would never allow.
