I had met Soren Ashvale twice.
The first time was in the university cafeteria, when I accidentally dropped my lunch tray and stained his outrageously expensive coat.
The second time, he stopped me beneath a streetlamp on a night ravaged by snow and wind, blocking my way. There was an undisguised, predatory hunger in his dark eyes—the kind only an Alpha wolf could possess. His scent pressed in on me, nearly driving the Omega instincts inside me out of control.
“Whatever your boyfriend can give you, Wren,” Soren said, his voice low and certain to the point of arrogance, “I can give you too. And more.”
I stopped and met his gaze. “What exactly do you mean?”
“Leave him,” he said. “Choose me.”
—
Later, everyone began to say that the untouchable heir to the Ashvale family had stolen his girlfriend from one of his closest friends. Rumor had it that the two of them had nearly come to blows because of me.
At a party, someone finally could not resist asking, “Is that true?”
“It has to be,” someone else replied with a sneer. “That woman never looked trustworthy. She probably seduced him first.”
Soren lounged lazily against the sofa, as though the gossip had nothing to do with him. But when he lifted his eyes and gave the speaker a cool, dangerous look, the room fell silent.
“No,” he said casually.
“I was the one who seduced her.”
—
Perhaps our relationship had been doomed from the beginning.
We went public loudly and recklessly, only to fall apart just as abruptly.
Years later, we met again.
On the other side of the wall, glasses clinked and laughter rose from the ballroom. Here, in the corridor beyond the door, Soren had me pinned against the wood, kissing me as if he had never managed to forget me during all the years we had been apart.
“Soren Ashvale, have you lost your mind?” I gasped, trying to push him away.
He only smiled, utterly composed and certain of his victory. His fingers brushed lightly over the curve of my ear, grazing the one spot that was far too sensitive.
“Say it louder, Wren,” he murmured. “Let everyone outside hear who you’re tangled up with.”
