Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Raven
The dreams always started the same way. With him.
His addictive scent flooded my senses, and the rough pads of his fingers stroked over my nipples, down my midsection, and over my hips, his touch intimate and all-knowing.
A stream of molten heat wound its way through me, my body tingling with anticipation. I trembled in his arms, my back against his front, my hips grinding helplessly against his hardness, soft whimpers escaping me.
His hand stilled the movement of my hips, the other around my throat, keeping me in a light but incredibly possessive grip. “Use your words,” he demanded, and a shameless sound of need left me.
I couldn’t compose myself enough to speak.
I couldn’t do anything but tense as his fingers found and teased me, pulling away before I could reach that scintillating edge.
“Please,” I begged, but it was already too late.
He pulled away. Bereft and shaky with unbearable need, I turned to reach for the stranger, but he was gone like he’d never been there.
I blinked, and just like that, I was back in that forest like I had never left—back to the night I lost my parents. The abrupt scene change was so jarring that all traces of arousal left me instantly.
“Raven, you need to run.” Mom’s dark hair fell over her face, obscuring her expression, but her panic bled into her voice.
“No, I’ll fight with you.” I shook my head, ignoring the fear in my chest that threatened to paralyze me. Mom’s eyes flickered between gold and brown, her wolf grappling for dominance, but when she spoke, there was no sign of it.
“Then you will die,” she responded matter-of-factly as though we weren’t in the woods running for our lives but back at home where I was attending leadership training.
“The alpha heir of the Ivory Moon Pack would not make such a reckless choice. To fight, first, you must live.” Mom’s grip on my arm tightened as the howls of the wolves hunting us drew nearer. “You must live, Raven.”
I opened my mouth to protest, tears blurring my gaze, but the entire scene had shifted once more. The wolves were ripping into Mom, and Dad’s decapitated body was several feet away.
I screamed. It was a feral scream that ripped its way through me, sundering all in its path, and I… splintered.
When I bolted awake, my throat was sore from screaming. I kicked off my sheets and left my bed, knowing I wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep. Rather, I headed out for a run to clear my head before work.
My sneakers slapped against the cobblestones, music blasting in my ears, but it wasn’t enough to drown out my thoughts.
My memories from my parents’ death were spotty at best, and all I knew about that night was what I learned from the pack. My parents were found dead from a rogue attack, but no single rogue body was found. Only mine.
I was completely unharmed without a single injury, but the place in my chest where my wolf had once resided was numb and empty, the art of shifting forever lost to me.
The dreams started almost immediately after I left the Ivory Moon Pack. It had taken me years to remember and piece together fragments of that night. Yet these past few weeks, I’d recalled more than I had in years.
The dreams were disturbing, but the dreams that made me dread closing my eyes were the ones of him. Whatever words of commitment we’d whispered in that haze of passion, the truth remained that I had only known the man for a few hours.
But that didn’t seem to matter the moment my eyes fell shut.
I dreamt of him taking me and owning me in every way that mattered. In those dreams, I burned with so much hunger for him. Some nights, I held him so tight until I didn’t know where he ended and I began, dreading the moment I would return to reality.
And reality always came when the dreams fell apart. The reality was that my one-night stand had been just that, and that just one week ago, I’d discovered that it had left me pregnant.
“A termination is still feasible for the next four weeks,” The doctor informed me gently after my meltdown upon discovering I was pregnant.
My choice was clear. I needed to schedule an appointment immediately. Fantasies aside, I had no way of tracking down my child’s father. Hell, I didn’t even know his name. And I wasn’t ready to be a mother. How could I protect a defenseless child when I was struggling to protect myself?
Yet, I couldn’t bring myself to open my mouth and speak.
“You don’t have to make a decision now,” Misha reassured me.
That was right. However, my initial four weeks were now down to three. Three weeks to decide if I wanted to abort my baby or keep it.
I ran faster. Like if I ran fast enough, I could outrun the questions in my head. Misha’s call came in as I finished my circuit and started up to my apartment.
“Raven, how are you doing?” Misha sounded tense, a shaky undercurrent to her words.
Worry sparked to life in my chest.
“Misha, what’s wrong?”
Misha hesitated before letting out a tired sigh.
“Ivy dropped by.”
My blood ran cold.
“Are you alright? Did she do anything to you?”
Like me, when she was younger, Misha had been bullied constantly by Ivy.
It was how we’d bonded after all. After she regained control over her wolf, Misha confronted Ivy.
As Misha was no longer weak enough for Ivy to lord her strength over, Ivy reluctantly let up.
But I knew nothing would stop Ivy from hurting her if she believed Misha was harboring me.
“No,” Misha clarified. “She was poking around for information about your whereabouts.”
Misha paused again, a thread of caution slipping into her words. “They are spreading the narrative that you absconded from your duty as alpha heir.”
It hit me then.
“They want to ruin my reputation so my position as heir can be contested,” I exhaled.
Of course, they were going to stoop to that level. I should have known Ivy and her parents wouldn’t accept this fragile stalemate.
“Or they are trying to provoke a reaction from you so that you reveal yourself,” Misha mused.
Right. Then, the moment I came out to refute their claims, they would abduct me and drag me back to the pack, or if Aunt Tiffany’s threat could be counted on, they would kill me.
“I won’t let them take my pack from me,” I swore through gritted teeth, and somehow, this only served to make Misha more concerned.
“Please be careful, Raven,” she pleaded. “You are too vulnerable right now, and I can’t come around to help you without revealing your location.”
“I’ll be fine, Misha. Don’t worry,” I reassured her. “You’ve done enough.”
By the time I ended the call to prepare for work, Misha still wasn’t convinced that I wouldn’t do anything silly. But I was smarter than that. I needed a solid plan before I could confront Ivy.
My hand dipped to my belly subconsciously. But before then, I needed to figure out what I was going to do about this pregnancy.
“It’s hard to believe you have no previous experience,” Martin grunted grudgingly as though compliments were a commodity he hoarded and was unwilling to part with. “You have a talent for sales. All in under two months, too.”
As the former CEO of Ivory Enterprise, I’d spearheaded so many real estate acquisitions and sales that my new job, in comparison, was relatively easy.
“Thank you, sir,” I said, inclining my head.
Martin nodded once, a serious expression settling on his face.
“How are the arrangements for the CEO’s arrival coming along?”
“Great, sir,” I confirmed.
“Run the plans by me once you are done,” Martin instructed. Then he paused, his astute gaze lingering on me.
“I trust your health issue from last week has been appropriately resolved. We can’t have our staff passing out during work hours, Miss Raven.”
I went still.
Martin was one of those old-fashioned wolves who didn’t believe much in letting female wolves work to begin with. I had no doubt that if Martin found out I was pregnant to boot, I could kiss my job goodbye.
I’d lied to him that I’d passed out due to low blood sugar.
Then I’d increased the amount of scent inhibitors I was already using to avoid detection by the Ivory Moon Pack.
I couldn’t afford to lose my job, especially now that Ivy was sniffing around Misha.
My pregnancy was barely showing, but I was already cornered and running out of time to come to a decision.
“I apologize, sir,” I promised, ducking my head to avoid his probing stare. “It will not happen again.”
And it wouldn’t.
My first trimester symptoms of nausea, dizziness, and headaches were still uncomfortably present, but I hadn’t survived the Ivory Moon Pack by being weak.
By the time I returned to my desk, Dana and Wendy were talking about our new CEO. Again.
“I heard he’s a werewolf,” Dana let out a scandalized whisper, but her eyes twinkled with delight.
Dana was in marketing, but she was far more adept at scouting for all the scintillating gossip in the office, often narrating it to Wendy as though desperate for her approval.
“It doesn’t matter what he is,” Wendy ran her fingers through her dark, luscious waves. “He’s going to be mine.”
Wendy, my senior colleague, was quite possibly the most stunning human female I’d ever seen, and she knew it.
At least half of the male employees at Cityscape would give their firstborns and all their salaries just for a moment of her attention.
But there was a sadistic glint in her eyes that eerily reminded me of Ivy.
“But I heard he’s been married before. Twice at least. And he’s old.” Dana wrinkled her nose in disgust.
Wendy rolled her eyes like her friend was being silly.
“He acquired our company, worth several million, like it was nothing. And from what I hear, it is nothing compared to all the numerous businesses under his group.” A soft smile settled on Wendy’s face, that vicious glint back in her gaze.
“With that much money, he could be as old as my grandfather, and I’d still fuck him. I can’t keep working this shitty job forever.”
Dana’s jaw dropped. Literally.
“Wendy!” she gasped.
Wendy ignored her, her dark eyes latching onto mine unerringly from where I stood, about to enter my cubicle.
“Newbie,” Wendy drawled. “Stop eavesdropping and get my report ready. I have a presentation in five.”
Since the day I got here, Wendy had me do at least half of her assigned work in a week. Presumably a sort of hazing of the new recruit. Even without a wolf, it wouldn’t take me much to wring Wendy’s delicate neck and toss her halfway across the room, but I simply nodded like it was nothing.
“Yes, ma’am.”
The last thing I needed was to draw any attention or suspicion to myself. As I stepped into my cubicle, I barely caught the tail end of Wendy’s irritated murmur directed at me.
“...loser nobody, always sucking up to Martin like she owns the damn place.”
So much for trying not to draw attention.
“Everyone to the meeting room. The new CEO is arriving in five minutes!” Lucia hurried by, spreading the news.
Panic broke out across the office space at the news of the CEO’s impromptu arrival, and I wasn’t exempt.
He wasn’t due till next week! I still had more than a few arrangements to be done. Goddess, I couldn’t afford to offend my new boss this early on.
I joined the rest of the staff heading to the largest meeting room Cityscape had. I had only just taken my seat when a fierce tingling sensation raised the hairs on the back of my neck. My breathing constricted, and that all-powerful dominant aura I’d only felt once before hit me.
Even before he entered, I knew it was him. My one-night stand. He strode into the meeting room like he owned the place and everyone else was superfluous. And in his overwhelming presence, they were.
He was decked out in a navy-blue suit that did marvelous things to the sculpted body I knew lay beneath. He effortlessly drew and held attention with his dark, shoulder-length hair tied back in a low bun, his chiselled jawline, and golden hazel gaze that dared anyone to question him.
I swallowed, my mind emptying for a second.
I’d thought I recalled everything about him in acute detail, but I had been wrong.
He was far more stunning than I recalled.
All the staff stood welcoming him with a bow, and I joined a second later, my mind still lagging, struggling to piece together what on earth was going on.
He was going to be my new boss? How was that even possible?
He took the seat at the head of the table, casually gesturing for the rest of us to take ours.
“I am Damien Blackwell, alpha of the Shadow Thorn Pack, head of Thorn Industries that has recently acquired Cityscape, and for the next six months, I will be directly heading this company…”
Just like that, my entire world tilted on its axis. I failed to hear what else he said after that.
Damien Blackwell. At the mention of his name, a chill went up my veins as I realized the reason he’d seemed so familiar that night and even now. It was Elias’s resemblance to him. Damien Blackwell. The current Alpha Elias was to succeed.
He was Elias’s uncle, whom I had never met, but his reputation as a ruthless, bloodthirsty alpha who decimated packs over simple slights and even murdered his own mate preceded him.
That Damien Blackwell was my one-night stand and my new boss? What were the fucking odds?
“Yes, sir,” Everyone chorused in response to something I had missed, bowing their heads in unison. I returned from my thoughts to realize I was the only one left with my head still raised.
Damien Blackwell’s hazel gaze locked onto mine, and a shiver raced through me as his eyes lit up with a hint of recognition.
“You,” he said in that velvety, rich, smooth, silky voice that haunted my dreams.