Chapter 5 Heat between lies

Zara

It started with a touch.

Just a brush of his hand against mine when we both reached for the same document. Stupid. Innocent. But it felt like someone dropped a live wire into my bloodstream.

I jerked back.

He didn't move.

Didn't even blink.

Just looked at me with those wolf eyes like he already knew what I was feeling and dared me to say it out loud.

I didn't.

I couldn't.

Because if I acknowledged it-even once-I'd lose every ounce of control I'd clawed my way back to over the past four years.

So I did what I always did when emotions got too loud.

I buried them. Deep.

---

But the tension didn't stop.

It lingered like smoke-every room we shared, every hallway we passed through. It clung to the space between us, thick and dangerous and electric.

And he knew it.

I'd catch him watching me when he thought I wasn't looking. Not in a predatory way-no, that would've been easier. This was... confused. Careful. Like he was searching for something familiar and terrified of what he'd find.

I couldn't let him find it.

I couldn't let him find me.

---

Then came the boardroom fire.

Not literal fire. Just the kind that happens when business and old blood collide.

Elin was there again. Always watching me now, like a cat staring down prey it's not quite ready to eat.

"She's hiding something," I heard her whisper once when she thought I was out of earshot. "Nobody's that clean."

She was right.

But I had more practice lying than she had telling the truth.

I kept my head down, presented my reports, answered questions flawlessly. I knew this world now-knew how to dress it, speak it, blend into it.

But it didn't matter.

The real fire started when she dropped her next little bomb.

"I've got a lead on someone we lost a few years ago," she said casually during the post-meeting drinks. "Zara D'Lune. Remember her?"

Damian went still beside me.

I felt it. The shift in the air. The hitch in his breath.

"Thought she was dead," someone muttered.

Elin smirked. "So did we. But now... not so sure."

My blood ran cold.

I looked down at my glass to hide the flash of panic in my eyes.

Damian said nothing.

Not in front of them.

But later?

Later he cornered me in the elevator.

---

Damian

She was shaking.

Not visibly. Not to the average person.

But I could smell it.

Her fear. Her fury. Her truth.

And it made my wolf go insane.

"What aren't you telling me?" I asked, keeping my voice low, calm.

She didn't answer. Just stared straight ahead at the elevator doors like they held the secrets of the universe.

"Elin's sniffing around," I added. "If there's something I need to know... now's the time."

Still nothing.

So I tried something else.

"I know who you are."

Her head snapped toward me.

"No," she whispered.

"I do," I said. "You're mine."

She blinked. Swallowed. Shook her head.

"No, I'm not."

Then the elevator stopped.

Doors slid open.

She stepped out.

Didn't look back.

But just before the doors closed, I heard her say-

"You had your mate. You let her die."

And then she was gone.

---

Zara

I shouldn't have said it.

It was stupid. Reckless.

Too much.

But it felt good. Just for a second, to throw it in his face. To remind him he didn't get to rewrite history just because he missed me now.

I died for him.

Or at least... I should have.

I paced my apartment that night, fists clenched, heart thudding against my ribs like it wanted out.

Everything was unraveling too fast.

I'd planned to take months gathering intel. Slowly dismantle his empire from the inside. Ruin him like he ruined me.

But I wasn't prepared for the bond to still be there.

Wasn't prepared for it to hurt.

---

A knock at my door.

I froze.

No one was supposed to know where I lived.

Another knock. Louder.

I grabbed the knife I kept under the sink.

Opened the door a crack.

And there he was.

Damian.

Rain-soaked. Eyes wild.

Chest heaving like he'd run the whole way.

"I need to know," he said.

"No, you don't."

He pushed the door open anyway.

I backed up.

"I remember," he said, voice shaking. "I remember your voice. Your laugh. That night in the cabin when you told me you loved me-"

"Stop."

"I remember choosing the pack over you."

My throat burned.

"And I remember," he added, softer now, "what it felt like to lose you."

I looked away.

He stepped closer.

"Why did you come back, Zara?"

I turned to him then, heart ripping open like it had teeth.

"To destroy you," I whispered.

He didn't flinch.

He just nodded once.

"Then do it," he said. "But don't lie to me anymore."