Chapter 2

I gasped for air as if I were a drowning person who had finally surfaced.

The ceiling was blindingly white, and the air was thick with the smell of disinfectant and a faint plastic odor.

The steady "drip-drip" in my ears reminded me that I was still alive.

My chest felt tight, and every breath brought a dull ache.

However, that pain was nowhere near as real as the impact from that rainy night.

I blinked, trying to focus.

The medical equipment around me emitted a soft glow, and the sheets were so clean that they felt almost cold.

A nurse hurried in.

When she saw that I was awake, she paused for a moment, then broke into a delighted smile.

"Ms. Blake! You're awake! We were worried you might have internal bleeding, but the scans all came back normal. You're really lucky. It was just a head injury, and you were in a coma for ten days."

Ten days.

The number hit me like a blunt hammer to the chest.

I instinctively tried to sit up, but she gently yet firmly pressed down on my shoulders.

"Take it easy. Don't move just yet. Your husband comes by every day. He just left a little while ago to get some coffee. He said to let him know the moment you wake up."

Husband.

That word instantly made my stomach churn.

Memories flooded back like a tidal wave: Nathan's deep voice in the hotel room, Sophie's silvery laughter, and that brutally honest remark: "Let her die. We'll finally get our hands on the insurance money."

I swallowed hard; my throat was as dry as sandpaper.

Outside the window, the overcast sky was blurred by rain.

I should have died on that rainy night, run over by a car and finally freed from betrayal.

But now, I was alive—and more lucid than ever.

The nurse was still checking my IV line when I whispered, "What about the police? Someone pushed me."

She paused slightly, a flicker of confusion crossing her eyes, but quickly regained her professional composure. "The police took a statement and ruled it an accident. You slipped on the wet pavement and hit your head. Once you're feeling better, we can contact them again."

I stared at the ceiling.

*An accident?

No, this time I won't let myself become a victim in someone else's story.*

A week later, I returned to the office wearing a well-tailored suit and stiletto heels. The atmosphere seemed to have changed. My team members sensed the shift, as did the executives. Even the men who had once stolen my ideas and silenced me now seemed to shrink in my presence.

During the morning meeting, I sat calmly at the long table, flipping through documents. Nathan sat diagonally across from me with Sophie seated beside him as a "marketing consultant." She wore a knee-length pencil skirt today, and her makeup was flawless. She had a sweet smile.

I kept my eyes downcast, yet I took in everything with a keener awareness than ever before.

Beneath the heavy tablecloth, Sophie's legs, clad in black stockings, were slowly caressing Nathan's calf.

Her movements were discreet and practiced.

Her toes slid gently upward, like a coiled snake.

Nathan's expression remained almost unchanged, though his grip on his pen tightened slightly, and his Adam's apple bobbed ever so slightly.

He was listening intently to the financial report, a proper smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

They thought no one knew.

But I was lurking like a wolf in the shadows, observing every subtle movement and mingled scent—the sweet, sensual note of Sophie's perfume and the excitement emanating from Nathan.

In my past life, I might never have noticed these details.

Now, however, my reborn senses felt like a wild switch that had been fully flipped on. I could hear the slowed rhythm of their deliberate breathing and smell the subtle hormonal shifts in the air.

They thought they were being discreet, yet they were like two defenseless prey performing shamelessly before my eyes.

I looked up, smiled calmly, and nodded to the department head who was presenting the report.

Sophie sensed my gaze, paused slightly, stopped moving her leg for half a second, and then casually pulled it back as if nothing had happened.

She gave me a concerned smile. "Victoria, you've only just recovered. Don't overexert yourself."

I looked her straight in the eye.

My voice was gentle yet laced with a barely perceptible edge. "Thanks for your concern. I feel better than ever."

Nathan also turned to look at me, and a complex expression—a mix of smugness and guilt—flashed across his face.

He reached out to pat the back of my hand, but I dodged his touch naturally.

In that moment, I smiled silently to myself.

The hunter has awakened while the prey continues to frolic, lulled into a false sense of security.

Little do they know that I've already found the document carefully hiding the change of beneficiary on the life insurance policy. Dated two months ago, it changed the beneficiary from me to Sophie.

More importantly, on the back of that document, I discovered something they could never have imagined...

Morning light spilled through the penthouse windows as I lay in bed listening to the silence that Nathan had left behind.

He had slipped out an hour earlier, mumbling something about a breakfast meeting. The lie still lingered in the air.

I moved slowly through the apartment, playing the part of the fragile cancer survivor that everyone expected. Grateful. Weak. Safe.

Inside his walk-in closet, I inhaled deeply.

The scent hit me hard—his cologne layered over Sophie's floral perfume and the unmistakable musk of their bodies. Desire. Sweat. Betrayal. My stomach twisted, but I kept breathing.

I found the charcoal shirt he'd worn last night and buried my face in it. The combined scent was strongest there: raw and intimate. I tightened my grip on the fabric before forcing myself to hang it back exactly as I'd found it, my pulse racing as I did.

In his trouser pocket, I found a hotel key card.

Room 509.

I slipped it into my pocket and left the closet, keeping my expression calm.

The office hummed with Monday morning energy. As I stepped off the elevator, the air shifted.

Marcus Reid was walking toward me down the hallway. Our eyes met, and everything else faded.

A flash of amber lit his irises. My heartbeat synced with his—fast, heavy, and alive. He froze mid-step, shock and hunger rolling off him in waves.

"Victoria," he said in a low voice. "You're back."

We barely made it into his office before he turned to the window frame, his back tense and his shoulders rigid.

"You're one of us," he said quietly.

I pressed against the wall. "Explain."

"You're a wolf. Gamma tier. Your scent was dormant until the accident woke it up." He turned, his eyes now fully amber. "I've known since the day you started here. I spent three years watching you suffer with that bastard, unable to say anything because you didn't know what you were."

He slid a USB drive across the desk.

"Financial records, hotel logs, communications. Everything you need to bury them."

I stared at the drive. "Why help me?"

"Because I've been in love with you for three years," he said simply. "And because Sophie is a low-tier wolf, too. She's using Nathan to take down someone stronger than her. You."

My blood chilled. I stared at Marcus, stunned, the truth sinking in too fast to answer.

It's not just adultery. A calculated takedown. My mind raced as I tried to make sense of it.

My phone buzzed.

Nathan's message appeared on the screen:

[Working late tonight. Don't wait up. Love you.]

I showed it to Marcus.

His lips curved into a sharp, dangerous smile.

"Room 509 again?"

I nodded.

"Then we're moving tonight," he said.

As I reached the door, I paused and looked back. "One last thing—why wait three years to tell me?"

Marcus's expression softened for a moment.

"I didn't want to destroy your world until you were ready to face the truth."

I stepped out of his office, the USB drive burning in my palm.

As I walked down the hallway, a new scent caught my attention—faint, unfamiliar, and dangerously close.

Someone was watching me.