Chapter 3

Emilie Holland POV:

Leaning against the lobby wall, I waited near the self-service printer for two agonizing hours until the machine finally spat out a thin lab sheet.

I snatched the paper and scanned the bottom line: Silver Toxicity Screening: Negative.

A long breath escaped my lips, and my aching shoulders finally dropped. I was clean, which meant I could keep working my two jobs to pay for Grandma Martha's ICU bills.

I folded the report neatly, shoved it into my bag, and headed up the stairs toward the second-floor skybridge exit to leave this suffocating building.

Right as I rounded the corner of the second-floor corridor, I ran straight into the two people I hated most in the world.

Tristan was carefully holding Chloe by the waist as they walked out of the obstetrics clinic, laughing and chatting.

Chloe spotted me first. She paused for a split second before a nasty smile spread across her painted lips, and she deliberately leaned her head against Tristan's chest.

Tristan's face flashed with brief awkwardness, which quickly hardened into cold arrogance as he pulled her closer. Even though he was just a mid-tier Alpha from a minor pack, he had always looked down on me.

I kept my face blank and stepped to the side, trying to walk past the disgusting pair without a word.

Chloe clicked her heels and stepped right into my path. "Well, well, isn't this Federal Media's little intern, Emilie?"

"Get out of my way," I said, lifting my chin as I looked at her smug face.

"Why so angry?" Chloe covered her mouth and giggled, scanning my wrinkled clothes with pure contempt. "What are you doing in a hospital? Did you catch some terminal disease?"

Tristan cleared his throat, putting on a patronizing tone. "Emilie, Chloe is pregnant with my pup. We're holding our mating ceremony next month."

"Congratulations on sorting the trash into the same bin," I shot back, my fingers curling into tight fists at my sides.

Tristan's face twisted with anger. "You're still as bitter as ever! A pathetic wolfless girl with no family backing like you never deserved an Alpha like me anyway!"

"Deserved a leech who lived off my paycheck for two years?" I sneered, hitting him right where it hurt.

Chloe's face flushed red, and she pointed a manicured finger in my face. "Who do you think you are? You're just a stray dog nobody wants! Without an Inner Wolf, you can't even trigger the Recognition Ritual. No man will ever claim you as his Mate!"

"Who says I don't have a Mate?" The sharp buzzing in my ears made my head throb, and to protect my last shred of pride, the lie slipped out before I could stop it.

"Ha! You expect me to believe that?" Chloe laughed loudly. "Go ahead and call this pathetic Mate of yours out here right now!"

Passing doctors and wolves slowed down, whispering and pointing at the scene we were making in the hallway.

Backed into a corner with my chest heaving, I caught sight of a tall figure rounding the pillar out of the corner of my eye. Without even looking at his face, I lunged forward and grabbed the man's suit sleeve.

"He is my Mate!" I announced loudly, trying to cover the panic in my voice.

The noisy corridor went dead silent. The mocking smiles on Tristan's and Chloe's faces froze as if they had just seen a ghost.

Sensing something was horribly wrong, I slowly turned my head and followed the expensive black fabric of the sleeve upward.

I stared straight into a pair of icy silver-gray wolf eyes and the chiseled, furious face of the lunatic officer who had just cornered me in the blood-draw room.

My heart dropped into my stomach. I tried to pull my hand back as if I had touched hot iron, but it was already too late.

The man looked down at my fingers clutching his arm, a dangerous, calculating glint flashing in the depths of his eyes.

"Your... Mate?" he murmured in a voice low enough for only the two of us to hear, every word heavy with threat.

My pulse went crazy. I widened my eyes in a silent plea and whispered under my breath, "Help me out. Please."

Chloe recovered first. Even though she didn't recognize Demian, the terrifying upper-class aura rolling off him made her voice shake. "You... you think grabbing a random stranger will fool us?"

Tristan swallowed hard, refusing to meet the man's eyes as he chimed in, "Emilie, stop embarrassing yourself."

Instead of shaking me off, the man suddenly turned his palm over and laced his fingers tightly through mine. The scorching heat of his skin shot straight up my arm like an electric current.

He tilted his head, locking his dark gaze onto my face as a chilling smile curved his lips.

"Since you already announced it to the whole floor," he said, leaning down so his warm breath brushed my ear, "how could I possibly let you down, my... little Mate?"