Marco's POV
"Babe, aren't you going to stay?" Serene asked as soon as I pulled over in front of her house. Her voice was soft at first, but there was tension beneath it. The way she called me babe used to sound sweet, but tonight it only grated against my nerves.
"I'm tired, Serene," I said, keeping my tone controlled. "The company event took a lot out of me. I just need some rest."
The lie came easily, but her eyes were too sharp to be fooled. She turned to me, her expression twisting with anger.
"You're the strongest Alpha in our community, Marco. Don't feed me that excuse," she said, her tone rising. "Even if you spent the night making love with that bitch, you would never get tired. You don't get tired when you want something, especially when it's her. I know you too well, Marco."
Her voice shook, but the venom in her words burned. "Just admit it. This is your way of disposing me, isn't it? You slept with her to prove something to yourself, and now you're trying to pretend it didn't mean anything."
I said nothing. My hands tightened on the steering wheel. I could feel the pulse of guilt in my chest, but it wasn't for what she thought. I wasn't sorry for being with Lara. I was sorry because, for the first time in years, I didn't know how to face the truth.
"We've talked about this too many times, Serene," I said quietly, forcing my voice to stay calm even as the storm inside me grew louder. "You knew what the Blood Moon could do. You knew what might happen."
"I don't care about your excuses!" she cried, her voice breaking. "You promised me, Marco. You told me you could fight the bond. You said you were strong enough to defy fate, and I believed you. I believed you!"
Her hands clenched on her lap, her nails digging into her skin as tears filled her eyes. "How could you do this to me? After everything we've been through?"
I looked away. The silence between us stretched painfully. I could still feel Lara's touch, hear the way she whispered my name like it meant something sacred. And that memory alone made me feel like a traitor.
"Have some rest, Serene," I said finally, my voice heavy. "We'll talk tomorrow."
She stared at me, her gaze cold and glistening with tears she refused to let fall. "You don't want to talk tomorrow, Marco," she whispered bitterly. "You just want to run away from what you've done."
Before I could say another word, she opened the door and stepped out, slamming it hard enough that the sound echoed through the quiet street. I watched her walk toward her gate without looking back.
And when I finally drove away, I felt like less than a man. Because no matter how much power I held, I had still managed to break three hearts in a single day, and one of them was mine.
When I finally drove away, the silence inside the car was unbearable. My hands were tight on the wheel, my chest hollow with guilt. I had hurt two women in one day, one who had always stood beside me, and one who had changed everything with a single touch. And I didn't know which one I had hurt more.
As if the day hadn't punished me enough, the moment I pulled into the driveway of my mansion, I saw Corbin waiting for me, his motorcycle rumbling low in the dark. His eyes glowed with barely restrained anger, his jaw tight as steel.
"Is it true?" he demanded the instant I stepped out of my car. His voice was sharp, heavy with fury that had been waiting to explode.
I didn't need to ask what he meant. I already knew. Serene must have called him.
"Corbin, I don't think I owe you any explanation," I said calmly, even though I could feel the tension simmering between us like an open flame.
He stepped closer, his fists clenched at his sides. "This is about Lara Quinn," he spat. "If you didn't want her, why did you mark her, Marco?"
"It needed to be done," I said coldly. The words tasted like ash, and his expression twisted with rage.
"You are a damn coward," he hissed. "A selfish bastard who ruins everything he touches. I swear, Marco, I could kill you right now."
I smirked, though the effort burned. "You know you can't," I said, walking past him toward the front steps.
His voice cracked behind me. "Please," he said, his tone shifting from anger to desperation. "Don't make her suffer. Just reject her, Marco. Let her go. I'll take her as my mate. I'll love her the way she deserves."
I froze. His words hit me harder than any blow could. Corbin was not the kind of man who begged, and hearing him say that with sincerity in his voice made something inside me snap.
I turned slowly to face him, my control hanging by a thread. "She is mine, Corbin. She always was. You knew that from the start."
"You don't own her, Marco," he shot back, his voice shaking. "You marked her, and now you're pretending she doesn't exist. You think that makes you strong? You're wrong. You either reject her or marry her. Those are the only choices left. But you can't keep her trapped between your pride and your guilt. You call yourself the strongest Alpha, yet you can't even protect your fated mate or the woman you claim to love."
His words hit harder than claws to the chest.
"You're nothing but an arrogant coward," he finished, his voice low with disgust.
My fists curled at my sides. I wanted to remind him who I was, that I was his Alpha, that he had no right to speak to me that way. But I couldn't. Because deep down, I knew he was right.
The silence between us was heavy. I could hear my own heartbeat pounding in my ears.
"I love her, Marco," he said quietly, his voice breaking this time. "Please... let her go."
That plea destroyed whatever restraint I had left. Because instead of humbling me, it made me want to claim her all over again. It made me want to prove to him, to everyone, that she was mine and no one else's.
Without another word, I turned and walked back to my car. I started the engine and left him standing in the middle of the driveway, the sound of my tires drowning out everything else.
I drove fast, the night air cutting cold against my skin, but my blood burned hotter with every mile. I couldn't stop thinking about Lara. Her scent, her trembling voice, the way she had looked at me when I took her virginity. She surrendered fully to me without demanding something in return.
I had promised myself I would never let the prophecy control me, that I would never be ruled by fate. But here I was, driving through the city like a madman, chasing the one woman I had sworn to stay away from.
I remembered the day my father told me the Seer had found my mate. I had been furious. I wanted to defy it. I didn't want destiny to decide who I would love. But my father had already planned everything. He said she would be working in my company as a part-time secretary, a cover to help her finish her studies.
Lara needed money for college, and the council made sure she found her way to us. One of our pack members disguised himself as a volunteer at the dog shelter where she worked on weekends. He told her to apply at Blackwell International Holdings. She had no idea she was walking straight into the life the prophecy had written for her.
And from the moment she stepped into my office, everything changed. The pull I felt was immediate, dangerous, undeniable.
Now Corbin's words echoed in my head like a curse. Reject her or marry her.
He was right. Those were the only choices left.
But as I sped toward her house, I realized I was no longer thinking about what I should do. I was thinking about what I wanted to do.
And the truth terrified me. Because deep inside, I already knew, no matter how hard I tried to fight it, Lara Quinn would always be mine.
I could feel her before I even saw her. Her scent drifted through the small hallway of that house, soft and familiar, cutting through the air like a memory I could not escape. And when she finally stepped out of her room, I forgot how to breathe.
Her hair was messy, her eyes still red from crying, and she wore the simplest clothes imaginable, but she looked breathtaking. Not the polished beauty I was used to seeing at company events, but raw and real. It struck something in me that I could not name. My chest tightened as I realized how much I had missed her in just one day.
She looked at me with a mix of anger and hurt, and I knew exactly what she was thinking. I wanted to reach for her, to pull her into my arms and tell her that I was sorry, that I never meant for things to turn out this way. But I couldn't. I was still her boss, and touching her now would only make everything worse.
There was fire in her eyes, and beneath it, I could see her longing. I could feel it as clearly as my own heartbeat. The pull between us was still there, fierce and relentless. I had felt it since the night I marked her, and no amount of control could stop it.
The Seer had been right. Lara Quinn was unlike any human I had ever met. She was strong. Strong enough to look at me now, with all that anger and pain in her eyes, and still hold herself together. I could sense the battle inside her, the way her heart called for me while her pride begged her to stay away.
When she spoke, her voice was calm, but I could hear the storm behind it. Her words hit me harder than any punch ever could.
"You don't get to bark orders at me anymore, Mr. Blackwell."
The way she said it made my name sound like something sharp, something meant to wound. Her voice was steady, but I could see the tremor in her hands, the faint quiver in her lip that she tried to hide. She was angry, yes, but beneath that anger was pain that came from betrayal, from being pushed too far.
"Do you really think that after what happened at the cabin I'll go back to your office and pretend nothing happened? I am human, Mr. Blackwell, not a robot."
Every word she spoke sliced through the air like a blade. I could feel the weight of her disappointment pressing down on me, suffocating me.
She looked straight into my eyes as she said it, and for a moment, I forgot how to breathe. The defiance in her gaze burned hotter than any flame, and yet all I could think about was how much I wanted to reach for her and touch her. To make her stop shaking, to tell her I never meant for any of this to happen.
But I couldn't.
Watching her now, standing in front of me, trembling but unbroken, I realized something I had been too proud to admit. Lara wasn't just my secretary anymore. She was the woman I couldn't forget, no matter how hard I tried.
I wanted to tell her I had tried to fight it, that I was losing my mind trying to stay away from her. But I couldn't say any of that.
She had no idea how much I wanted to silence her, not out of anger, but out of the unbearable desire to taste her lips again. I hated myself for it. I had no right to want her, not after what I had done.
"I will be waiting in the car," I said, stepping back before I did something reckless.
Her pulse quickened, echoing faintly through the bond I tried so hard to ignore. I should have looked away, should have turned and walked to my car, but I didn't. I just stood there, staring at her, fighting the urge to close the distance between us.
"I will be quick," she said at last, her voice tight but steady. Then she turned sharply on her heel and walked back toward her room, leaving me standing there, watching her go, wondering how something so fragile could undo me so completely.
As I turned away and walked toward the car, I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding. My hands were shaking, and I could still feel her eyes burning into my back.
She didn't know it, but I came here tonight to do the right thing and to end the chaos I started. But now that I had seen her again, all my plans felt meaningless.
Because no matter how much I tried to convince myself otherwise, the truth was simple.
Lara Quinn wasn't just a part of my mistake. She had become my weakness.