Y A N A
I don’t say anything. My body is numb and all I can do is sit there and shrink more and more. My luck is rotten to the core. First I blew my chances of making it, and now I got chased into an alley by a strange man whose advances I rejected.
I might just die tonight too.
He knocks on my window and laughs as I flinch. “You were so brave telling me to fuck off, and now you’re cowering in your car? Open the door so we can talk.”
“NO!” I yell at him. “I’ll call the police!”
“Do it,” he urges, and to my utter horror, he raises his hands, showing me that he’s holding a crowbar. “I’ll count to three.”
A scream escapes my mouth. I fumble for my phone but it falls under the seat. Tyler is swinging the crowbar in his hands, mimicking using it to break my window.
And the bad thing is, I know that he’ll do it, so I just crumple into a tight ball, closing my eyes and waiting for the worst.
But it doesn’t come.
The only thing I hear is the clang of the crowbar falling on the ground, and a loud grunt followed by an even louder thump. I hear sounds of struggles beside my car, then I feel everything rocking as something heavy gets tackled on the hood.
I open my eyes, still fumbling for my phone. But what I witness makes me forget about everything.
Slamming Tyler’s head on the hood of my car is another man in a suit. And he looks like. . . .
Mikhail.
And before I could even think about how and why he was here, his body expands right in front of me, sprouting fur and growing a snout and claws and sharp teeth, turning into a big monster that knocks Tyler unconscious.
Or maybe even dead.
A strong scream escapes my mouth, so loud and so shrill that even my own ears end up ringing loudly.
I blink repeatedly, trying to assess if the scene unfolding in front of me is real or not, if it’s a product of my unstable, upset mind or if it’s really Mikhail Sartori turning into a beast and tossing Tyler into the corner like he’s a ragdoll.
But no matter how much I blink, the image of the giant black dog monster is still right in front of me, breathing hard and causing my window to fog up.
“Help,” I want to scream, but no sound comes out of my mouth.
And my voice just vanishes more when I see the beast slowly advancing toward my car, sniffing the air as it does, as though it’s searching for its prey. . . .
Then the monster spots me from behind the window, its nose crinkling as it bares its razor-sharp teeth.
Fear, even greater than the thing I experienced from Tyler, courses through my body. I can feel it in my bones. There are no tears in my eyes this time, just shock. I can’t move. I can’t even breathe. All I can do is stare at the monster as my entire body gets wrapped in numbness, my heart beating so fast that I feel like an enormous throbbing organ.
The beast puts a paw on the hood of my car, and a wave of coldness envelops me.
Suddenly, my surroundings begin to turn black. My senses get duller and duller until they’re gone.
The last thing I feel is my body falling to the side, and just like that, everything disappears.
* * *
I wake up with a gasp.
My pulse is racing. Something inside my head is throbbing and I feel like my brain is being chopped in half. My skin is warm and cold at the same time, and I can feel my body sticking to my blanket. . . .
But wait.
I have a blanket?
The sudden realization makes me flinch. I rub my eyes and only then do I register where I am.
In my very own bedroom in our apartment.
Chills run down my spine. I’m not an idiot. I know that I passed out last night in my car because of that monster thing that somehow evolved from Mikhail. I know that I ended up there because I went for a drink and a dude named Tyler flat-out refused to leave me alone.
So how did I end up in my own apartment? Did someone take me here? Did my friends see and find out what I was up to?
A million questions are racing in my head. Then everything stops when I catch the biggest one.
What if . . . everything was a dream?
What if all the things that happened “yesterday” was nothing but an extra long, hyperrealistic dream that I had because I was scared?
Because nothing here indicates that yesterday was real.
I’m lying on my Hello Kitty sheets, with my pink curtains drawn and letting in the scorching morning light from outside. I’m wearing my fluffy pajamas, and I don’t see the clothes I wore yesterday lying anywhere near here. No evidence of papers, nothing. Maybe I’m still yet to go to the public conference.
Which means I still have a shot.
“Fuck yeah,” I whisper to myself, suddenly full of fire and fervor. I jump out of bed, head straight to my rack where my robe is, and snuggle into it. I basically kick open the door and I’m about to run down the stairs like a kid on Christmas when suddenly, I hear a voice coming from downstairs.
“. . . so happy you brought her home,” Lily is saying. “We were quite worried about her. The last time we talked, she told me she had a family dinner.”
“Maybe it went wrong, that’s why she got drunk,” Jason puts in, his voice full of concern. “You found her in an alley passed out in the driver’s seat, right, sir?”
“Please, don’t call me sir. Just call me Mikhail.”
Fucking hell.
I stand by the stairs, completely frozen in fear.
Everything is real. All of it. And with my friends downstairs is Mikhail. Again.
And I’m still not sure if he’s a monster or not.
Everything comes crashing back to me now, every painful detail. But I still don’t know if what I saw was real. I mean, men turning into dog monsters? What is this, Twilight? It looked so real, though. It felt so real. . . .
Unfortunately for me, there’s only one way to find out.
With shaking limbs, I take a deep breath and slowly make my way downstairs.
Sitting around the waiting area reserved for clients are Lily, Jason, and the CEO himself.
My friends both look up at me and smile. I notice that Mikhail is wearing his suit from yesterday, still pristine and crisp. On the table are takeout containers from Milo’s, a Michelin star restaurant not far from here.
Meanwhile, Mikhail is not looking at me. He’s leisurely drinking some coffee from my own personal mug.
Only when I arrive at the bottom of the stairs does he finally meet my eyes, and I shiver when I remember what those gray eyes looked like in the face of that monster
As though reading my mind, Mikhail smirks and raises his cup. “Finally. Come and join us. I’ve been looking forward to talking to you.”
M I K H A I LSo Yana Allard is indeed human.“That can’t be possible,” Evan told me yesterday after Yana walked out. He looked at the door she just shut closed and then turned to me. “I could sense her. Her human scent is strong and pure, and being in the same room with her was hard. . . .”“Not for me,” I whispered, and that’s when I had to admit to myself that yes, it was pretty strange. How come she was purely human and didn’t affect me? I was supposed to be the one who would get triggered more easily. “She might be something else.”“I doubt that,” Evan said, but he did look unsure. “Other creatures had been wiped out by civilization. Us Lycans are pretty much the last ones here.”“Only one way to find out,” I said, clutching my smarting cheek. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she turned out to be a troll or something. She was strong.”He laughed. “Only one way to find out, boss.”With that, he looked at me and instantly, we both knew what to do. I assigned an officer to take over the
Y A N A I’m floored. Not only that, I think I just sank all the way to Satan’s armpits in hell because of what Mikhail said. However, he just looks at me pleasantly as though this is a perfectly sane conversation between two sane adults. “Of course, this will be completely--” “Aren’t you a billionaire?” I blurt out. When he looks mildly offended about my interruption, I lean close to him and say slowly, “You are a billionaire bachelor.” “And what does have to do with anything, Miss Allard?” I shake my head. How come a rich businessman like him can’t understand basic logic? “What I meant, sir Mikhail is that you are rich and successful, and attractive. . . .” I trail off when I see the smirk on his face. “So you think I’m attractive?” “That’s not the point!” I wave him off. “The point here is, you’re basically the perfect bachelor. Hell, don’t you have a whole groupie of models worshiping the ground you walk on?” His smirk only gets wider. “So you know things about me?” “Everyo
M I K H A I L“What?” Yana splutters as the stylists approach him. She backs away as though she’s being arrested, putting her hands up in surrender. “What’s happening?”“Miss Allard, relax.” I let out a little laugh. “Let them take care of you, okay?”“But what are they going to do to me?”“Make you beautiful.”Yana’s mouth goes wide. “So you mean I’m not?”Oops. I turn to the stylists. “Take her away.”“HEY!” she yells, but they manage to coax her into coming with them, taking her to the private conference room I have at the back of my office.I take a peek before I close the door, and I’m pleased to see that they stylists bought all the clothes, accessories, and makeup that I told them to choose. Yana still looks like a fish out of water, but I’m certain she will adjust in no time.I go back to my desk and start to flick through some documents containing our financial statements. I review the summary and see that there’s a mistake, so I decide to take a crack at checking them cover
Y A N ANo way. No freaking way Mikhail did this and said that.I want it to be a dream. I’m so humiliated that I can’t feel my own body. I’m like a floating entity just standing there, my hand clasped in his as he continues to look at Deborah in challenge.“Anything more?” he prompts. “Or are we allowed to leave now?”Deborah looks like she just got punched in the face. Her husband is staring at her, and when their gazes meet, she suddenly turns to me and mutters, “I apologize, Yana.”“That’s what I like to hear,” Mikhail says in a lofty tone, signing another cheque and tossing it to her. “This is for another six months.”With that, he pushes past her, his hand still wrapped securely around mine as he pulls me along with him. I trot behind him, struggling to keep up not because of my sky-high heels but because my knees are weak from what just happened. His chauffeur opens the door for us, and only when we get inside do I manage to breathe out.“Back to the office, please,” he orders,
M I K H A I L“No answer,” Evan says as he looks up from his phone. “Yana has ignored all ten of our calls, boss. What do we do?”I open my mouth to say that we should call her again, but no sound comes out. The truth is, I don’t know what to do, and calling her this many times with no response is starting to feel wrong to me.Especially considering what happened the night before yesterday.“You did humiliate me more.”Those words continue to run through my mind like a bad mantra. Every time I try to focus on something, I hear Yana’s voice saying that. Granted, it shouldn’t be a big deal since she has every right to feel that way, but I just can’t shake off the feeling that she genuinely believes I shouldn’t have defended her.And she’s right, I didn’t have to. I just did it because I wanted to.I’m starting to think that the only reason why I’m this bothered is because I still don’t know why I wanted to.It’s not because of the contract. It’s not because of our arrangement. I just si
Y A N A“And now you remember me.”I wince when I hear the sarcasm in Mikhail’s voice. I feel pretty bad for calling him on a Saturday night, but Evan dropped by and told me that we should be meeting his parents tonight. I don’t remember if he told me or if I just forgot, but either way, I feel like shit.I have to admit: Olivia’s warning made me doubt everything. And it didn’t help that she brought a fresh batch of clients to my store either. At first, I thought that I would be able to be alright with everything, but guilt started to get to me the moment I didn’t answer the first call.I was already actually considering calling him, but Evan pushed me to do it, and I’m glad that he did.But now, I’m starting to regret calling him immediately. I get that it’s only ten in the evening, but he sounds like I bothered him.“I’m sorry,” I mumble, closing my eyes as I feel my cheeks heating up in shame. “I’ve been really busy for the past two days and I--”“Don’t lie, Yana.” Mikhail is breat
Y A N AI stagger away from him, squealing as I land back on my seat. I watch in horror as Mikhail gags again, retching onto the table.Did he . . . feel so grossed out about kissing me that he wants to throw up now?Did my breath stink that bad?I blow a strong gust of wind into my closed hand, trying to catch a weird smell, but I can only smell the mimosa. In my very valid opinion, my breath and my mouth are not puke-worthy.And yet here is Mikhail, clutching his stomach and quietly heaving. The women who were checking him out earlier are now watching him with worry, and I just sit there with mixed feelings, thinking about helping him but smacking him upside the head at the same time.“I’m sorry,” he mumbles and goes back to retching immediately. “I didn’t mean to do that. I don’t mean to keep doing it. It’s not your fault or anything, it’s just. . . .”He trails off when his gagging gets worse.The sound is digging into my ears. My chest is tight with a mixture of embarrassment and
M I K H A I L“That can’t be,” I whisper, but my voice sounds so quiet and so muted that I can hardly hear myself too. “This can’t . . . there has to be a way.”My Lycan, Kingsley, growls in my head, and I can hear it ringing in my ears even though we share a body. In return, I howl in my Lycan form, the sound bouncing so intensely off the walls that even Evan has to clamp his hands over his ears.Now that I’m fully conscious while Kingsley is up and running around, my panic is making its way through the surface more. I can tell that he’s not comfortable with the changes and this causes our Lycan form to slam itself against the walls, which explains the scratches.However, the pain from the collision doesn’t feel normal. Usually slamming into the padded walls would not cause any kind of pain, but this time it feels like someone is hammering at my bones in the hopes of breaking them.And this goes on for hours until I shift back to my human form again, this time weaker than ever.I col