The mansion was silent. The kind of silence that only came after midnight,when even the house itself seemed to sleep.
Dominic sat in a high-backed chair by the fireplace in his private study, a glass of untouched whiskey in his hand. The flames licked at shadows across the stone walls, casting him in flickering amber light.
But his thoughts were far away.
On her.
Leila Monroe.
The moment he saw her,just a blur in the crowd, slipping into a restricted RaineTech event with forged credentials and a smirk too clever for her own good,something inside him snapped.
No, not snapped.
Awoke.
"Mate."
The wolf's voice inside him had been instant. Loud. Absolute.
And for a second, Dominic couldn't breathe.
He'd spent a hundred years mastering his instincts. Shoving the beast down. Keeping himself untouched, detached, utterly untouchable.
And then she walked in,
a hacker in high heels and a hoodie, too smart, too bold, too impossible,
and everything changed.
He didn't approach her that night. He couldn't. He was barely holding himself together as the wolf clawed against his skin, howling, mine, mine, mine.
Instead, he watched.
Tracked.
Studied.
He found out what she was, a digital ghost with a string of cleaned-up crimes, a talent for breaking through firewalls like they were paper, and a reputation for always disappearing right before things got messy.
He could've confronted her.
But he didn't want to scare her off.
He wanted her to come to him.
So he baited the trap.
He created a phantom account, 8.3 million dollars hidden behind a deliberately weakened security node. A tempting morsel, gleaming in the dark.
And like clockwork…
She bit.
The second she breached the system, his blood roared.
The second she stole the money, he smiled.
Because the girl who thought she was so clever had just chained herself to him in the most permanent way possible.
She just didn't know it yet.
Dominic stared into the fire now, jaw clenched tight.
She was upstairs.
His mate.
Sulking. Furious. Defiant.
Perfect.
He'd give her time to burn herself out.
Because when she stopped fighting,
when she let him in,
when she chose him, even if she didn't understand why,
She'd never be able to walk away again.
And the wolf would finally rest.
"Mine," he whispered into the flames.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Leila sat at the sleek desk in her new quarters, eyes fixed on the terminal screen in front of her,but her mind was miles away.
Dominic thought she was folding.
He thought he was breaking her.
Let him.
Let him think she was softening under his pressure, too rattled from his punishment to fight back.
She hadn't forgotten what he said:
You'll work for me. Repay every cent. Learn what it means to be mine.
But what he didn't realize was,Leila never played by the rules, not even her own.
So yes. She obeyed now.
She walked the halls without questioning. She smiled politely at the guards. She entered his private tech lab and performed like the perfect little asset.
But every night…
She planned.
She mapped the security systems in her mind. Watched how often the guards rotated. Found which doors responded faster, which elevators lagged.
And when Dominic wasn't around,she tested tiny commands. Quiet ones. Buried deep in invisible strings of code.
A backdoor into his backdoor.
Not yet, she told herself. But soon.
Still, there was one thing she hadn't planned for.
One weakness in her armor.
Him.
⸻
It was late when he found her.
She was in the library, curled on a velvet chaise, pretending to read but watching the rain instead.
She didn't look at him as he stepped into the room.
"You've been quiet," he said.
"I thought that's what you wanted," she replied softly.
He walked toward her slowly, like a storm waiting to break.
"No," Dominic said. "What I want… is honesty."
Leila turned her face to him then, and something shifted in her gaze. A challenge. A dare. A question she didn't ask out loud.
He stopped inches from her.
Neither moved.
The air crackled.
"Why didn't you turn me in?" she asked. "The second I breached your system. You had proof. Power. You didn't need to bring me here."
His eyes darkened. "Because you belong here."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one I have."
He reached for her, slow, deliberate,fingertips brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.
She flinched, just slightly.
But didn't move away.
"You're not afraid of me," he said quietly.
"I am," she whispered. "But not in the way you think."
His hand slid beneath her jaw, tilting her chin up.
"And how do I think?"
"That I'm scared of the monster in you."
He leaned closer. "Aren't you?"
Leila's breath hitched. "No. I'm scared of how much I want him."
The kiss was inevitable.
It hit like fire meeting gasoline,no tenderness, no hesitation. Just hunger.
His mouth was hot and demanding. Hers fierce and desperate. She rose on her knees, fingers tangling in his shirt, nails dragging down his chest like she wanted to claw something out of him.
Dominic backed her against the wall of books, lips crashing against her throat, her jaw, her mouth again.
"You're playing with fire," he growled into her skin.
She grinned against his lips. "So are you."
For one breathless moment, there was no hacking, no power games, no punishments or debts.
Just this.
Just them.
Two predators pretending not to fall.
Leila sat on the edge of the massive tub in the en-suite bathroom, robe loose around her shoulders, her legs still damp from the scalding bath she'd just taken like it could wash off what had happened the night before.
It was just a kiss.
But it didn't feel like just a kiss.
Her fingers curled tighter around the white porcelain edge of the tub.
She'd kissed people before. Slept with them. Manipulated them, even. It had always been strategic. Mechanical. Emotionless.
But Dominic Raine?
There was nothing mechanical about the way he touched her.
She'd felt it in her stomach, her spine, between her legs.
Worse….she'd wanted it. Wanted more.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
She stood up too fast, brushing wet hair off her face, pacing across the marble like it would help burn the memory away.
The way his hand cupped her jaw.
The heat of his mouth at her throat.
The way she'd moaned into his kiss like some obedient little plaything.
What are you doing, Leila?
You're supposed to be playing him. Not letting him crawl under your skin like some cursed chemical reaction.
This was all part of his strategy. She knew it.
Confuse her. Seduce her. Make her forget that she was a prisoner behind gold-threaded curtains and silk sheets.
But she hadn't forgotten.
Not for a second.
And if he thought one kiss was going to make her melt into his hands?
She'd kiss him again just to bite his lip hard enough to draw blood.
Her reflection stared back at her from the mirror,eyes sharp, mouth flushed, throat still marked from his stubble.
She scowled at it.
Don't be stupid.
This wasn't about attraction.
It was about survival.
And maybe… control.
Because if she could make Dominic want her-really want her,then maybe, just maybe…
She'd be the one holding the leash when this was over.
And not the other way around.