Ivy POV
The man in the doorway doesn't move.
Behind her, she hears silence. The kind of silence that means someone is holding their breath. The kind of silence that happens right before something breaks.
"There was a dog attack nearby," Ivy says and it's almost true. "Maybe the blood is from that. Or maybe it's old. I haven't cleaned in a few days."
The man studies her face. He's looking for a lie. She can see him hunting for it in her eyes.
"What's your name?" he asks.
"Ivy Monroe."
He nods like he's filing that away. Like he's remembering her for later.
"If you see anyone matching the description I gave, you call this number." He hands her a card. It's black with white lettering. No company name. Just a number. "You don't try to help them. You don't get involved. You call immediately."
"Okay," she says.
He leaves.
She doesn't close the door until she hears the elevator. She doesn't turn around until she's sure he's gone.
Rurik is trying to stand again. His face is grey with pain but his eyes are clear.
"You lied for me," he says.
"Who was that?"
"Someone who wants me dead." He gets one foot on the ground. "I need to go. Now. Before he comes back."
She helps him up even though every sane part of her knows she should let him fall. She helps him to her door. She helps him into the hallway.
"Will you come back?" she asks.
He looks at her like the question hurts him.
"No," he says. "You deserve better than this. You deserve a life that doesn't include monsters."
Then he's gone.
She doesn't see him leave. She hears the stairwell door close and after that there's nothing. Just her apartment and her broken window and the smell of blood that won't wash out of her carpet no matter how hard she scrubs.
The first day after he leaves, Ivy tells herself it was a hallucination. Stress. Too many hours of listening to other people's trauma. Her brain gave her a wolf and a beautiful man to make sense of something that doesn't make sense.
The window was probably always broken. She probably just didn't notice.
The blood was probably nothing.
She reports the window to her landlord as weather damage. He fixes it. No questions. By evening it's like it never happened.
The second day she goes to work. She sits with clients and listens to their pain and tells them they're going to survive. One woman asks if she's okay because she seems distracted.
Ivy says she's fine.
She's not fine.
At night she goes home and she looks at her couch and she remembers a man bleeding on it. She remembers his eyes. She remembers how he looked at her like she mattered.
The third day she stops pretending.
She sits in her apartment and she thinks about what she saw. A wolf that turned into a man. A man with grey eyes. A man named Rurik who told her she deserved better and then disappeared like he was a dream she invented.
She thinks about how lonely she is.
She thinks about how for three days she felt needed. She felt like she was saving something instead of just existing.
She thinks about how empty her life is going to feel now that he's gone.
By the fourth day she's given up.
She's stopped trying to convince herself it was fake. She's accepted that something impossible happened in her apartment and she'll probably never understand why.
The knock on her door at 7 PM is quiet.
She doesn't check the peephole. She just opens it.
Rurik is standing in her hallway in expensive dark clothes. His hair is combed. His face is shaved. He looks like a normal man. Like the kind of man you'd see in a coffee shop or a business meeting. Like the kind of man who doesn't turn into wolves.
But his eyes are the same. Grey and deep and looking at her like she's the only real thing in his world.
"Hi," he says and it's almost funny how normal the word sounds.
"You came back," she says.
"I shouldn't be here."
"But you are."
"I tried to stay away," he says quietly. "I tried to forget you. I tried to convince myself that what happened was temporary. That you would forget me and move on and build a safe life."
He leans against her doorframe like standing is costing him energy.
"I can't stay away from you," he continues. "My wolf won't let me. And honestly I don't want to try anymore."
Ivy doesn't say anything. She just steps aside.
He looks at the open door like it's a test.
"If I come inside, everything changes," he says. "You understand that right? This isn't going to be simple."
"Nothing about this has been simple," Ivy says.
He steps inside and closes the door behind him.
The lock clicks and the sound echoes through her small apartment. It's a small sound but it feels huge. Like something just changed in a way that can't be undone.
He's in her apartment again and this time he's choosing to be here.
"My name is Rurik Thorne," he says. "I'm the Alpha of the Northern Cascade pack. What happened to me that night was an attack from a rival pack. I was running from them when I crashed through your window."
She nods like this makes sense. Like people turn into wolves every day.
"I'm a werewolf, Ivy. I'm dangerous. The people looking for me are dangerous. If you help me again, you're putting yourself in real danger."
"Why did you come back?" she asks.
He moves closer to her and she doesn't step away.
"Because I can't stop thinking about you. Because my wolf recognizes something in you. Because for the first time in seventeen years, I felt like I was just a man instead of an Alpha and that feeling was worth dying for."
He reaches out and touches her face with one hand. His palm is warm against her cheek.
"I need help," he says. "My wounds need more time to heal. I can't go back to my pack yet. They can't know how badly I'm injured or my enemies will attack. I need somewhere to hide. Someone I trust."
He lowers his hand.
"I need you," he says.
And the worst part is that she can feel it. Not the wolf. Not the supernatural part. She can feel the loneliness in him. The desperation. The way he's looking at her like she's the answer to a question he's been asking his whole life.
She can feel it because she feels the exact same way.
"How long?" she asks.
"Two weeks maybe. Then I have to go back."
Two weeks.
Fourteen days.
It's not much. It's barely anything. But it's more time with him and she knows she's about to do the most selfish and reckless thing she's ever done.
"Okay," she says.
Relief floods his face.
"If you do this," he says, "you have to understand that this is real. This isn't temporary. This isn't a fantasy. The danger is real. The people looking for me are real."
"I understand."
"Do you?" He steps closer and now they're inches apart. "Because once you say yes to me, there's no going back to your safe life. I won't let you go."
She should be terrified.
Instead she reaches out and takes his hand.
"I was never safe," she tells him. "I was just invisible. And I'm tired of disappearing."
He pulls her close and for the first time in her life, Ivy feels like someone sees her.
For the first time she feels like she's choosing something for herself instead of living for everyone else.
For the first time she feels alive.
"What happens now?" she whispers.
His arms tighten around her and his voice is soft against her hair.
"Now we figure this out together."