Chapter 123 Reclaiming Control
Briar's POV
I woke up alone again, and the emptiness of my apartment felt like it was crushing my chest. Selene whimpered inside me, a sound that made my wolf feel like she was being torn apart from the inside. I forced myself out of bed and deliberately avoided the kitchen, but when I walked into the living room, I found his black scarf draped over the back of the couch.
I picked it up without thinking and pressed it to my face. The scent of cedarwood and amber hit me so hard that my knees buckled. Selene let out a howl that echoed through my mind, a sound of pure grief that made my entire body shake.
The mate bond felt like it was being ripped apart, every fiber of my being screaming that something fundamental was wrong, that I was supposed to be with him and instead I was here in this empty apartment surrounded by reminders of what I'd lost.
I couldn't stay here. I grabbed my phone and texted Rowan: [Can you pick me up? I need to get out of here.]
---
By evening, Rowan had me in her car speeding down the coastal highway outside Seattle. She'd been quiet for the first hour, but now she glanced over at me with that direct stare that meant she was done being patient.
"So are we going to talk about what happened, or are you just going to keep staring out the window?"
I let out a breath. "He broke up with me."
"Did he actually tell you it was over, or are you just assuming?"
"He turned his back on me in the hospital hallway. He looked right at me and then deliberately turned away."
Rowan was quiet for a moment. "Is he the one who completely rejected you, or did you just never find the right way to climb down from your high horse?"
The question hit me harder than I expected. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means the pain of losing him is going to be ten thousand times worse than swallowing your pride. Kincaid men all have control issues, but at least Lucian gave you choices. Now you need to take that choice back. You need to go after what you want instead of just accepting that it's gone."
I stared out at the dark ocean and felt something shift inside me. She was right. I'd spent so long fighting to be independent that when I finally found someone I wanted to need, I'd pushed him away out of pure habit.
"I don't know how to do that," I admitted quietly.
"You start by deciding you're going to do it. The rest will follow."
---
It was past midnight when I got back to my apartment. I sat on my couch with my phone in my hand, staring at Rowan's last message: [Sleep on it. If you still feel the same way in the morning, we'll make a plan.]
But I didn't need to sleep on it. I opened a new message to Rowan and typed: [I've thought about it. I want him back. I'm going to fight for this.]
My phone rang thirty seconds later. "Are you serious or is this just the loneliness talking?"
"I'm serious. I've never been more serious about anything."
"Okay. Then we need a strategy. You can't just show up at his office and demand he take you back."
"I know." I ran my fingers over the silver mark on my neck. "First I need to handle the company crisis and prove I can stand on my own. Then I'll reach out through Ash or Kai. If that doesn't work, I'll camp out in front of Apex until he agrees to talk to me."
"That's actually not a terrible plan."
"And I'm not moving. I was thinking about finding a new place, but I'm not doing that anymore. He's going to come back here eventually. I know he will."
After I hung up, I whispered to the empty air, "If the Moon Goddess made us mates, then I'm not going to let anyone tear that apart. Not Julian, not your father, and not even you."
---
The next morning I called an emergency meeting with Eric. When he arrived, I stood and said, "I'm promoting you to General Manager. You'll be overseeing all operations and building out the research team."
Eric stared at me. "You're promoting me?"
"Yes. You're brilliant, but you can't keep doing everything yourself. I need you to start building a team, training people, delegating. You need to become a leader, not just a technician."
"This feels like you're trying to push me out."
"I'm trying to prepare you for the future. Do you want to spend the rest of your career as a researcher, or do you want to lead this company into international markets? Reginald's network is just the beginning. I want Lunar Stabilizer in Europe within two years. The board members who can't keep up with that vision are going to get left behind."
Eric was quiet for a long moment, then nodded. "Alright. I'll do it."
That afternoon, Iris burst through my door. "We have a problem. A blogger just posted a video saying she had a severe allergic reaction after eating our energy bars. The video has over two million views and the hashtag VanceBotanicalsPoison is trending."
My stomach dropped. "Show me."
The blogger had four point three million followers and was lying in a hospital bed with her face swollen. She held up one of our wrappers and said, "I trusted this company and they almost killed me."
I watched it twice, then said, "Repost the video on our official account with a public apology. Commit to releasing full testing results within seventy two hours. Invite her to meet with me personally. And file a report with the Werewolf Council before anyone else does."
Iris looked shocked. "You want to amplify the criticism?"
"Running from this will only make it worse. If we're transparent and proactive, we turn a crisis into an opportunity to prove we care about consumer safety."
By six forty five that evening, my PR Director Owen came with an update. "The blogger has agreed to meet tomorrow. The police have opened an investigation. The Council is sending an inspector next week."
"Good work," I said.
Owen hesitated. "There's something else, just some gossip. Someone saw Ash at Moonbeam Café yesterday with a blonde woman. She had at least six bodyguards with her. They were sharing a couple's ice cream sundae."
My entire body went cold. "Ash was at a café? "
Blonde hair. Heavy security. Unless someone was setting something up, unless the person who'd attacked Ash was still circling around him and I'd been so focused on blaming Julian that I'd missed the real threat.
After Owen left, I grabbed my phone and pulled up Lucian's contact. But when I tried to send a message, I saw: You are blocked.
I tried calling. "The number you are trying to reach is temporarily unavailable."
My hands shook as I went into my blocked contacts and found Lucian's name. I'd blocked him that morning in the hospital when everything had fallen apart. Now I unblocked him and opened Telegram, typing quickly:
[Next time Ash wakes up, ask him about the woman he met at Moonbeam Café. I think he might still be in danger.]
I hit send and watched the message change from "sending" to "delivered." Thirty seconds later, my phone rang with Lucian's name on the screen.