Office

Office
Vinorca Jona POV

“Don’t go to school today. I’m taking you to my office with me.”

I stopped mid-step on the staircase, my breath catching when I saw Dante waiting below. Two days had passed since my birthday, and for once I’d been doing okay—no anxiety clawing at my ribs, no spiraling thoughts.

Masen kept his word and never called Dante. Amanda’s parents were fully contacted, and thankfully, they took the situation better than I expected. Nothing exploded.

Masen and I hadn’t spoken since that day. University stayed hectic, and I was grateful for the distance. I didn’t need rumors floating around about me and a teacher, even if Amanda had her own dramatic interpretations after I told her about my coffee with him. Not even a real date.

“You hearing me, Bunny?” His voice brushed over me, the nickname tightening every nerve in my body.

Facing him again was its own punishment. His red eyes dragged up memories I’d spent two days trying to bury—how I’d come apart on his tongue, how he’d finished down my throat. Heat crawled up my neck before I could stop it.

“Why?” The word slipped out softer than I meant. I never found my footing with Dante, no matter how hard I tried.

He smirked, that slow, confident lift that always made the air feel too thin. “Because I said so. Do I need another reason when it’s something I want?”

He always needed reasons. He just never used them—not with me. “My classes are important.”

“Doesn’t matter,” he replied. “You made me wait on your birthday when I wanted to celebrate with a cake. Don’t you think you should pay for wasting my time, Bunny?”

He started toward me. My grip tightened around my bag strap, knuckles whitening. “I didn’t… know you waited for me.”

“Baby Bunny,” he scoffed, eyes sharpening, “don’t you think it’s wrong to disappear all day without informing anyone? You might be eighteen and not legally needing a guardian, but you’re still living in my house.”

My heart kicked fast and uneven. He wasn’t shouting, but I knew that simmer under his words. I had no answer. He was right—even if I didn’t technically need a guardian now, I still couldn’t leave. Not without my degree. My librarian job barely covered necessities, let alone a place to live.

It was a mess, and I couldn’t fix any of it. And the way his jaw tensed told me he was far angrier than his voice revealed.

“How about you take me to your office on the weekend instead? And what would I even help you with?” I asked, trying to sound calm. “I’m just a literature student. I don’t know anything about pack business.”

“Did I ask your opinion, or did I say you can negotiate?”

My hands started shaking. “Okay… I am ready.” I didn’t argue, didn’t push back, because going against him was never safe. Not for me.

“That’s so sweet of you, Bunny.” His smile landed like a trap before he caught my hand and started walking—dragging me, really—down the stairs. I tried to steady myself, doing everything I could to keep my balance so I wouldn’t end up face-first on the steps, and somehow managed to stay upright.

He didn’t slow down. Not even once. My feet had no choice but to follow the pace he set, his grip firm and claiming around my wrist.

The way his touch burned through me, hot and unsettling.

“Dante… slow down,” I whispered, though I knew he wouldn’t. He never did when he’d already decided something.

His fingers tightened instead, a silent reminder that my pace didn’t matter, only his did. The house felt colder on the way down, every step echoing louder than it needed to, matching the thud of my pulse.

When we reached the bottom, he finally glanced back at me, eyes glinting like I’d already done something wrong simply by breathing too loudly.

“You’re going to match my pace,” he stated, as if that settled everything. And maybe it did. With him, arguing only meant inviting a storm I couldn’t weather.

I swallowed hard and forced my legs to keep moving, even as my chest tightened with every breath.

Within a few minutes, we were out of the house and stepping into the parking lot. “You can turn into your wolf form? Since you said your wolf doesn’t recognize me as your mate?”

He sounded like he already knew the answer. The way he dragged me straight out here into the parking lot, as if he’d been expecting it, told me he knew I hadn’t shifted at all.

And he was right. I didn’t know why. I had two wolves, but neither of them had spoken since that day, and my body hadn’t changed even a little.

“I don’t know. I haven’t felt anything shift in me. But I did hear my wolf once—when she said she doesn’t feel any mate bond with you.” I kept my face straight as I said it, letting the words land exactly where they would hurt most.

Dante’s jaw flexed, a tight tick of muscle that betrayed the calm mask he tried to hold. His eyes darkened, not with confusion, but with something sharper—wounded pride wrapped in growing anger.

“Say it again,” he murmured, each word threaded with the kind of quiet that made the air feel heavier. “I want to hear you say it properly.”

His nearness pressed heat against my skin, but I didn’t back away—not yet. Not when my heart was already thundering like it wanted to escape my ribs.

My words weren’t a lie. I had two wolves—one insisted he was her mate, and the other said nothing at all, which meant he wasn’t.

And I didn’t want my stepbrother as my mate, even if he wasn’t my stepbrother in reality or had no actual relationship with me. He’s the one who lied on the papers so he could have my guardianship after our parents died.

“You already heard me, Alpha Dante,” I told him, meeting his eyes. “I don’t have to repeat my words.”