The Alpha's Gaze

The night crackled with energy. It was three months since discovering James's betrayal. Wounds still felt raw, bleeding with every breath. I stood at the high-stakes charity gala with a glass of champagne clutched like a shield in my hands. My midnight gown clung to every curve, armor of silk and sequins.

You're Olivia fucking Blackwood, I reminded myself. Ice Queen of the London financial district. You don't break.

But beneath the façade, my heart churned with acrid bitterness. Every forced smile, every polite laugh-it was all a mask to cover the bleeding scars inside.

I scanned the room, cataloging potential investors and rivals. That was when I saw him.

Callum Wolfe.

His entrance was magnetic, commanding the space around him in a way that was almost predatory. Eyes watched him, but it was me he locked with. His gaze burned, sending an involuntary shiver down my spine. There was something raw in him, something dangerous. He didn't walk-he prowled, his tailored suit little camouflage for the coiled power beneath his calm demeanor.

I steeled myself as he came closer, his eyes never leaving mine.

"Olivia Blake," he said smoothly, a sound of silk wrapped around steel. "I have heard an awful lot about you."

I raised one eyebrow. "yet, you still dared to come over."

His chuckle was low, stirring something I thought had long died. "I like a good challenge."

Our words were sharp with hints neither of us was in the mood to deny. Every word was a game, every glance a promise unsaid. For the first time in months, I felt alive-dangerously so.

But the night took a turn for the darker. A rival businessman, three sheets to the wind, stumbled into my space. His leering eyes made my skin crawl as he grabbed my arm, tight enough to bruise.

"Come on, sweetheart," he slurred, "You look like you could use a real man tonight."

My heart hammered, panic threatening to rise. Before I could react, Callum was there-silent, swift, lethal. In one move, he stepped between us with a ferocity that took my breath away, golden eyes flashing with something not quite human. It was just a flicker, a split second where his gaze went from intense to something more. Something animalistic.

"Touch her again," Callum snarled, his voice low and menacing, "and you won't have a hand left."

The businessman stepped back, pale and muttering apologies, but I was fixed on Callum. What was that? Had I just imagined it-the way his eyes seemed to glow for that split second?

But there was no time to process because Callum's hand was on my arm now, his skin on mine sending fire through my veins. "Come on," he murmured, his voice a quiet storm. "Let's get out of here."

We left the gala, tension thick between us. The car buzzed with unspoken words and stolen glances. His proximity, his scent—earthy and intoxicating—drew me closer without meaning to.

The air was electric by the time we got to my place. Callum rose from the car with fluid, predatory movements and opened the door for me. His hand came to rest on the small of my back, the mere touch a brand that seared my skin through the fabric of the dress.

At my doorstep, the moment hung in the air. His gaze rested on my lips, the thought of kissing him a temptation. I fought for control, but it was slipping fast.

Then, precisely when the distance between us could have shrunk to naught, a keening howl tore the night's darkness. Low, mournful, unmistakably wild.

Callum jolted. The hue of his eyes turned dark and all the hot desire congealed into something else-something dangerous. I caught the shift in a trice, my heart racing as his gaze slapped to the distance.

"Goodnight, Olivia," he said, his voice cold and detached. He did an about-face and headed off down the drive without another word, leaving me breathless and confused on my front step. Howling once more, though Callum was already gone, vanished into the night like some sort of shadow.

Fiddling with my keys, shaking, I let myself in to the empty apartment. Inside, the silence was deafening. My back fell against the shut door; my heart was racing, my confusion and desire whirling with a hundred other emotions.

What was that all about? The heat of Callum's gaze, the electricity of his touch – it had all felt so real. So different than anything I'd previously experienced. Then there was that moment, that flash in his eyes of something inhuman. And how he reacted to that howl.

I shook my head, trying to clear it. I was being ridiculous. Callum Wolfe was just a man-incredibly attractive, dangerously charismatic, but a man nonetheless. Whatever I thought I'd seen was surely just a trick of the light-my overactive imagination running riot after too much champagne and adrenaline.

And yet.

I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd just stepped into something far bigger than I realized. That Callum Wolfe was more than he appeared to be, and that by allowing myself to be drawn to him, I was setting myself up for a fall far more devastating than anything James had put me through.

I walked slowly back into my bedroom, stripping the gown off and flinging it aside as if it was a skin I'd shed. And with it, I promised myself one thing: Never again. I'd gotten these walls up high, and I'd gotten them up solid for a reason. Callum Wolfe might be intriguing. He might set my pulse racing in a manner in which nobody else ever had. I wouldn't fall. I couldn't.

I crawled into bed, pulling the covers tight around me. But even as I fell asleep, the memory of Callum's eyes-scabrously bright, seeing right through me-lingered. And in the distance, I might just have heard another howl-closer this time, and filled with a longing that matched the ache in my heart.