POV: Liam

The Black mansion sat on the hill like a crown over Millfield, all glass windows and stone walls that screamed money. I'd lived here my entire life, but tonight it felt more like a prison than a home.

My truck crunched over the gravel driveway as I pulled up to the front entrance. Through the massive windows, I could see the lights blazing in my father's study. Of course he was waiting. Marcus Black didn't summon you to talk, he summoned you to command.

I sat in the driver's seat for a moment, my hands gripping the steering wheel tight enough to make my knuckles white. My wolf was already on edge, pacing restlessly inside my mind. He hadn't settled down since the moment the mate bond snapped into place with Maya three days ago.

Maya.

Even thinking her name made my chest tight. I could feel her right now, a constant warm presence at the edge of my awareness. The bond hummed between us like a live wire, and no matter how hard I tried to ignore it, I couldn't. My wolf wouldn't let me.

"Get it together," I muttered to myself, shoving open the truck door. The front door opened before I could even reach for the handle. Martin, our butler, stood there with his usual blank expression.

"Your father is expecting you in his study, Master Liam."

"Yeah, I figured."

I walked through the entrance hall with its ridiculous chandelier and marble floors. My mother had decorated this place years ago, back when she still cared about things like interior design. Now she spent most of her time at the country club or their vacation house in the Hamptons, anywhere that wasn't here.

The study door was already open. My father sat behind his massive oak desk, the kind that probably cost more than most people's cars. Marcus Black looked like an older, harder version of me, same dark hair, same sharp jawline, same brown eyes that could cut through steel. Except his eyes had never glowed gold. He wasn't a werewolf. That gene had come from my mother's side.

"Sit down, Liam."

It wasn't a request. I dropped into one of the leather chairs across from his desk, trying to look relaxed even though every muscle in my body was tense.

"You want to tell me what happened at school today?" His voice was cold, controlled. That was worse than if he'd been yelling.

"There was a situation. I handled it."

"You handled it." He picked up his phone and tapped the screen, then turned it toward me. "This is what you call handling it?"

The video showed me in the hallway, Jessica and her friends backing away from me like I was a bomb about to explode. The audio was muffled, but you could clearly hear me say, "Maya Carter is under my protection now."

My stomach dropped.

"Where did you get that?"

"Does it matter?" He set the phone down carefully. "Within an hour of that little display, I had three phone calls. Jessica Martinez's father wants to know why the son of Marcus Black is threatening his daughter. The principal wants to know if there's a problem I should be aware of. And Sophia Whitmore's mother called to ask if the rumors about you and some 'scholarship girl' are true."

Heat crept up the back of my neck. "There are no rumors. I was just.."

"You were just what?" He leaned forward, his eyes boring into mine. "Defending some random girl you've never spoken to before? Don't insult my intelligence, Liam. I know exactly what's going on."

My wolf snarled in my head, but I forced myself to stay calm. "I don't know what you think you know.."

"She's your mate."

The words hung in the air between us like a death sentence. My heart hammered against my ribs. I hadn't told anyone. How could he possibly know?

"I see." He stood up slowly, walking around the desk to stand in front of me. "You think I don't remember what it's like? I watched your mother go through this when her wolf chose me. The connection, the obsession, the complete inability to think about anything else."

"Then you understand.."

"I understand that it's a weakness." His voice was sharp as a blade. "Your mother's wolf nearly destroyed everything we'd built because she couldn't control herself. Do you know how many business deals I almost lost because she insisted on being involved in every decision? How many times did I had to choose between her feelings and what was actually best for this family?"

I stared at him. "You make it sound like loving Mom was a business problem."

"It was." He said it without a trace of guilt. "Love makes you soft, Liam. It makes you make stupid decisions. And I'm not going to let you throw away everything I've built for you because your wolf has decided to fixate on some nobody girl."

My hands clenched into fists. "Don't talk about her like that."

"I'll talk about her however I want. Do you even know who she is? Maya Carter, daughter of Rebecca Carter, a waitress at Joe's Diner who can barely keep the lights on. They live in one of my apartments in the Riverside complex. Section 8 housing. The girl wears the same three outfits to school because that's all she owns."

Each word felt like a punch to the gut, not because I cared about Maya's money, I didn't, but because I knew exactly where this was going.

"Her financial situation doesn't matter to me."

"No, but it should matter to you that I've spent the last five years grooming you to take over Black Enterprises. Do you have any idea how many strings I've pulled to get you set up with a full-ride hockey scholarship to whatever college you want? How many connections I've leveraged to make sure NHL scouts are already watching you?"

"I know what you've done.."

"Then you should understand what I'm about to tell you." He crossed his arms, and I saw the steel in his expression that made him one of the most feared businessmen in the state. "You're done with this Maya Carter girl. Effective immediately."

"You can't tell me who.."

"I'm not telling you who to care about. I'm telling you who you're going to date." He walked back to his desk and pulled out a folder, dropping it in front of me. "Sophia Whitmore. You remember her?"

I did, unfortunately. Blonde hair, perfect smile, and the personality of a calculator. Her father owned Whitmore Tech, the biggest tech company in three states. Sophia and I had been at the same country club events, the same charity galas, the same private parties since we were kids.

"I'm not dating Sophia."

"Yes, you are. Her father and I are finalizing a merger that will bring fifty million dollars into Black Enterprises. Sophia becoming my daughter-in-law is part of that deal."

My blood ran cold. "You're selling me off like a piece of property?"

"I'm securing your future. Sophia is smart, beautiful, and comes from the right kind of family. She'll be an asset to you when you take over the company. This Maya girl? She'd drag you down, make you weak. The wolves in this town would never respect an alpha whose mate is a nobody."

"I haven't even decided if I want to take over your company!"

"Then what? You'll play hockey forever? Be realistic, Liam. You're good, but you're not NHL-guaranteed good. You need a backup plan, and that plan is Black Enterprises." He sat back down, steepling his fingers. "This is happening whether you like it or not. You're going to publicly ask Sophia to be your girlfriend, you're going to date her through senior year, and you're going to forget about Maya Carter."

"And if I don't?"

His smile was cold. "Then I'll cut you off completely. No more credit cards, no more trucks, no more college funds. I'll also make it very clear to every coach and scout that you're not worth their time. The recommendation letters I promised? They'll never be written."

My wolf was howling now, rage flooding through me. But I forced myself to stay seated, to not shift right there in his office. "You'd really do that? To your own son?"

"To teach you a necessary lesson? Absolutely." He paused, letting that sink in. "But that's not all. I also happen to own the apartment building where Maya and her mother live. Nice little two-bedroom unit, isn't it? Rent's quite affordable, which is good because I doubt a waitress could pay market rate."

My heart stopped. "Don't."

"If you continue pursuing this girl, I'll have them evicted. I'll make sure they can't find another apartment in this town. Rebecca Carter will lose her job, I have friends on the board at Joe's Diner. Maya will have to leave Millfield High, probably move to the next town over where the schools aren't nearly as good." He met my eyes directly. "Her entire life will fall apart, Liam. All because you couldn't control your wolf."

I couldn't breathe. The room felt like it was closing in on me. Maya's face flashed through my mind, scared, confused, hiding under the bleachers with her algebra textbook. She'd never asked for any of this. The bond wasn't her fault.

"That's not fair to her."

"Life isn't fair. But I'm giving you a choice." He pulled out his phone and made a show of checking the time. "You have forty-eight hours to publicly ask Sophia Whitmore to be your girlfriend. Take her to dinner, post about it on social media, make it official. If you do that, I'll forget this Maya situation ever happened."

"And if I don't?"

"Then Maya and her mother will receive their eviction notice in forty-nine hours." He stood up, signaling the meeting was over. "I suggest you choose wisely, son. Think with your head, not with your wolf."

I stood up on shaking legs. Everything in me wanted to shift, to let my wolf out, to fight back against this impossible situation. But I couldn't. My father held all the cards.

As I walked to the door, his voice stopped me one more time.

"Oh, and Liam? Don't think about warning the girl or playing hero. I have eyes everywhere in this town. If I see you anywhere near Maya Carter in the next forty-eight hours, the eviction notice goes out immediately. Are we clear?"

I turned back to look at him. Marcus Black sat behind his desk like a king on a throne, completely confident that I would fall in line like I always had.

"Crystal clear," I managed to say.

Then I walked out of that study, out of that mansion, and didn't stop until I was in my truck with the engine roaring to life. My wolf was going insane, demanding I go to Maya right now, so that I could protect our mate from this threat.

But how could I protect her when the threat was my own father? When choosing her meant destroying her life?

I pulled out my phone, my hands shaking, and found Sophia's number in my contacts. My thumb hovered over the call button.

Forty-eight hours. Two days to choose between my future and the girl the universe had chosen for me. Two days before my father made good on his threat and destroyed Maya's life.

The mate bond thrummed in my chest, warm and alive, pulling me toward her even now. But all I could see was the image of Maya and her mother getting that eviction notice, their lives falling apart because of me. I threw my phone onto the passenger seat and gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles went white.

What the hell was I going to do?