Yvonne immediately turned her pleading eyes to Aiden, clearly hoping he’d show her some pity. But she didn’t notice the way Aiden was looking at me—with unmistakable tenderness. “Yvonne, I never expected this from you,” Aiden said coldly, his expression full of disgust. “Someone with this kind of behavior has no place in our company. Yvonne, go handle your resignation paperwork. For the sake of the Starborn Pack, I won’t make this any bigger than it already is, but I don’t want to see you again.” Yvonne’s face went completely pale. She stared at Aiden in disbelief. With a wave of his hand, Aiden summoned two werewolf bodyguards, who came forward and escorted Yvonne out of the building. Her sobs echoed down the hallway as she was dragged away. Finally, Yvonne was out of the picture. Aiden shot me a discreet thumbs-up before leaving the scene. This guy sure knows when to make a move. All the tension between me and Aiden lately had stemmed from Yvonne. He’d probably been trying to figure out how to get rid of her, and now she’d handed him the perfect excuse on a silver platter. The woman Harper had pulled to the back earlier was now crying softly, surrounded by a circle of female coworkers who were trying to comfort her. “What’s wrong?” I walked over and asked. She’d been crying so long she could barely speak without gasping. “We’ve been together since we were ten... I dropped out of school early and worked to support him so he could go to college. He got into a great university and promised he’d always treat me well... I never thought he’d betray me like this…” Her words hit me hard. Time had worn away her youthful beauty; her face was no longer striking. So what if you’re mates? Once someone meets someone more attractive or accomplished, it’s easy to forget those sacred vows. The loyal wife who stood by him in hard times could never compete with a charming seductress. I gave her shoulder a pat. “Betraying your fated mate isn’t something to forgive. Break the mate bond.” She let out a deep sigh. “But we have a baby at home... even if it’s just for our child’s sake, I can’t cut the bond.”Then, as if she’d suddenly remembered something, she stood up. “I still need to go home and nurse the baby. Sorry for the trouble.” She gave a tired smile, one full of quiet kindness and humility. All around, our coworkers sighed in sympathy at such a tragic mating. Throughout the entire ordeal, the man at the center of it all never showed his face. From what I heard, the second he saw the woman enter the office, he bolted—and hadn’t come back since. I wanted to ask Aiden to fire that cowardly bastard on the spot. But in the end, I didn’t want to make things harder for her or the baby; I had no choice but to swallow my anger. After everything calmed down, I headed up to the rooftop alone to get some air. I hadn’t been up there long when Aiden strolled over and sat beside me. “I heard you told someone I’m your boyfriend?” My face flushed. I shot him a look. “I only said that to scare her. It was just nonsense.” “Nonsense or not, now everyone knows. If you’re not actually going to be my girlfriend, it’s going to be pretty hard to explain.” Aiden looked at me intently, his expression oddly serious. “I’m not just going to agree to something like that on a whim.” He chuckled. “So what you’re saying is, if I’m serious about it, you will agree?” I froze. When did Aiden learn to twist my words like this? “Remember what you just said,” Aiden said suddenly, rising to his feet. Then he reached down and pulled me up. “Come with me.” He dragged me down to the front entrance of the building. Seeing the confusion on my face, he snapped his fingers. A massive truck, overflowing with roses, slowly rolled up to the curb. A single bouquet might’ve been romantic, but a whole truckload? My heart could barely take it. Whatever romance I was supposed to feel was completely drowned out by the overwhelming scent of money.It was the end of the workday, and employees were flooding out of the building. As soon as they saw the mountain of roses parked out front, gasps and whispers filled the air. “Damn! I’ve seen nine roses, ninety-nine, even nine hundred ninety-nine... but I’ve never seen this many before. There’s gotta be ten thousand roses in there!” “Did you see the CEO out front? Didn’t she just say they’re together now? This has to be the CEO putting on a show for his sweetheart.” “Of course it’s him. Who else in this company has that kind of money to burn?” I couldn’t help but twitch at the corners of my mouth; for a moment, I had no idea what to say. Is this really supposed to be romantic?