He was focused, brow furrowed, and each stroke of his signature seemed to slice through the tension in the air. The office, bathed in the warm glow of afternoon light filtering through the tall windows, was an oasis of calm—at least for now.
Documents lay scattered across the polished mahogany desk in front of him, some neatly stacked, others haphazardly tossed aside as if they weren't worth a second glance. He moved with precision, each motion fluid, controlled.
This man lived and breathed power, and it radiated off him even in these quieter moments.
And I couldn't help but stare.
The hard lines of his face, the sharpness in his jaw, the way his dark hair remained perfectly styled no matter the hour—it was all too much and not enough at the same time.
Valentino Rossi was intimidating, yes, but there was something irresistibly alluring about him too. His presence had a gravity of its own, pulling me in, making it impossible to look away.
I forced myself to shift focus, eyes trailing down to the document he was signing with swift, confident strokes.
His signature—V. Rossi—curled elegantly across the page. There was a refinement in his cursive, a practiced precision that mirrored the man himself.
But even as I tried to cling to the distraction, my thoughts slipped away, barely tethered to the present moment.
My mind was swirling in a maelstrom of panic, trying to process one alarming thought: A Beta with pheromones.
The phrase played over and over in my mind, each repetition fueling the growing dread in the pit of my stomach.
Was it possible I was releasing pheromones?
As a beta, I'd always been aware of the limitations set upon me by biology. No heat cycles, no scent trails to leave behind—no markers that could draw in a fated mate. In a world defined by these primal signals, I was simply... undetectable. Invisible.
And yet, here I was, with Valentino's words echoing in my mind, a sharp and unsettling reminder of the hierarchy I'd always been excluded from.
The fact that he, an alpha through and through, had not only detected a scent from me but went so far as to complain about my pheromones—it was almost sickening.
The room spun around me as my grip slipped, and my heartbeat thundered in my ears. I could barely process what was happening—everything felt surreal, my mind still grappling with the terrifying realization that had begun to sink in.
