Chapter 129

Theo's POV The boardroom had the stillness of a courtroom awaiting a verdict as Claire concluded her presentation. For forty-five minutes, she had laid out her radical proposal with the kind of scientific precision that had first captivated me months ago, her voice steady despite the magnitude of what she was asking us to approve. Charts and molecular diagrams filled the smart screens around us, displaying research that pushed the boundaries of everything we thought we knew about werewolf pharmaceutical development. But it was her eyes that held my attention—bright with the fierce intelligence that had made her indispensable to this company, blazing with a conviction so absolute it seemed to illuminate the entire room. She believed in this synthetic protein approach with every fiber of her being, and through our mating bond, I could feel the depth of her certainty humming beneath my skin like electricity. The silence that followed her presentation was deafening. Twenty-four of VM Group