The contract sat on the desk between them.
One page.
Clean language.
Temporary Consultant Agreement, Walker Corporation.
Damian read every line.
Then read it again.
He wasn't stalling.
He just didn't sign things he hadn't fully understood.
Not since he was nineteen.
Not ever again.
The office was very quiet.
No one spoke.
No one rushed him.
That was the first thing Damian noticed.
Most alphas filled silence.
They talked into it, over it, around it — anything to stay in control of a room.
Kendrick Walker let the silence exist.
He stood near the window with his hands in his pockets and his eyes on the city below and he did not say a single word.
Like he had all the time in the world.
Like he knew exactly how this was going to end and was simply waiting for Damian to arrive at the same conclusion.
Damian hated that.
He read the contract a third time anyway.
The language was clean.
Almost too clean.
No hidden clauses he could see.
No ownership language.
