Taken by the Lycan King (Fated Alpha Romance Book 1)

NADINE SINGH

"Congratulations, Ms. Singh. The project has been approved."

I stared at Dominic, the director of my department, unable to believe my ears. I stood there like a statue, completely unmoving.

"Come on, Nadine," Dominic chuckled, stepping closer. "Are you in that much shock? You're not even responding."

Around me, the rest of the team was hollering, screaming, and clapping in excitement, while I remained frozen.

*What?*

The project has been approved?

That was my aim. That was the endgame. I'd prayed for this, cried for this. All the sleepless nights of planning, sketching, and designing the modern city plan that would convert the forest on the outskirts of town... all the rejections, everything... and finally, the project has been approved?

The project has *finally* been approved?

God! It felt like a dream. That was why I wasn't shouting or bringing the house down right now. What if I started screaming in excitement only to wake up and realize it was just a dream?

"Nah, this is epic," I heard Dominic's teasing voice close to my ear. "I've never seen Nadine this quiet and flustered before. Can someone take a picture? We need to immortalize this moment."

Almost immediately, I heard snapshots clicking, and the flash of the cameras almost blinded me. That was what jolted me out of my reverie. That was what made me scream excitedly when I realized that this wasn't a dream.

It wasn't a dream at all!

My lifelong dream was finally going to come true.

"Oh my God! Oh my God!" I was hyperventilating because the happiness within me couldn't be contained.

I was too happy.

I was ridiculously happy.

"Yeah, you did it, Nadine. I'm so proud of you," Dominic praised, pulling me in for a hug. The others started coming around to hug me while congratulations rang from every corner of the room.

"Thank you so much, guys," I told the team of seven. "This isn't about me alone. We all made it happen. We all worked hard for this. This win is possible because of all of us, so congratulations to us all."

"Yaaahh!" they all screamed excitedly, hugging each other while the guys fist-pumped. I could see the glee and happiness on their faces, which mirrored mine.

I was too happy.

NADINE SINGH

The development of Eden City started as far back as when I was in high school. The huge, almost useless forest on the outskirts of Crescent Valley had always called out to me whenever the school bus passed in front of it. Instead of seeing the thick forest and the huge trees, I could always see a city. A very big, modern city with high skyscrapers, beautiful buildings, shopping malls, gardens—in general, the finest city we could have in Crescent Valley.

It never made sense to me why that forest was allowed to exist when it could easily be converted into a modern city that would overshadow the rest of Crescent Valley and bring in investors from all walks of life.

That was when I started planning. That was when I started plotting, drafting, and drawing what I wanted the city to look like.

I've been at it since I was sixteen. Now, eight years later, I've redesigned the city, but the architectural structures never changed. The initial plan that came to my head the first time I thought about the city eight years ago was still the one in my head. Strangely, I've never been able to think of a better plan, or envision the city looking better than it did in that first draft.

The plan for Eden City was what made me study architecture with a minor in estate development in college. I just knew that I had to make it into a reality, no matter what it took.

And it did take a lot. From the minute I started working at Andron Homes, the best real estate development company in Crescent Valley, I started pitching the idea of Eden City to my superiors. But they always turned it down.

It never made sense to me why they wouldn't want to develop Eden City. It was the best thing that could ever happen to Crescent Valley, and I wasn't even joking. It was going to be an ultra-modern city. It was going to put us on the global map as the best city ever. But they just kept rejecting it. No matter how much I fleshed out my proposal and made it more beautiful, they always rejected it.

There were lots of times when Dominic, my direct boss, would advise me to just give it up and focus on more feasible projects. But Eden City was so dear to me that I couldn't give it up. It was inconceivable for me to let go of my childhood dreams just like that.

So I just continued to work on it, to develop it more.

I ended up befriending one of the higher-ups just to find out why exactly my proposal was getting trashed every single time, even though it was a brilliant proposal. She was the one who told me the reason why.

Apparently, the town councilor has the final say on all the developments going on in Crescent Valley. If he says no to a proposal, there is no way it'll see the light of day.

What I didn't know all this while was that most of the directors at the company were actually approving of my proposal. But some of the directors who had close ties with the councilor, Mr. George, were the ones rejecting it.

And then, there was Mr. George himself.

I wondered why that was happening, but it goes without saying that this Mr. George must have had a reason for rejecting my proposal. So, I made it a priority to seek him out and ask him why.

I was unable to meet Mr. George until two months after that day because all my efforts to see him proved futile. All my requests to see him in his office were turned down. So, the minute I saw him at a dinner night hosted by our company, I knew I had to seek him out.

NADINE SINGH

"Oh, so you're the young daring lady that is hell-bent on developing that forest?"

"Yes," I replied to him with a smile on my face, wondering why the hell I was called daring for just wanting to develop a forest that was just sitting there.

"Ohh, I see. That's quite admirable, though. But haven't you wondered why that place had not been developed till now?"

I'd always wondered, but I'd just never seemed to be able to come up with a plausible reason. It made no sense why they'd just allow the forest to be when they could have made billions of dollars from it.

"You can't come up with anything, right?" he asked without even looking away from his food. "That's right. And there must be a reason, hmm? Just give up on the project, my dear. If you know what's good for you, just stop trying to develop that place. You'll be playing with literal fire if you keep pursuing it."

*What?*

What he said made no sense. I mean, what fire could I possibly be playing with by just trying to develop an abandoned land? No one was benefitting from it, not even me, because that place was just there.

And even though Mr. George was so wealthy that his salary couldn't have possibly made him that wealthy, investigations had never been able to prove that he was making money through any illegal means. It seemed really unlikely that he was getting money from stopping this forest from being developed. Who'd even pay him for that?

It didn't make any sense.

I started to ask him what he meant by that, but Tania, one of my teammates, was already calling me for a group photo, so I had to leave.

"Excuse me, young lady," he called me as soon as I turned back to walk away. I turned to look at him.

He was looking right at me.

"Why did you name your proposed city Eden City?"

I shrugged casually, thinking about his question. The answer was that there was no particular reason. "No particular reason. It's just the first name that came to my mind from the minute I thought of the development."

"Wow," he muttered, his lips crinkling into a smile. "How ironic."

He was talking like he knew something, like he was privy to knowledge that no one else was privy to. It made me so curious. I had a lot of questions I wanted to ask him, but Tania was already calling me for the group photo again.

So I had to leave.

That was two months ago.

Mr. George died last week, and that's the only reason why we got the approval.

His misfortune gave way to my fortune. Though I felt bad about his death, the happiness that my project finally got approved overshadowed every other feeling completely.

But I should have known. Because he was right. I was playing with literal fire.

I'll learn that soon enough.