Chapter 33
“Nathaniel
The clang of steel rang in my ears, the scent of roque filth clogging my nostrils. My wolf prowled just beneath my skin, itching to tear, to destroy, to protect.
But there was only one thought in my head.
Jiselle
I had seen her run
I had seen her make it back to the school gates, her form disappearing into the safety of the academy walls.
But that didn’t mean she was safe.
Not really.
The rogue attack had come fast, brutal, calculated. But I soon realized that it wasn’t about winning. It wasn’t about taking over the academy. There weren’t enough of them here to even make a dent in the walls.
But it was about sending a message.
And I had a sick, gut–churning feeling that the message was about her. They had come for Jiselle, hadn’t they? I didn’t know how but it was a gut feeling.
That thought alone sent a violent, nauseating twist through my gut.
I wanted to go after her. I needed to see her, touch her, know she was okay. But I couldn’t
Not yet.
A rogue lunged from my right, fangs bared, claws extended.
I shifted instantly, dodging to the side, my body moving on pure instinct. The wolf came at me again, but I was already reaching for it. I gripped its throat between my wolf’s huge jaws, squeezing until I heard a loud snapping sound.
After one sickening crack, the body dropped.
I barely looked at it before I was already moving again, my heart hammering in my chest.
The fight was almost over. By the time I got to the academy, it solidified my thoughts even more. It barely took any effort to rid the walls of them. There would be no casualties on our side today.
I could see it. The rogues were falling back.
Their movements had grown sloppy, desperate. The ones who had once lunged without hesitation were now shifting away. glancing toward the trees like they were looking for an escape. But it was calculated. Some of them willingly stayed back while others fled. The ones who stayed back were sacrificing themselves, while the ones returning were leaving with something- a message, maybe.
It made me wonder. If they were willing to die in order to get a scope of something… what the hell about Jiselle were they truly after, and how in the world did they find out?
I had spent so long convincing myself that keeping her at arm’s length was for the best. That it was safer. That she was better off without me.
That our bond didn’t matter
But knowing she had almost died on that stupid assignment?
Knowing she had been within inches of not existing anymore?
It had wrecked me
It shattered something inside me so deeply that I wasn’t sure I could ever piece it back together.
wery Lime!
And now every damn time I caught her scent passing my door, every time I heard her laugh with Maximus, every saw her look at him the way she was supposed to look at me the feeling only got worse
It was a slow, festering ache that I couldn’t shake. A deep, suffocating rage that only grew stronger every time I saw her wrapped in his arre
She should be mine
And yet.
She Radn’t told Midimus about our bond
She had kept if a secret.
Successfully unlocked!
But why? If she was truly his, if she had fully chosen him, then why the hell hadn’t she told him the truth?
Chapter 3
What was she afraid of
That
A part of me wanted–needed to believe that it meant something. That somewhere inside her, she still wanted me too. T a part of her still felt it
Still ached for me the way I ached for her
But I didn’t know what the hell to do with that.
Because she had canceled our training sessions. She had chosen him.
She had walked away.
And yet, as much as I tried to hate her for it, as much as I tried to bury the ache in my chest every time I saw them together
I couldn’t
Because at the end of the day, I would rather have her alive and with him than dead and lost forever.
I would rather have her hating me than never seeing her again.
A snarl ripped through my chest, vibrating through my ribs as another rogue lunged from the side.
I dodged, striking mid–air, muscles burning as I sank my fangs into his throat. He made a gurgled snarl, then a lifeless collapse as his body hit the ground.
The fight was ending.
The last of them were falling.
I could feel the shift in the air, the tension thinning as the academy wolves drove the remaining rogues back into the trees. It was over.
Almost.
But then I saw him.
The final rogue.
And he was running straight for her,
A chill shot down my spine, an instinctive rage unlike anything I’d ever felt before igniting inside me.
Jiselle stood near the academ
entrance, her back turned, unaware.
Too vulnerable.
Too exposed.
Something inside me snapped
My vision went red.
I moved. Fast.
me, my claws barely touching the earth as I closed the
Faster than I’d ever moved before. The ground blurred beneath me, distance between us.
The rogue was almost there
Another second, and his fangs would be at her throat..
No
I lunged-
Every muscle in my body coiled, tensed, ready to tear into flesh.
But before I could reach her, before I could sink my claws into the basford that dared to threaten her, a blur of brown fur shot past me, slamming into the rogue with enough force to crack the ground beneath them
My breath caught
My body locked
Maximus Freaking Laker.
The rogue didn’t even have time to react.
Max ripped into him with an ease that should have been terrifying, his massive wolf form towering over the limp body as it
crumpled beneath him
The fight was over
Jiselle turned
Her eyes widened as she took in the scene
Chapter 33
For a split second, her gaze met mine.
And then, just like that, Maximus was at her side, pulling her into his arms, pressing a kiss to her temple as if he hadn’t just ripped a rogue apart.
As if I wasn’t even there.
Because she wasn’t mine to protect anymore.
Or at least, that’s what she wanted everyone–including herself to think.
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