Chapter 73
Chapter 73
*Jiselle*
I didn’t expect the door to slam open.
I didn’t expect the footsteps–fast, hard, frantic–like war drums beating against stone floors. But I should have.
I should’ve known the moment Nate felt my fear and pain, he would lose it.
And lose it, he did.
He stood there in the doorway like a storm caught mid–breath–hair windblown, eyes wide, chest heaving beneath his half- unbuttoned shirt. His aura surged into the room first, hitting me before his words ever could, Raw power. Untethered. Barely restrained.
Then his eyes found me–bruised, bloodied, seated on the edge of the bed, shirtless with a towel pressed to my ribs and the faint glow of the Ethereal mark still burning like moonlight on my skin.
“Where the hell have you been?” His voice cracked–half fury, half something else. Something wounded,
I blinked at him. “1-
“You stormed out,” he said, louder now, stepping forward. “You left. Alone. And then you come back like–like this?”
His hand gestured wildly toward me, but he stopped short of touching me. His entire body shook with restraint.
“I was followed,” I said quietly. “I think it was a warning, maybe a test. A cloaked figure attacked me. He had no scent. He made no sound. He came at me like he knew my every move before I made it.”
He stared. And then something in him broke.
Nate didn’t speak right away. He didn’t scream or growl. He just breathed–shallow, ragged, desperate breaths that sounded too much like someone trying not to collapse. His hands clenched at his sides, and I saw the flash of his veins darken with his wolf’s rage.
“Did they hurt you?” he asked finally, voice dangerously low.
I nodded once. “Not as bad as they wanted to.”
He moved then–crossed the room in two steps and knelt in front of me like he couldn’t bear the space between us anymore. His eyes scanned the gash on my shoulder, the raw skin at my palm, the angry bruise across my thigh. He hissed under his breath.
“I’ll kill them,” he whispered. “I don’t care who they are or who sent them. I’ll burn the whole academy to the ground if that’s what it takes.”
His hands hovered again, trembling. And then, slowly, reverently, he reached for the first–aid kit beside me.
He said nothing as he uncapped the bottle of salve, soaked a cloth in water, and gently began to clean the blood from my shoulder. His touch was infuriatingly careful. Delicate. Like he couldn’t decide if he was angrier at me… or at the world. “This is exactly why I told you to stay, he muttered, rinsing the cloth again. “This is why I beg you to let me protect you. You think I do it because I think you’re weak?”
I said nothing
“You think it’s control?” he asked, meeting my gaze. “It’s not. It’s fear, Jiselle. Real, all–consuming fear. The kind that wakes you in the middle of the night and convinces you the person you love is gone.”
The person you love.
He didn’t flinch when he said it.
But I did
looked away. “I don’t need to be coddled.”
“I know” he snapped. “That’s not what this is. You’re not a child. You’re not helpless. But I still have the right to be terrified when the girl I’ve spent half my damn life trying not to lose walks out in the middle of the night and almost gets herself
1 flinched at that
The words didn’t hurt because they were cruel
They hurt because they were true
Successfully unlocked!
“I told you what happened, I said, my voice shaking. “You know now. You know someone is after me–more than one someone. So don’t stand there acting like it’s me you’re mad at *
“I am mad at you, he snapped. “Because you think it’s noble to handle it alone. Because you think pain is a badge of
Chapter 73
strength. Because I nearly tore apart every hallway looking for you and I didn’t even know if I’d find a body or a note.”
I stood.
I’m moving back in with Eva.”
He stared at me.
“No, you’re not.”
“I am. I can’t stay here if this is how it’s going to be. I’m not your prisoner. I’m not your burden.”
He stood too, stepping close. “You’re not my burden. You’re my bond. You’re my future. And you don’t get to walk away every time we argue.”
My chest heaved. “You left after our first time. You walked away then.”
His jaw locked.
“I was a kid. A scared, stupid kid who thought keeping my promise to Ethan mattered more than what I felt for you. I hated myself every day I stayed away. And you want to bring that up now, like it changes anything?” He sighed, looking pained. “I know I cant take away all that pain, Jiselle, but why do you keep using it against me instea of talking to me about it? Why use it a medium to fight?”
“Because you don’t know half the pain,” I said a bit too harshly, a stray tear rolling down my cheek. “You don’t know, Nate.” He scoffed.
“I don’t know?” he asked. “I don’t know?”
He cornered me in against the bed, staring into my eyes with an intensity that nearly made me quiver.
“Do you know that I put continents of space between us, just to get away from the pain of thinking I can never have you, and it still wasn’t enough? Do you know that every single minute from the moment I left you in that bed, I woke up with you in my mind, all over my body… feeling your touch on my skin, feeling you on my mouth, feeling YOU… and go to bed dreaming about you and it still wasn’t enough…”
He came even closer, if that was even possible, his voice dropping an octave deeper.
“Do you know what it’s like to see you and want you… to need you and can never have you? Jiselle… Do you know what it’s like to feel this torture and cannot have you?”
“Why are you telling me this now, Nate?” I asked, not even bothering to wipe away the tear.
“Because I am being vulnerable with you, Jiselle. I am showing you my throat because I am at your mercy. And maybe it was awful that I only got to this point because I couldn’t stand the sight of you with another man, or knowing you’re so close and cant touch you. But I am here, Jiselle, telling you that you have my entire life in your hand. And I don’t want it back, because I trust you with it. Now I am not asking for yours because I don’t deserve you, but do you trust me? To at least try and earn it back?”
“I don’t trust anyone, 1 admitted softly. “Not Bastain. Not Carrow. Not the council. Not even myself half the time.”
“And me?” he asked. “You don’t trust me either?”
I didn’t answer.
He sighed. “Of course.”
He started to turn away, but I grabbed his arm.
“I trust you” I said. “I just don’t know if I trust what I’m becoming.”
His breath caught.
He looked at me then–not angry, not cold, but like I’d cracked something inside him wide open.
“I do” he said. “I trust what you’re becoming. Even if it terrifies me.”
We stood there for a long time. The air between us heavy. Hot. Still charged with the fight but humming with something
else, too
When he reached for me again, it wasn’t rough. It wasn’t impulsive.
It was a vow
He took the cloth and pressed it to my side, cleaning where the blade had grazed me. “They marked you here,” he murmured, “but I make sure they never do it again.”
His fingers brushed my thigh, tracing the bruise. “This one? Whoever left this will bleed for it.”
He pulled gauze from the kit and wrapped it around my ribs. “If it were up to me, I’d burn their shadows right off the wall.”
His voice was calm. But his hands trembled
“Why are you being so gentle?” I asked, quieter now
2/3
Chapter 73
“Because I’m so angry I don’t know what to do with myself,” he said. “And I don’t want to break the only thing keeping me sane.”
My breath hitched.
He bandaged my shoulder last, pressing a kiss to the edge of the wound when he was done. My skin ignited beneath his mouth.
“I’ll always be mad when someone hurts you,” he said softly. “Even if that someone is you.”
3/3
