"I just wanted to talk to you. Without everyone around." He takes a step closer and I can see the tension in his shoulders, the careful way he's holding himself. "For what it's worth, I haven't told anyone what you are. Your secret is safe with me."
The words should comfort me but they don't. "Am I supposed to thank you for that?"
"No." He runs a hand through his hair. "I just wanted you to know."
We look at each other for a long moment. The broken bond aches between us, twisted and wrong. Then his eyes drop to my shoulder, to the claiming bite visible above my collar.
"What you did..." I start, and I'm back in that moment when I realized his friendship was a lie. The humiliation of it, the betrayal cutting deeper because I'd started to trust him. Started to think I had at least one person who cared. "You got close to me just to spy for them. To report back on the outcast."
He looks pained, tortured. "It wasn't all a lie."
"How am I supposed to know that? How am I supposed to trust anything you say when you lied from the beginning?"
"I don't know." His voice cracks. "But what if I could prove it? What if I could show you that's not who I am?"
I'm about to reply when voices carry around the corner. Male voices. Dominion.
Three of them round the corner and stop when they see us. Louis at the front, flanked by Arthur and another male.
"Nico?" Louis's eyebrows rise. "What the hell are you doing with the outcast?"
"Talking," Nico says flatly.
"Yeah?" The third one laughs. "Even though she's Caspian's thing now, doesn't mean she belongs here with the real wolves."
"She's still pack less trash," Louis adds. "A claiming bite doesn't change that."
Nico and I are looking at each other. I can see the choice written on his face, the moment he has to decide which side he's on.
I'm disappointed before he even makes it.
"Go," I tell him. "Go follow those mindless shits if that's all you know how to be."
I turn to walk away but he grabs my arm to stop me. "Nova..."
The moment his hand touches my skin, something jolts through me. Energy, electricity, the broken bond sparking to life for just a second. We both jump apart like we've been burned.
I back away, heart pounding. "I have to go."
"Nova, wait..."
But I'm already jogging away, leaving him standing there with his Dominion brothers, leaving behind whatever that spark was.
I pause outside Julian's office, catching my breath. Processing what just happened with Nico.
I want to hate him to my core. His betrayal cut me deep because even though he was Dominion, even though I knew better, I'd let myself trust him. Let myself believe I had at least one other person on my side.
And it was all a lie.
Or was it?
That spark when he touched me... the broken bond trying to reconnect...
I shake my head and knock on Julian's door.
He's at his desk grading papers. He looks up when I walk in and his expression shifts when he sees me.
For a long moment we just stare at each other. I can feel his emotions through our bond: jealousy sharp as a blade, hurt that goes bone deep, acceptance layered over anger, love threading through it all like silver.
