Julian. Somewhere on campus, lying awake, feeling my arousal through our completed bond. Fighting the urge to come to me.
Knox. Watching from the shadows somewhere. Feeling the pull even as he keeps his distance.
I work myself with increasing desperation, my hips lifting off the bed as I chase the release that won't fully satisfy. The heat demands completion, demands bonds, demands all of them. My fingers move faster and the pressure builds until I'm crying out into my empty room, body clenching around nothing as I come again.
But it's not enough. Won't be enough until I stop fighting what I am.
Eventually exhaustion wins over heat and I drift into fitful sleep, skin still feverish, body still aching.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Iwake to sunlight streaming through the window and my body finally cool.
The heat broke sometime during the night. I can still feel the residual ache deep in my bones, the exhaustion that comes from fighting biology all night, but the desperate burning is gone. My skin doesn't feel too tight anymore and I can think clearly for the first time since it started.
Lily's bed across the room is still empty. I don't blame her for not coming back yet.
I drag myself to the shower and stand under the hot water until my muscles stop trembling. When I catch my reflection in the mirror, I look like I've been through a war. Dark circles under my eyes, hollows in my cheeks, skin pale despite the flush that's finally fading.
I'm going to have to face them all eventually.
I dress in jeans and a sweater, pull my hair back, and try to look like someone who hasn't spent last night in heat-driven madness. It doesn't really work but it's the best I can manage.
The hallway outside my room is mercifully empty. I make it down the stairs without running into anyone, but the moment I push through the main doors into the quad, I hear them.
Whispers. Following me like a shadow.
"That's her."
"Last night."
"Someone saw Caspian Jett running from the girls' dorm. Literally running."
"No way. Why would he..."
"You know why."
I keep my head up and keep walking. Let them whisper. Let them speculate. They don't know what actually happened and I'm not about to enlighten them.
The dining hall is packed for breakfast and the noise hits me like a physical wall. I barely touched food yesterday and my stomach twists with hunger, but the thought of walking through that crowd makes my skin crawl.
I'm still standing in the doorway trying to make myself move when someone brushes past me.
Sera Whitlock.
She stops, turns back, and her eyes rake over me with cold assessment. "Well. Look who finally emerged."
I don't respond. Just try to step around her.
She moves to block my path. "Is it true?"
"Is what true?"
"Someone saw Caspian leaving your building in the middle of the night." Her voice is perfectly measured but I can see the fury simmering beneath it. "Your building. After midnight."
"I don't know what they saw."
"Don't play stupid." She steps closer and I catch the scent of her wolf, bristling just beneath her skin. Her control is impressive but barely holding. "He was supposed to be mine.We've been promised since we were children. And you think you can just show up and take him?"
