Desperation for a mate has become rampant as more and more shifters struggle to find their fated. It’s why the enrollment numbers at Heartsflame remain steady despite the overall decline in population.
All magical races agree: true mates and fated bonds are necessary for survival.
And I’ve finally found mine.
My senses narrow to the point where my soul ends and hers begins. I draw in a breath and ache for what I’ve never known. My fingers curl into fists and I slam them against the invisible barrier separating us. Biting wind is locked behind the wall of magic, but I can hear the ice tumble against it, see the steam rising off her skin and the magnetic glow of her eyes, feel her presence like my own heartbeat, its thrum an intoxicating pull at my senses.
She is a temptation I never wanted—and worse, one I suddenly can’t imagine living without.
Closing my eyes, I try to block her out, willing my body—heart—soulto calm the fuck down.
Because the woman standing in front of me is already tied to another.
The moment I caught her scent, I could smell his all over her. Even now, it’s driving me fucking insane to know that he’s touched her. The familiarity between them—his naked fucking body on top of hers—is a threat to my very existence.
I won’t take another mate while my fated lives. Ican’t.
My emotions churn like ocean waves amidst a deadly storm, cold as ice one moment and roaring like an inferno the next. The sins stacked against my mate grow rapidly as my mind reels.
How dare she choose another wolf over me.
How dare she not wait for me to find her.
How dare she not look for me herself.
Gnashing my teeth, I open my eyes and meet her wide-eyed stare, like she can sense me through the magical barrier just as strongly as I can sense her.
If she knows that I’m here, why isn’t she seeking me out?
Seconds tick by in agony as snow swirls around her, and she doesn’t move. Darkness descends upon the icy plateau. Maybe she’s frozen in shock. Or maybe?—
A snarl catches in my throat.
Maybe she’s already bonded with the wild wolf.
That would explain why his scent is so strongly twined with hers but not why they are seeking entrance to the academy. Besides, bonded shifters no longer tempt unmated ones with their scent, so the fact that her scent is driving me wild proves that theyaren’tbonded.
A growl rumbles in my chest as I reminisce over her scent. It’s pure fucking temptation.Made for me, a voice in my head stubbornly argues. Lavender and honey, spice and sex, damp earth and frosted stars, moonlight kisses and sun-drunk afternoons, each taste swirling together in an endless tumble of whatcould be.
She is everything and nothing all at once, a promise hanging from a precipice if I could justreach out andclaim her as mine.
Yet she entered the trials with another wolf by her side.
My blood boils at the offense. Why enroll at Heartsflame Academy if she already found a mate? Is she bored with him and seeking a better match? Or has she come to flaunt their union and torment me with it?
If her partner were from a reputable pack, I could understand her decision to mate prematurely. Climb the social ladder with whomever you believe is the most attainabledoeshappen, and regularly. Shifters unable to find their true mates—or unwilling to wait—often choose another. It’s still an abhorrent practice, but an understandable one. Were that the case here, I could try to understand. We would find a way to break her current bond in favor of sealing a fated bond with me.
But the shifter whose scent is intimately intwined with hers isn’t from another pack—he isn’t from a pack at all. His scent is as unmistakable as it is damning.
Wild.
A wild fucking wolf has claimed my mate.
I watch her closely now that she’s alone. As the final glow of sunlight fades from the sky, she stares into the distance—directly into my soul—and screams so loud, so furiously, that my bones rattle. My next breath is a drag of air so dense that it weighs me down. The trials are over, and she’s still standing. Despite the fact that she is my fated mate, she wasn’t accepted into the academy.
We’ll be separated until I graduate.
Tension infects every muscle in my body. I have to see her.Know her.What’s her name? Which pack is she from? How hasn’t she been identified as my mate before now? I’ve visited every single shifter pack in existence. If she was there, I would have known. I would have felt her presence like my own heartbeat. Until now, I thought she didn’t exist.
