Flashbacks of the day she left me in the wilds flicker behind my eyes, turning my mood even darker as students file into the lecture hall. I take my usual seat two rows behind Sienna and don’t say a word to her out loud, but I say a lot to her inside my head.
I’m sorry for hurting you.
I know that I lied.
You were happier before you knew the truth.
I’d do it again and again and again...because your happiness matters to me.
I can picture her response.You didn’t think I’d ever find out?
No, I knew you would, but I thought we could talk through our situation and come to a compromise that kept you by my side. My gaze narrows as Callum brushes thighs with Sienna.
You’re right, baby. That’s not entirely true. I knew you would find out, but I wanted to protect you from that truth as long as possible because you were so damn determined to join a pack—any pack—that I couldn’t break your heart.
Yes, we spent years traveling the wilds seeking out every shifter pack we could find.
Yes, they all rejected us before we ever came close to their communities, sending a messenger—a messenger—rather than the alpha rejecting us personally.
I crack my neck and glance at Alistair Dire. He’s more relaxed this morning than he was yesterday, stretching his legs out in front of him like he owns the room. For all I know, his alphahole of a father might sponsor the school. Swallowing the growl that threatens to rise, I glare as some blonde bitch splays her hand on Dire’s chest and slips her fingers inside the front of his shirt, touching his bare skin in a deliberate display of affection.
That man has the bond I’d give anything for, and he’s wasting it.
My blood boils, and I clench my fists to keep my claws from showing. They prick my palms, making me bleed, and I focus on the pain to keep my head on straight.
I only came here to win Sienna back, not play stupid fucking games. But she’s stubborn. As soon as she found out that only the best shifters graduate from Heartsflame, she was determined to join the ranks of the elite...to prove herself.Gods, I hate that fucking chip on her shoulder. None of those packs deserve her.None.
I’ve been with her since the day we met—and I’d have been there sooner if I’d known she existed. Like the rest of the shifter community, I thought no one survived the Roane Valley Packmassacre, so imagine my surprise when not only had a young girl survived, but she was living in the wilds alone...in the same place she’d always been.
She never left Roane Valley, not even after her pack had been slaughtered and her community burned to the ground. I only found out about her when I scented her the moment I hopped down the final stretch of the mountain pass and hit the ground.
Her scent waseverywherein that valley.
And another wolf was tracking her.
So I tracked him.
I glance over at Alistair again, unable to deny the resemblance between him and the wolf that hunted Sienna. They have the same autumn blonde hair and freckles dusting their high cheekbones. An arrogance that comes from being raised on the belief that you’re more important than everyone else. A charm that lures even the most innocent of shifters to your side.
But I didn’t let the eldest Dire son take Sienna from me, and I won’t let the youngest take her from me, either. His only saving grace is that students can’t kill each other, because it’s only a matter of time before his baser instincts take over and he slips.
Look at meif you need any proof of that.
Alistair catches me staring and lifts a brow. I ignore him and turn my attention to the more pressing threat.
Callum Navarro.
His little illusions are a pain in my ass. As the days pass and classes blur together, he gets more creative with the versions of Sienna that he leaves me. Sometimes, it’s of her whispering my name in a darkened alcove—clearly a trap, but one I’m too desperate to avoid. The illusion smells like her—tastes like her when I lean in and kiss its lips and tangle my fingers in her hair. It dissipates with a mangled laugh after that one blessed, haunting kiss, and I’m standing alone with an ache in my chest that grows larger with each passing day.
Sienna won’t talk to me, and it fucking hurts.
After her little escape attempt, so much time apart was difficult, but hearing her laugh echo through the halls and knowing that it’s not because of me is a pain I can’t heal from. I’ve spent years adjusting to a life with someone else in it, and I don’t want to go back to a cold, lonely existence wandering the rotting wasteland in search of whatever it was I thought was worth living for before Sienna.
I want a mate.
I wantmymate.
When Callum’s latest illusion beckons me into an empty row of the academy’s three-story library, I find Sienna and him tangled in each other’s arms, her head thrown back as he pins her to the shelf and assaults her mouth with his tongue.
