“My problem?” He laughs, a bitter, broken cadence that makes Revyn twitch. “My problem isyou, Wildfire. I can’t stand watching you throw yourself at another wolf. It’s driving me insane.”
“It’s none of your goddamn business!”
“Itismy business!”
We’re having the same fight we had the other night, only this time, with an audience. People gather outside the study room and stare at us through the floor to ceiling window—Callum and Gemma included, with Thorn suddenly by her side, his arm slung over her shoulder in a protective—or possessive—stance.
At the sight of Thorn unofficially staking his claim over Gemma, a latch inside my mind snaps open and a long lost memory slips free. The unspoken truth about Alistair and me clicks into place with painful clarity. My mind whirls as the pieces come together.
Callum’s pointed questioning about my kiss with Alistair.
Alistair’s uncanny ability to sense where I am.
Revyn’s jealousy dialed up to a thousand.
The signs have been there all along; I’ve just been too stubborn to accept it.
When the truth hits, my first thought is of my mother. Memories of my family are as painful as they are plentiful, and I avoid reminders of them to ensure that old wounds don’t fester. But before she died, there was one lesson she insisted that I learn. Something that she deemed of the utmost importance—as though it were a matter of life or death.
Her voice whispers in my mind as I recite her final lesson.
“A true mate pair is a bond that’s forged by the gods.” My heart flutters like a hummingbird’s wings. “It is a sacred union that transcends lifetimes. When you find your true mate, you’ll feel their pull from miles away. Sense them even with your eyes closed. Feel their emotions as though they are your own.”
The insistent tugging inside my chest that always leads my wandering steps directly to Alistair.
The way our eyes constantly meet across a room.
How I keep getting agitated when he’s around—becausehe’sannoyed withme.
“A mate that’s fated,” Alistair says coldly, reciting the same lesson from memory, “is a bond no one chooses.”
Revyn’s voice echoes between us. “It is a bond that’s freely given.”
I stare at Alistair, and he stares right back. Tension fills the room until I break it with a laugh so loud that both men flinch. “I’m not mating with a man whose family hates my guts.” Shaking my head, I force every twisted feeling inside my heart into a steel box. Denial snaps the lid closed and locks it up tight.
Fated mates aren’t real. They can’t be. Otherwise, not only are the gods cruel for binding our mortal souls together, but I’m a complete bitch for what I’m putting Alistair, Revyn, and Callum through by declaring that I don’t want any one of them unless they’re here for the night and gone by morning.
My resolve to graduate without declaring a mate deepens. If I choose no one at all, I won’t break anyone’s heart except my own.
Alistair’s jaw snaps shut. “See that you don’t takeanymate,” he commands, the power in his voice wrapping around me like a vice. “Or I will ensure you regret it.” Stepping forward, he grabs my hand and yanks me away from Revyn, then tosses me over his shoulder and carries me out the room, through a murmuring crowd. I glimpse Revyn’s disbelief as he stumbles after us, then Callum’s glint of a smile from across the room.
I slam my fists into Alistair’s back. “Put me down, asshole!” We climb the grand staircase and trek down the hallway, ignoring the giggles and shouts of our classmates as we reach the dorms. Kicking open my bedroom door, Alistair rushes inside and tosses me on the bed.
My heart leaps to my throat as he crosses his arms over his chest and glares at me. “You will not leave this room until the full moon is over.”
“Mating Games are tomorrow night. I can’t miss them or I’m expelled.”
I kick at him, and he grabs my ankle with ease. A heated shiver races down my spine at that small point of contact. His nostrils flare as his gaze rakes down my body. The flush on his cheeks, the hammering of his heart, the raw desire in his eyes, takes my breath away. Finally, he tosses my foot to the mattress. “I’ll see that you’re given an exception for the games.”
That won’t work. If I miss any points throughout the school year, I’ll never make the number one spot in the shifter class. Rather than argue, I keep my mouth shut. Alistair can’t stop me from participating, no matter who his daddy is.
Alistair’s eyes flash as he scents me, and I struggle to breathe as a sudden inferno of desire turns my body to liquid. Cursing under his breath, he turns and stomps to the other side of the room. With a twist of his wrist, he breaks the lock to my balcony door and tests it, ensuring that it won’t open. Then, just as he’s about to leave through the front, he slams his hand against the door frame and gives one final order. “Donotdisobey me, Sienna,” he growls, gouging the wood with his claws.
He slams the door shut and breaks the lock from the outside.
“You don’t own me, Alistair!”
His voice filters through the crack beneath the door. “Yeah, I fucking do,true mate.”
