Chapter 10
1143 Words
I didn’t sleep that night.
Every time I closed my eyes, the kiss came back. Not just the heat of it, but the tether it had lit inside me. Something invisible, thrumming through my chest, tugging me like a leash.
Mate.
The word hissed through my head no matter how many times I tried to shove it out.
By the time dawn broke, I’d paced a trench into my bedroom carpet. I caught sight of myself in the mirror and almost laughed. My hair stuck out like a crow’s nest, my skin pale with smudges under my eyes. Great. Freaky Tessa, version Texas.
A knock rattled the door once before Axel barged in. “Morning, sunshine.” He stopped mid-step and blinked. “Holy hell. You look like roadkill.”
“Thanks,” I muttered, flopping onto the bed.
“Long night?” He squinted at me, scanning. His big-brother radar was in full swing.
“Couldn’t sleep.”
His brows shot up. “Because…?”
“Because.”
“That’s not an answer.”
I groaned, dragging a pillow over my face. “Just drop it.”
He tugged the pillow away and sat on the edge of the bed, studying me. “Did Carlos—”
“No!” The word shot out sharper than I meant, echoing in the room.
Axel tilted his head, suspicion darkening his gaze. “Then who?”
I bit my lip, panic fluttering in my chest. If I said Dastien’s name, everything would explode. Axel would go nuclear. Rosalyn would torch me alive. And me? I’d shatter just trying to explain something I didn’t even understand myself.
The door creaked. Mom poked her head in, smiling too brightly. “Breakfast. Come down, both of you.”
Saved by the mom. For now.
I trudged downstairs, Axel on my heels, both of us still simmering in silence.
Dad had the coffee pot going, the smell sharp and bitter. Mom had scrambled eggs and bacon set out. For a second, the normalcy almost calmed me. Like we could actually be a normal family in a normal house in Texas.
Then Axel leaned back in his chair and said, “Tessa’s hiding something.”
“Axel!” I hissed.
Mom frowned. “Hiding what?”
“Nothing,” I snapped.
Dad glanced between us, his brow furrowed. “Kids…”
“Fine,” Axel muttered. He shoveled eggs onto his plate. “But if some guy did anything to you—”
“Axel.” Mom’s tone carried warning.
I shoved toast into my mouth just to keep from screaming. The whole table felt like a trap. I kept my gaze down, fingers clenched around my fork, praying no one noticed how jittery I was.
But Mom’s eyes lingered too long. She always saw more than she let on.
I couldn’t breathe until the plates were cleared and Axel finally stormed upstairs.
I was about to bolt myself when Mom touched my wrist. “Honey?”
I froze. “Yeah?”
Her smile was gentle, but her eyes were sharp. “You can tell me if something’s wrong.”
The words swelled inside me — I kissed a boy and now I’m tethered to him forever, like some cosmic wolf-bride lottery — but they stuck in my throat.
“I’m fine,” I whispered.
She searched my face, like she could read the truth there. Then she kissed my forehead. “Okay. But remember — nothing stays hidden forever.”
A shiver crawled up my spine.
By Monday, school felt different. The hallways buzzed louder, whispers clung longer. Rosalyn’s glares sliced across the cafeteria like knives.
Word had spread. About the kiss.
I didn’t know who had seen, or how much they’d guessed, but I felt it in the way girls smirked behind their hands, in the way Carlos muttered “tease” under his breath when I passed.
Rosalyn cornered me outside English. Her lipstick was too red, her smile too sharp.
“Having fun?” she asked sweetly.
I forced a shrug. “At school? Not really.”
“Don’t play dumb.” She leaned closer, her perfume chokingly sweet. “You think you can just show up here and steal everything that’s mine?”
Heat flared in my chest. Yours?
I smiled tightly. “Relax. I’m not interested in Carlos.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I wasn’t talking about Carlos.”
My pulse stuttered. “Then what—”
But she was already sashaying down the hall, hair swinging like a warning flag.
I pressed my back against the lockers, heart pounding. She knew. Maybe not the whole truth, but enough.
And that was almost worse.
After the final bell, I tried to escape fast, but the universe had other plans.
Dastien was leaning against the hood of his black car, waiting like he owned the parking lot.
My stomach flipped. My feet betrayed me, carrying me closer.
“You shouldn’t be here,” I hissed.
He smirked, eyes glinting. “Missed you too.”
I glanced around. Too many eyes. Rosalyn was a shadow in the distance, her glare burning holes in my back.
“Go,” I whispered. “Before someone—”
He caught my wrist. The touch seared through me, lighting that bond again. My breath hitched.
“We need to talk,” he said, low and urgent.
I yanked my hand free. “We don’t need anything.”
His smile faded. For a second, his wolf gleamed through — sharp teeth hidden behind human skin. “You can fight it all you want, Tessa. But this bond? It’s not going anywhere.”
I staggered back. “I never asked for this!”
“And you think I did?” His voice cracked like a whip. “One kiss, and now my life is tied to yours. You think that was my plan?”
The raw honesty in his eyes gutted me.
For a moment, neither of us spoke. The late sun slanted across his face, catching the golden flecks in his irises. He looked too real, too dangerous, too inevitable.
And I hated him for it.
I spun on my heel and stormed away, pulse racing.
But the tug in my chest followed, unrelenting. No matter how far I walked, he was still there, tethered.
That night, the vision hit.
I was brushing my teeth when the mirror blurred, the bathroom spinning away.
A courtyard bathed in moonlight. Shadows moving fast, too fast. Fangs flashing. Screams tearing the night. Blood soaking stone.
And in the center — Dastien, shirt torn, blood streaked down his chest, fighting like a demon but falling, falling—
I gasped, slamming back into myself, toothpaste spilling down my chin. My heart thundered.
Vampires.
They were coming.
And somehow, I knew this was only the beginning.
- Writer
