Hunter’s POV
I sat alone in my car, the rain pelting against the windshield like a thousand tiny fists. Each drop echoed the storm in my chest, violent and unrelenting. My fingers gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white, and still, I couldn’t move. Couldn’t think clearly.
She was leaving.
Jade. My mate. The girl I tormented, ignored, mocked—because I was too much of a coward to admit I cared. The girl I watched from afar as others picked her apart like vultures circling prey. The girl who bore it all with silent strength.
And now… she was gone. Or about to be.
She’d made her decision. And could I blame her?
No.
I leaned back in the seat, dragging a hand over my face as guilt, shame, and a choking sense of loss pressed down on my chest. The scholarship offer, the ac
