Jade’s POV
I didn’t know where I was running. I didn’t care.
The moment his scent hit me—cedarwood and something darker, like smoke—I felt my chest constrict. It had been like drowning and breathing at the same time. That pull. That magnetic, soul-deep tug that could only mean one thing.
Mate.
I’d dreamed of this for years, imagined soft smiles and whispered promises, the joy of finally being chosen. Being wanted.
But never—not in a thousand nightmares—did I imagine it would be him.
Hunter Ashford.
The boy who made school a battlefield.
The Alpha heir who laughed while I was shoved, mocked, humiliated.
I could still feel the static shock from where our arms brushed when I bumped into him. I hadn’t meant to, hadn’t seen him through the fog of perfume, music, and anxiety. And when I
