Fated to the Alpha Prince [MxM]

CHAPTER FOUR: CLASH I

Lourence POV

The days following the events at the full-moon ball were strange, to say the least. There was a distinct shift in the air around me, one that I could not quite place at first. At first, it had been whispers filled with judgment, curiosity, and ridicule. Now, they had become something else. The looks that followed me, the hushed voices - there was something in them that made my skin crawl. It was not just scorn anymore. It was disgust, a quiet but palpable repulsion.

Two alphas mated? How absurd.

The thought echoed in my mind as I walked through the halls of the Institute, trying to block out the murmurs that followed me wherever I went. No one seemed to know what to make of it. And frankly, neither did I.

I did my best to ignore the eyes on me, to pretend I was unaffected by the quiet chatter that buzzed around my every step. My focus became singular. I applied to every major college I could, ignoring the fact that I felt like I was suffocating in this place, surrounded by people who did not understand. The idea of moving on, away from this school, from the weight of my situation, felt like a relief. It had to be better than this. Anything had to be better than what I was living now.

I avoided Thymian. It was easy at first. He seemed to be doing the same. I never saw him in the hallways, or the classrooms, or even with the teachers during consultations. If he was there, he was hiding just as much as I was. The awkwardness, the heavy silence between us was deafening. I was not ready to face him, to look into his eyes and see what was there.

The mark on my inner thigh was something I tried to ignore. The reminder of the bond between us, but it was impossible to erase from my mind. I just avoided looking down, never once even bothering to see how the mark looked, this would only make it realer, make it so I was bounded to Thymian..

But avoiding him did not make it go away.

The pain started out small, almost imperceptible. At first, I dismissed it as nothing more than a muscle ache, or perhaps a lingering side effect of the day’s stress. But it did not go away. It crept up slowly, an annoying throb deep in my inner thigh, right where the mark rested on my skin - the same as during the ball. It grew sharper, more intense, until it was undeniable. I could not ignore it anymore.

I spent the next morning bedridden. My body felt weak, heavy, the pain growing unbearable. The throbbing in my thigh was constant, each wave making me wince. I tossed and turned in bed, trying to find some way to alleviate it, but it was futile. Nothing helped. The pain only intensified with each passing hour. And I felt sick.

My mind, once preoccupied with avoiding everyone, now seemed to shift entirely to the mark. I had to understand what was happening. I pulled myself from the bed, despite the aching in my body, and grabbed my phone. I searched feverishly, typing in words like "mate mark pain," and " moon bond" until the results finally gave me something concrete.

The pain in my mark was not just random. It was a warning. A signal from the moon. It meant I had been away from him for too long.

I almost laughed out loud.

The mark was a physical manifestation of the bond between us, and the pain was a direct consequence of that distance. I had no idea why it was affecting me like this, but the more I read, the more it made sense. I felt sick. The idea of him and me, our bond, felt like something that had been thrust upon me without my consent. And now, here I was, sick to my stomach, tortured by a mark I did not even want.

I needed to see it. For some reason, the thought of the mark being a real tattoo - a permanent, inescapable thing - made me feel even more suffocated. I pulled off my pants with shaky hands and glanced down at my inner thigh, the place where the mark lay hidden.

It was a symbol. A serpent wrapped around a crown. The serpent’s fangs dug into the crown, as if it was threatening to destroy the delicate symbol. It looked like something from an ancient legend, something more symbolic than just an animal. But I could not derive any sort of meaning.

I could not help but stare at it, my fingers gently tracing the design. The feeling that washed over me was not just confusion. It was a sense of foreboding, of wondering just what this all meant. The serpent, the crown… It was almost as if the bond was a warning in itself. Was I being controlled? Was this some test from the gods or fate itself?

My mind raced, trying to piece together any bit of information I could, but there was nothing more than vague references to mates and their bonds. There was no explanation for this, no answer that could calm my restless thoughts.

I just stared at the mark for a long time, sat there for hours, half-dazed, trying to process the information I had just uncovered, trying to understand what the hell had just happened. My body ached, the sharp pain in my thigh still there, though a little less intense now.

Was this it? Was this the reality of the bond? I had avoided Thymian Mounds, I had tried to ignore the mark, but it was clear now that none of it was going to go away. The more I avoided him, the more the pain would intensify. It was the moon’s curse, or maybe just a cruel joke.

'Blessing' is what the Lunaris people called it... I bet that stupid Prince now takes those words back.

Without a second thought I stood up from my bed and grabbed my coat. Distance was the reason for my pain?

Perhaps I was the stupid one.. It would have been easy if we were still high-schoolers. But now? Now I needed to find a way to get close to Thymian without the excuse of shared classes.

Just how hard could it be to get into the Lunaris royal palace?