CHAPTER 38
1112 Words
ADINNA’S POV
The world shatters.
The frozen illusion around me shatters like glass. Music crashes back into the air, laughter erupts from nearby tables, and the clinking of glasses rings in my ears. For a second, I can’t breathe. The sound, the color, and the lights are all too much for me.
Was it all in my head?
Then I feel it.
Something stirs in the air, crawling under my skin, heavy and alive. My pulse pounds in my ears. The air smells sharp and metallic, like rain before a storm. I turn slowly, trying to grasp what’s happening, but my body feels disconnected, as if it is responding to something beyond my control.
And that’s when I see them.
Hunter, Jace, Salem, and Dean.
They are around me, no, closing in. Each step they take pulls at something deep within me. My body goes rigid. I can’t breathe or think. The glow in their eyes feels unnatural. It’s faint, but I can see the golden fire burning inside them. For a moment, I’m not sure I’m still in the same world.
The air is charged and electric, as if something ancient breathes between us. My wolf stirs, restless and loud. I press my hand against my chest, trying to calm the strange rhythm within me. My skin burns. The room feels too small, and the lights too bright. My throat is dry, yet my heart races toward something I cannot name.
I take a step back. It feels like dragging my feet through water. My fingers graze the edge of the bar behind me, cold and steady. I focus on that small patch of solidness, but it’s useless. The pull grows stronger. An invisible tether tugs at my heart, binding it to them. All four.
No, that’s not possible.
I blink hard, trying to shake off the heat on my neck. Every instinct screams to run, but I can’t move. My wolf won’t let me. It’s like she’s caught in their scent, desperate to step closer even as I fight to pull away.
The scents fill my lungs before I can stop them. I inhale their scents, but it feels wrong. It also feels right. My stomach twists, and I dig my nails into my palm until it hurts.
My pulse races. My veins throb like fire.
I can feel something pushing and pulling me like a magnetic force that isn't visible but strong enough to tear me apart. It hums under my skin, whispering that I belong to something I never asked for. That I’m tied to them.
The thought makes me shudder.
I can’t look at them for long. Each glance pulls me deeper, like staring into a mirror showing me something I don’t want to see. I shift my focus to the floor, to the golden reflections scattered across the marble. They blur, melting into ripples.
My breath catches again.
I want to scream, to ask what’s going on, to demand why me. But the words stay trapped somewhere between my chest and my throat.
The tension presses down harder. My wolf paces inside me, whining as if she recognizes something I haven’t named. It terrifies me how much she aches.
My skin feels too tight for my body. My vision narrows, focusing only on the four of them who now seem impossibly close. The energy between us thickens until it hums in the air. I can feel their heartbeats. Not physically, but through the bond like a rhythm beneath my own, overlapping, merging.
No. This isn’t real. It can’t be.
My head spins. The room feels alive, pulsing as if it’s breathing with me. My heart beats faster and faster, drowning out every sound.
I blink again, and the world shifts. For a moment, I see faint threads of gold extending from me to them. Four strands flicker like light in water. I take a shaky step back, and the strands stretch with me, refusing to break.
My chest tightens. The air tastes like panic.
It isn’t possible. Wolves don’t share bonds. There’s only one mate. There’s always one mate. But I can feel it. The connection doesn’t lie. It crawls through me, flooding every nerve with heat and dread. My breath trembles.
My gaze flicks across each of them. Hunter’s fury looks raw and dangerous. Jace’s smirk has vanished, replaced with confusion. Salem’s face twists as if he’s rejecting what’s in front of him. And Dean looks like he’s known all along.
A strange ache twists through my stomach. The air between us vibrates. My heart lurches when Dean’s eyes meet mine, and my wolf surges forward so suddenly it knocks the breath out of me. I stagger slightly, catching myself against the bar. My hand shakes.
The lights flicker again, and for a heartbeat, I swear I see something shimmer in their eyes. My instincts flare, and my wolf howls in recognition, terror, and longing. I don’t know which.
This is wrong. Very wrong.
The bond pulses again. My chest rises and falls too quickly. Every inhale feels like fire. My skin prickles, and I feel trapped in my own body, caught between wanting to run and wanting to fall to my knees, and then I hear my wolf whisper again.
Mine.
I gasp and press a trembling hand against my heart. The voice doesn’t sound like mine. It feels ancient, as if it comes from them, or from something older that ties us all together.
No, no, no.
My back hits the wall. My breath shakes. I feel cornered, but not by them, by fate, by this situation, and by the realization that I can’t undo it. The bond isn’t something I chose. It’s something written into my very being.
My wolf presses forward again, restless and pleading. I close my eyes and mutter a silent curse. I don’t want this. I don’t want them.
When I open my eyes again, the air changes.
Their scents intertwine, too strong, too overwhelming. My vision blurs at the edges. I feel the faint vibration in the floor beneath me, and the steady pulse of power that isn’t mine. My fingers tighten around the bar until my knuckles ache.
I can’t take it anymore. The bond, the pull, and the heat are too much. I squeeze my eyes closed, forcing myself to breathe.
When I open them again, the lights flash.
Only one voice cuts through the noise, rough, low, and filled with disbelief.
Hunter.
He stands there, his gaze locked on me, his expression a mix of fury and denial.
His words come out in a quiet, vicious growl.
“No. This can’t be right.”
- Writer
