CHAPTER 40
1696 Words
ADINNA’S POV
“No.”
The word slips out before I even realize I’ve said it. It comes out sharp, trembling, cracked. My whole body feels wrong. The air feels heavier than before, the lights dimmer, their faces brighter. My chest burns with every breath.
Hunter’s eyes are still glowing. Dean’s too. Even Jace and Salem are quiet now, watching me like I’m about to break. The silence presses in, thick, unbearable.
I take another step back. My heels scrape against the marble floor. “No,” I say again, louder this time. “You’re lying.”
Jace opens his mouth, maybe to speak, but I cut him off. “You’re all lying!”
The music plays again in the background, but I barely hear it. Everything feels muffled, distant. My heartbeat is louder than the bass. My pulse keeps hammering so hard it hurts.
Hunter steps forward. Just one step. That’s all it takes for my wolf to stir again, deep in my chest, that warm pull rising up my spine like fire. She’s restless, eager, and alive and I hate it.
I shove the feeling down, shaking my head. “Stay away from me.”
Hunter doesn’t stop. His jaw is tight, his expression unreadable, but I can feel his energy pressing into mine like heat on skin. “You felt it, didn’t you?” His voice is low, rough, dragging the words like they taste bitter.
I freeze.
The way he says it, steadily and certain, makes my stomach twist.
I want to deny it, but I can’t find my voice. My chest rises too fast and hard. My mouth opens, then shuts again.
He takes another step. “Don’t bother lying. I can smell it on you. You felt it.”
The heat in his voice burns worse than his eyes.
I finally shake my head. “No,” I whisper. “Whatever you think this is not what it is.”
Dean moves then, slowly, like he doesn’t want to scare me. His tone is calm, but his eyes betray him, soft, sad, and something else I can’t name. “Adinna,” he says quietly, “you can’t fight a bond like that.”
A hollow laugh slips from my mouth before I can stop it. It sounds strange, broken. “Watch me.”
I step back again, forcing my voice to steady. “I don’t care what your wolves feel. I don’t care what mine feels. I’d rather watch myself get ripped open and stitched back up again than ever accept any of you as my mates.”
The words hang there, sharp and loud enough to draw a few glances from nearby students. I don’t care. I mean every syllable.
Dean flinches like the words hit him physically. His throat bobs, and he looks away. Hunter’s expression doesn’t move, but I see the faint crack in his mask, a flash of something raw before he shuts it down again.
Salem’s arms fold across his chest. “You don’t get to choose,” he mutters. His tone is almost bored, but his jaw clenches hard.
“I do choose,” I snap. “And I choose no.”
Jace lets out a quiet sigh, running a hand through his hair. “You really don’t get it, do you?” he says softly. “This isn’t something that just happens. It means something.”
I glare at him, my voice sharp. “To you, maybe.”
Something inside me twists at the guilty look on his face.
I can’t breathe right. My body feels like it’s not mine anymore. My pulse keeps skipping beats, my wolf pacing in my head like a caged animal. She keeps whispering mate like she’s trying to soothe me, but her voice makes me want to scream.
My hands shake as I grab the edge of the counter. “Stop it,” I whisper to her. “Stop saying that.”
She doesn’t. Her voice only grows louder.
They’re ours.
I clench my teeth until my jaw aches.
The four of them are still watching me. Hunter with fury, Dean with quiet heartbreak, Jace with curiosity, Salem with that detached coldness that makes me want to punch him.
The world feels smaller by the second.
“Adinna,” Dean says again, stepping forward slightly. “Please. Let us explain”
“Explain what?” I cut in, my voice rising. “That I’m supposed to belong to you? That I have no choice? That the universe decided for me?”
Dean’s lips part, but I don’t give him the chance to speak. “No. I don’t accept that.”
Hunter’s growl rumbles through the air low, dangerous, and not entirely human. “You think refusing it changes anything?”
I meet his gaze, matching his tone. “It changes everything for me.”
His eyes flare brighter, and for a second, the wolf in him pushes through. I see the shadow of his beast flickering just beneath his skin. My wolf reacts instantly, pressing forward, desperate to reach him.
I choke out a sound somewhere between anger and panic. My entire body vibrates with heat, my vision blurs at the edges. “Stop it,” I hiss. “Whatever you’re doing stop!”
Hunter doesn’t move.
Dean reaches for me, but I jerk away from his touch like it burns. “Don’t.”
The rejection hits him visibly. His hand drops, and he steps back, his face tightening in silent pain.
My heart hurts too which makes me furious. “Why do I feel this?” I whisper, clutching at my chest. “Why does it hurt to even look at you?”
No one answers.
The silence stretches, loud and cruel. My wolf whimpers, but I don’t let her speak again. I won’t let her control me.
I turn to leave, but my knees buckle. The air feels too thin, the lights too bright. My breath catches and I stumble forward, steadying myself against a table.
Dean moves again, instinctively and protectively. “Adinna”
“Stay back!” I shout, my voice cracking. “Don’t you dare touch me!”
I see the hurt in his eyes again. It makes me hate this even more.
Jace finally breaks the silence, his voice rough but calm. “You’re fighting a bond that’s written into your soul. It’s not supposed to make sense. It just *s.”
I shake my head. “No. I don’t believe that.”
Hunter’s jaw ticks. “You felt it. I saw it in your eyes.”
“I didn’t!”
“You did,” he says, stepping closer again. His voice is softer this time, but it cuts deeper. “You felt everything we did. The heat. The pull. The ache. You can deny it all you want, but your wolf won’t.”
He’s right and that terrifies me more than anything.
“You don’t know me,” I whisper. “You don’t know what I’ll do.”
Hunter’s gaze sharpens. “Try me.”
I lift my chin, even though my hands still shake. “I’d rather die than be tied to any of you.”
Dean flinches again. His lips press into a thin line, but he doesn’t argue. Jace looks away, exhaling slowly. Salem watches with something close to disgust, though I can’t tell if it’s for me or himself.
Hunter’s expression doesn’t change, but his silence is worse than shouting.
The tension between us feels like fire burning through every inch of air around us.
I can feel the pull still, deep inside, and I hate that no matter how many times I deny it, it doesn’t fade. It only grows. My wolf hums beneath my skin, a restless rhythm I can’t silence.
The music from the ball continues, muffled and far away, as if the rest of the world moved on without us. I wish I could move too.
I look at all of them one last time. Their faces blur in the haze of anger, confusion, and something dangerously close to longing.
Then I turn away.
I take one shaky step, then another, each breath burning harder than the last. My hands tremble at my sides. I tell myself that if I just keep walking, the bond will fade, the heat will die, the ache will stop.
It doesn’t.
The farther I go, the worse it gets. My wolf howls in my head, furious, wounded.
You can’t run from them, she whispers. They’re ours.
“Shut up!” I whisper aloud, voice shaking.
A few students nearby glance at me strangely, but I don’t care. I just need air. Space. Something that isn’t them.
But even as I reach the exit, I can still feel their eyes on me.
Hunter’s burning stare. Dean’s quiet sorrow. Jace’s unsettled confusion. Salem’s cold restraint.
All of it sits heavy in my chest.
I push the doors open and step into the night air. The cold hits me hard, but it doesn’t help. My pulse still races. My body still feels too hot. The pull doesn’t weaken , it follows me out, clinging to me like invisible chains.
I grip the edge of the balcony, breathing hard, fighting back the tears that threaten to fall.
I refuse to accept this. I refuse to be one of them.
But deep inside, my wolf won’t stop whispering the same word over and over, no matter how hard I try to drown her out.
Mates
I slam my hand against the railing, my chest heaving. “I don’t want them,” I whisper fiercely. “I don’t want any of them.”
And yet my pulse betrays me, thrumming faster the longer I stand there — like some cruel reminder that no matter what I say, the bond already has me.
Behind me, through the glass doors, I catch one last glimpse of Hunter’s golden eyes watching me.
For a heartbeat, I swear he looks almost human again. Almost broken.
Then the doors close, and I’m alone with the sound of my own uneven breathing and a truth I can’t outrun.
- Writer
