CHAPTER 42
1561 Words
ADINNA’S POV
Riley grabs my wrist before I can slip outside. Her grip isn’t rough, but there’s a desperate quality to it, as if she knows I’m on the verge of breaking and if she lets go, I’ll scatter into pieces.
“Hey, slow down,” she says, pulling me out of the ballroom and past a group of whispering students who continue to pretend that everything is normal. The music from the ballroom still thumps softly, taunting me with its rhythm. My heart races faster than the bass, and I can’t catch my breath.
Riley doesn’t stop until we reach an unused classroom at the far end of the corridor. It’s dim, with dust floating in the air like fragments of memory. She gently closes the door and turns to me. Her eyes that are usually calm and soft, appear sharp and searching for something beneath my surface.
“Something happened in there,” she says quietly, not asking.
My throat tightens. I stare at the floor, at the shadow of my trembling hands. I still feel it—the pull, the electricity under my skin, the way my wolf had purred*that word, mate, over and over until it was etched into me.
I swallow hard, forcing myself to look into her eyes. “Yeah,” I whisper. “Something did.”
She doesn’t press me right away. I want to lie. I want to laugh it off, say I tripped, hallucinated, or drank something strange. But the word continues to echo inside my head, taunting me.
Mate.
Four voices.
Four scents.
Four pairs of eyes staring at me.
I sink into an old desk, pressing a shaky hand to my chest. My heart races. My wolf feels restless, pacing inside me, still humming that same word like a dangerous melody.
“I think…” I begin and stop, because saying it makes it real. “I think I’m their mate.”
Riley blinks in unbelief. “Their what?”
“Their mate,” I repeat, my voice breaking halfway through. “All four of them.”
For a long moment, she doesn’t move. She just looks at me, and the air feels thicker. Then, slowly, she sits on the edge of the desk across from me, as if her legs don’t trust her to stand.
“That’s—” she starts, then exhales sharply. “That’s not possible.”
I laugh bitterly. “Tell me about it.”
She studies me, eyes narrowing slightly. “You felt it, didn’t you? The connection?”
“I didn’t want to,” I admit quietly. “But it was like the world stopped. The room froze. Everyone and everything went still. It was just me and them, and I could feel it pulling me toward them. My wolf…” My voice falters. “She wouldn’t stop. She kept saying mate.”
Riley runs a hand through her hair, muttering something under her breath. She looks like she’s battling something in her mind, something she doesn’t want to say.
“What?” I ask sharply. “What aren’t you telling me?”
She hesitates, and that tells me everything. She knows something.
Finally, she says, “There’s a reason this sounds familiar.”
I frown. “Familiar?”
She nods slowly, her eyes darkening. “Back home, before I came here, I heard a story. A prophecy, actually. Most people thought it was just an old myth passed down by the elders to scare the new generation. But after what you just said…”
My heart races again. “What kind of prophecy?”
Riley leans forward, elbows resting on her knees.
“It was about an omega,” she starts. “Not an ordinary one. She was said to be born under a blood moon, with an aura carrying both ruin and salvation. The seer, one of the oldest and most powerful, said this omega would be bound to four cardinal wolves, the strongest of their kind. She would unite them in an unbreakable bond that could either save them or destroy them.”
My blood turns cold.
Four cardinals.
North. West. East. South.
Hunter. Jace. Salem. Dean.
I grip the desk to steady myself, my palms slick with sweat. “You’re kidding,” I whisper.
Riley shakes her head. “I wish I were. People used to laugh about it, dismissing it as a dramatic omen from a seer who’d lost her mind. But her prophesies always came true.”
I can barely breathe. “What else did she say?”
She looks away for a moment, as if recalling the words takes effort. “When the omega’s path crossed the four, the world would tremble. The air would still, time would bend, and everything in her would recognize them before she understood it. Sound familiar?”
I swallow hard, my throat dry. “The ballroom,” I whisper. “Everything froze.”
Riley nods. “Exactly.”
She watches me closely, her expression softening. “The prophecy said this omega would be their tether. Without her, they’d destroy each other. But with her, they’d become unstoppable.
My mind spins. The seer’s words, the frozen ballroom, the way my wolf reacted, it all fits too perfectly. But still, it doesn’t make sense. I’m not powerful. I’m not chosen. I’m just a rogue omega who struggles to hold it together any day.
“Why me?” I whisper. “There are dozens of omegas in this academy. Why not any of them?”
Riley meets my gaze gently. “The seer didn’t describe what she’d look like, only what she could do. She said the girl would have something ancient inside her that could make even alphas bow without understanding why. Maybe that’s you.”
I let out a shaky laugh. “Then she must’ve gotten the wrong wolf. I can’t even control my heartbeat right now.”
She smiles faintly. “Maybe that’s why you’re the right one. Power like that doesn’t always appear in obvious forms. Sometimes it’s hidden where no one thinks to look.”
Her words should comfort me, but instead they make my chest tighten. Deep down, I already know she’s right. My wolf’s reaction wasn’t normal, it wasn’t something I imagined. And the way they all looked at me… it wasn’t human.
Riley exhales and leans back against the wall. “There’s one more thing.”
I glance up warily. “What?”
She hesitates again, as if the next part is bitter to say. “The prophecy wasn’t just about their connection. It was about choice. The seer said this omega, the one who’d bind the cardinals together, would be the only one capable of deciding their fate. She could either save them from the darkness meant to consume them or destroy them completely.”
A chill runs down my spine.
“Destroy them?” I echo.
She nods slowly. “Yeah. The seer said their bond would be a double-edged sword. If her heart turned against them, if she rejected what tied them together, that bond would twist and corrupt, dragging them all down.”
I stare at her as the air drains from the room. “So you’re saying if I don’t accept them, it could kill them?”
Riley looks at me carefully. “I’m saying it’s not that simple. But yes, something close to that. Bonds like that don’t just fade away when ignored. They react and fight back. If that prophecy’s right, your rejection could tip the balance in ways no one’s ready for.”
Silence settles between us, heavy and suffocating. I can hear the muffled laughter from the ballroom down the hall, as if the world has returned to normal, except mine hasn’t.
My wolf presses at the edge of my control, whispering that one word again and mocking me for even thinking I could deny it. My skin feels too tight, my chest too small, like I’m holding in something wild that longs to break free.
Riley studies me for a long time before softly saying, “I know this is a lot to take in. You don’t have to grasp it all right now.”
I press a hand over my racing heart. “You think I’m the girl from the prophecy, don’t you?”
She doesn’t respond immediately. Then, quietly, she says, “After tonight? Yeah. I do.”
She stands and walks toward the door. “The seer said she’d appear when the balance began to break. Maybe this is it. Maybe you’re the one meant to fix it.”
I stare at the floor, the weight of her words pressing down on me. Fix it. Save them. Or ruin them.
It feels like the universe has shoved a loaded gun into my hands and walked away.
Riley’s voice softens as she reaches for the door handle. “The seer’s prophecy was brief, yet it’s haunted people for years. She said, ‘Four hearts, one soul, bound by fate. Together they rise, divided they fall. She will be their ruin, or their salvation.’”
She glances back at me, her expression unreadable. “That’s what she saw. The omega who would tie the four cardinals together in an unbreakable bond. One that could either destroy them or save them from their inevitable fate.”
- Writer
