From His Luna to His Rival's Mate

Chapter 34

SELENE

There was a guy at breakfast I had never seen before. Elara was talking to him like they already knew each other, which was weird because Elara did not just sit with random people.

She was too careful about who she was seen with. But there he was, sitting across from her, and she kept smiling at him in that soft way she did when she wanted someone to think she was harmless.

Something about him made me uncomfortable. I could not put my finger on why exactly, he looked normal enough.

The kind of person you would pass on the street and forget about two seconds later. But the way he was watching Elara while she talked felt off, like he was not actually listening to what she was saying so much as collecting information about it.

Mara noticed me staring. "What is your problem?" she asked.

"Nothing. Just wondering who that is."

"New transfer probably. We get them all the time."

Maybe, but he was looking at Elara the way someone looks at something they are trying to figure out, like she was a puzzle he was trying to solve.

I ate my breakfast and tried not to watch them, but I watched anyway.

He asked her questions. Where was she from. How long had she been at the academy. Did she like it here. Normal stuff, and Elara answered everything with this little smile on her face, leaning forward slightly like his questions actually mattered to her.

By the end of breakfast they were still talking. Later that afternoon Elara came back to the dorm and mentioned his name. Marcus, just mentioned it, like a normal conversation.

But she was moving around the room a little faster than usual and her hair was different than it had been that morning, she had done something to it, fixed it up.

"So you met someone," I said.

She looked up from her desk. "What?"

"That guy at breakfast. Marcus."

"Oh." She turned back to her screen. "He is just a transfer student. He seems nice."

He did not seem nice, he seemed like someone who was very good at seeming like things he was not.

I did not say that though. I just watched her fidget with her hair and reorganize the things on her desk and pretend like a new transfer student sitting with her at breakfast meant nothing.

But I was paying attention now. I was watching Marcus the same way I had learned to watch Elara, and what I was seeing did not add up.

Two days later Kael did not show up to training. I waited for an hour, sat on the bench near the training ground and told myself he was probably just busy, had a class that ran late, or something came up.

By the time I gave up and headed back inside it was getting dark and I was annoyed in a way I was trying not to be annoyed.

I later found him in the library, he was in one of the back corners, practically hidden between two tall shelves, and he looked like hell, his shirt was soaked through with sweat even though it was cold, his hands were shaking slightly when he turned a page in the book he was not actually reading, his jaw was locked so tight I could see the muscle jumping.

"Kael," I said quietly.

He looked up and for a second something raw and painful moved across his face before he got it under control. "Not now."

"What is wrong?"

"Nothing. I just..." He stopped and closed his eyes. His whole body went rigid like he was holding something back by sheer force of will.

I looked around quickly, no one else in this section. I sat down on the floor across from him because standing felt like the wrong move. "Talk to me."

He opened his eyes and looked at me and I could see the pain in them. "The suppressants," he said finally. "They are failing."

I did not know what that meant but I knew it was bad. I could see it in how he was holding himself, like his body was trying to break out of his own skin. "What do I do?" I asked.

"Nothing. Just..." He gripped the edge of the shelf. His hands were white at the knuckles. "You need to go. If I lose control here..."

"I am not leaving."

"Selene..."

I moved closer. "Tell me what to do."

He looked at me for a second like he was fighting something, then he reached out and grabbed my wrist, his hand was hot and shaking and I could feel his pulse thundering under his skin.

"Just... touch me," he said quietly. "Just stay here."

So I did. I moved closer and he pulled me against his chest and I let him hold on to me like I was the only solid thing left in whatever was happening to him, his breathing was ragged and his whole body was shaking and I could feel the power underneath his skin like it was trying to claw its way out.

I pressed my face against his shoulder and let him grip me. My hand found the back of his neck and I held on too because he needed me to, because something was breaking apart inside him and I was the only anchor he had.

"It is okay," I whispered. "I am here."

He made a sound that was almost a growl and buried his face in my hair. The power coming off him was intense, wild and completely uncontrolled and instead of being scared I just held him tighter. His arms locked around me and he held me like if he let go I would disappear.

We stayed like that for a long time, his breathing slowly got less ragged. The shaking started to ease, his grip on me loosened just slightly but he did not let go completely.

"I am sorry," he said finally, his voice rough.

"Don't be."

He pulled back just enough to look at me. His eyes were dark and there was something vulnerable in his face that I had never seen before, like the control he always kept so carefully in place had cracked open and shown me something underneath.

"You should go," he said, but he did not release me.

"No," I said.

He stared at me for a second, then he reached up and touched my face like he was checking that I was real. His thumb moved across my cheekbone and his expression went tight with something I could not name.

"Kael...."

He kissed me. It was not gentle, It was desperate and hungry and full of everything he had been holding back, and I kissed him back because I had been holding things back too and this was not the time to think about what that meant.

When he finally pulled away we were both breathing hard. "We should talk about this," he said.

"Later," I said.

He nodded and pulled me back against him and I stayed there in the back corner of the library while whatever was happening inside his body slowly settled and the power underneath his skin found its way back down.