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Chapter 116
~Kieran’s POV~
Outside PSA’s central dining hall, the courtyard buzzed with voices and heat, laughter echoing under the arches where students sprawled over stone benches and velvet grass.
I sat at the edge of it all, shaded beneath a marble trellis heavy with blooming moonvine, my fingers curled around a glass of iced tonic I hadn’t touched.
Two girls flanked —one on each side.
Sasha, a high-ranking Alpha’s daughter from Silverglade, leaned in close, her perfu sickly sweet, her laughter too shrill as she traced idle circles on my arm.
The other—Mayra—was subtler. She didn’t touch, didn’t speak unless prompted. Her dark hair was a sleek curtain and her eyes were sharper than most. Smart girl. Watched more than she spoke.
And still, none of it touched .
Because across the courtyard, Dristan stood at the centre of a small crowd, effortlessly silent as always yet magnetic. His posture was calm, and his voice was low. But they all listened—they always did.
I watched him.
I didn’t blink.
Didn’t smile.
The rage that I had long since folded away, ironed smooth beneath cool arrogance and calculated boredom, began to crumple.
I rembered the weight of his palm slamming into my face during our last confrontation, the flicker of superiority in his eyes, and his utter disregard.
He’d only walked away because Lucie approached. Not because I was weak.
I had let him go
But now—now I watched him stand close to her.
Valerie.
He had stood close to her in the simulation arena, face carved in wrath, defending her like a knight carved from stone. And the worst part? She had looked up at him like she saw soone, not just another Alpha heir.
No.
She had seen him.
The jealousy bit deeper than the mory of the slap.
"Sothing bothering you?" Sasha asked sweetly, tilting her head so her red curls brushed my shoulder.
I blinked slowly, pulling my gaze away from Dristan and Valerie, who had just entered the courtyard. Her hair was braided today.
I turned to Sasha, letting my lips curl into a slow, charming grin.
"Not at all."
She giggled. "You looked like you were about to murder soone."
I swirled the glass in my hand. "Just hungry."
Mayra’s eyes flicked to . She didn’t laugh. Smart girl. Probably knew I was lying.
Dristan walked past us then. He didn’t look at . Not once. Not even to acknowledge my presence. But he did glance at Valerie.
Brief. Subtle. Enough to tighten every muscle in my jaw.
He hadn’t earned her attention, not like that.
She wasn’t a prize. But she was mine to notice. To pursue. And he had claid space beside her like it was owed.
I exhaled slowly. Lucie’s voice echoed in my mory: "You’ll destroy sothing if you let that fury out the wrong way."
Maybe I would.
But the question was, what would I destroy first?
"I’ll be back," I murmured to the girls.
Sasha pouted. "Kieran—"
"I want to be left alone," I stated and tucked my hands in my pockets. I rose to my feet without a second glance.
I felt the weight of every student’s gaze follow as I crossed the courtyard silently, shadowing the curve of the building until I reached the northern wing balcony.
From here, I had the perfect view.
Valerie sat now, alone under a linden tree, flicking through a book. Dristan hadn’t followed.
Good.
He shouldn’t.
Because soon enough, I’d remind him that the last ti he lifted his hand to discipline , he did so forgetting that I let him walk away.
And the next ti? I wouldn’t be so generous.
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~Valerie’s POV~
The air was too still, too heavy, like it had been holding its breath the mont I stepped into the room.
Shadows clung to the walls, flickering with a light that had no source, as if the space existed sowhere between thought and reality.
Everything felt real—painfully real—but also...wrong, like I was trespassing in a mory I hadn’t lived yet.
Kai stood in front of , close enough that the heat of his body blurred the edges of my thoughts.
His lips hovered just above mine, parted slightly, his breath warm on my skin. His eyes—bright, impossibly green—locked on to with a weight that made my pulse stumble.
I could feel it between us, that invisible cord that tied to him. The bond thrumd, alive and pulsing in ti with the aching want building beneath my skin.
I didn’t move. I couldn’t. Every part of leaned toward him, waiting.
Then I felt it—the shift in the air.
Ace.
He stepped out of the shadows like he owned the place, like he always had. That crooked smile curled across his face, half challenge, half invitation, and all trouble. His eyes flicked to mine, glinting with that maddening sparkle that always ant he was about to do sothing reckless.
"Didn’t think you’d start without ," he murmured, his voice all velvet and edge.
He ca up behind , close enough that his chest brushed my back. My breath caught. Kai didn’t flinch. He just watched , the tension between us stretching tighter.
And then everything changed.
The room stilled again, the warmth shifting into sothing cooler—sharper. My body recognized him before my eyes did.
Ash.
He didn’t say a word. He never needed to.
His presence rippled through the air like gravity, pulling toward him with quiet certainty. His eyes found mine—those storm-colored eyes that always looked like they saw too much.
My breath hitched as he stepped forward, cutting through the space between us without hesitation. His hands found my waist, firm and sure, grounding in a way that made my knees feel weak.
I lted.
No fear. No questions.
I gave in.
To the pull of the bond, to the heat spiraling low in my belly, to the way they surrounded —one in front, one behind, one anchoring to the mont.
Kai’s breath skated along my jaw.
Ace’s fingers brushed my neck, featherlight.
Ash tilted my chin up with one hand, his gaze still locked on mine.
I didn’t think. I didn’t resist.
His lips descended, slow and certain.
And just before they t mine—
A blinding flash of light tore through the space. It wasn’t just light—it was sound, a shattering like the crack of glass, like the sky had split apart above us. My body jerked, weightless, spiraling into nothing.
The room, the heat, the bond—everything slipped away like smoke through my fingers.
I tried to hold on. I tried to stay.
But they vanished, one by one, into the white.
Ash’s hand was the last thing to disappear.
Then I was alone.
I shot upright, gasping, drenched in sweat. My chest heaved. My lips still tingled. My skin still burned with the ghost of their touch.
Panting. Flushed. Heart pounding like I’d run to the moon and back.
But the room was quiet. Dark. Real.
It had been a dream.
God, it had to be a dream.
"Shit," I whispered, dragging a hand over my face.
I was too scared to close my eyes again even though the ti was only 4 a.m. I knew there was no evading it.
The matebond pull was getting stronger, and still I hadn’t accepted any one of my mates.
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