*Jiselle


    I didn’t sleep.


    I couldn’t sleep.


    The note sat on my nightstand like it was alive. Like it was watching me. Waiting for me to reach for it, even though I had already read the damn thing a hundred times in my <b>head</b><b>. </b>


    You’re asking too many questions. Stop. Before we stop you.


    It looped endlessly in my mind, a chant I couldn’t silence. My fingers ached from how tightly I kept clenching them into fists, my legs colled with tension. Every creak in the floorboards, every gust of wind rattling the windows made my wolf bristle and press beneath my skin like she was trying to w her way out.


    I kept checking over my shoulder, half–expecting someone to be there. Waiting. Watching. Ready to strike.


    But no one came.


    Nothing happened.


    And that made it worse.


    It was too quiet. Too still Like the world was holding its breath, just long enough to crush me with what came next.


    By the time the horizon bled with the first grey slivers of morning, I <b>was </b>sitting on the edge of my bed, hoodie pulled tight around me, my heart still pounding like it was waiting for the final blow. My eyes burned from theck of sleep, but I wasn’t tired. I was strung out. Frayed at the edges. Teetering between fight and flight.


    I needed answers,


    I didn’t care what Nate said about waiting until second year,


    I couldn’t wait


    Not after what we found. Not after Hadelyn’s face. Not after the note.


    I had barely made it halfway down the corridor, slipping silently through the halls, when someone stepped directly into my path


    1 jerked to a halt, breath hitching.


    Those silver eyes.


    Max


    He looked like he hadn’t slept either, though he was dressed like he had woken up hours ago–ck tactical shirt stretched over his chest, dark joggers sitting <b>low </b>on his hips,bat bootsced tight like he was ready to take on the world. His expression was unreadable, stoic and cold.


    But his eyes… his eyes were anything but.


    There was fury there. And something else. Something bitter and betrayed and heartbreakingly familiar.


    I <b>from </b>


    Neither of us spoke.


    Not at first


    The hallway, though empty, felt like it was closing in on me. My chest squeezed, painfully tight, as if it already knew what wasing


    Then he spoke.


    Five words


    “I need to talk Now”


    There was no emotion in his voice. Just iron. Just finality


    Thesitated, heart sinking. I had been <b>on </b>my way to find Nate, to try–even if it was aimlessly- to make him tell me what I needed to do What this ce was hiding. But Max’s eyes.


    I couldn’t walk away from ther


    I couldn’t walk away from him. Nit again


    “Okay” I said quietly


    Sessfully unlocked!


    He didn’t respond. Just turned on his heel and started walking. I followed in silence, the space between us thick with everything we hadn’t said


    His room hadn’t changed. It was still so him–minimalist, clean, edges sharp and structured. There <b>was </b>a military neatness to it, like he didn’t allow himself the luxury of mess, not even in the ce he rested


    The second the door closed behind us, he spun around.


    He didn’t yell


    He didn’t even raise his voice<b>. </b>


    “Someone tried to break into my roomst night”


    My breath caught and I went still.


    “Did–did they take anything?” I stuttered, my heart hammering from my chest.


    “No,” he hissed. “But they left this.”


    are or


    He handed me an almost identical note to mine but instead, it read “Keep her in line, or else it won’t matter who you a how powerful you are. She will die.”


    Ty sides.


    I felt the blood drain from my face. My hands curled tightly at my sides.


    So whoever sent it still thought Max and I were together. It was definitely Hadelyn. Yet, it made no sense, because he knew Nate was my mate. So why would Max get this and not Nate?


    Max’s eyes narrowed, reading me instantly. “What did you do, Jiselle?”


    I tried to school my face into something neutral, but it was toote. He could see right through me. He always could. “I didn’t-”


    “Don’t,” he snapped.


    His voice cut through the space like a de, and I flinched.


    “You have onest chance to tell me the truth, Jiselle. No more secrets. No more half–truths. No more protecting me from what you think I can’t handle.


    1 swallowed hard, my throat suddenly bone–dry. “I didn’t want to put you in more danger.”


    His jaw flexed,


    “You think I’m not already there?” he said. “You think after what they did to me, after what I saw with that rogue–after everything–that they don’t know how deep this goes?”


    My heart ached at the memory of his bruised face, the shes that took days to heal even with his enhanced regeneration. The rage, the betrayal, the silent screams in his eyes when he came back to me bloody and broken.


    “I know,” I whispered.


    “Then why are you still lying to me?” His voice cracked slightly at the end, raw and exposed.


    Tears welled in my eyes, but I didn’t let them fall


    “1 was trying to protect you,” I said again, this time softer. “Because I love you.”


    He stilled


    The air seemed to drain out of the room.


    His shoulders went rigid. His arms dropped to his sides. He blinked once. Slowly.


    You what?”


    “I love y


    you,” I said, voice trembling but honest. “And I know that sounds like some maniptive distraction right now, and maybe it is. But it’s also the truth.”


    The silence between us changed. Shifted.


    His face twisted–not with anger, but with something close to p


    pain.


    thought I imagined it, he muttered. “When I saw your face in the infirmary after the fight. When I heard the way you said my name I thought maybe, after everything, you still felt something. But then


    He looked away


    Then I saw Nathaniel carrying you. And you let him. And I thought–fuck, I thought maybe I <b>had </b>lost you for <b>good</b>.


    “You didn’t,” I said, moving closer


    He looked at me then. Really looked


    And that’s when I saw it,


    The cracks in the armor. The exhaustion. The fear.


    The love.


    Chapter44


    “<b>You </b>still have me, I whispered, taking another step.


    “I’m pissed,” he warned, voice low.


    1 know”


    “I still don’t trust you,” he added, but his voice trembled.


    1 know that too.”


    you again.”


    “I don’t <b>know </b>if I can trust yo


    That one hurt deep. But I nodded.


    “But I want to,” he said quietly. “More than anything.”


    I reached for him then, slowly, like approaching <b>a </b>wild animal. He let me. My hand touched his, then slid up to his chest. His heart was hammering under my palm.


    “I should have told you everything.” I said. “About the bond. About the training. About the crap I did that caused you to get this note. But I didn’t know how. I didn’t want to lose you<b>.</b>”


    “You almost did”


    “I know.”


    He exhaled shakily. Then he cupped the back of my neck, leaning his forehead against mine.


    “I’m so fucking angry with you.”


    “I deserve that”


    “But I still love you.”


    I didn’t realize how badly I needed to hear those words until he said them. My knees almost gave out.


    “I’m sorry.” I whispered.


    “You’d better be.”


    I let out a wetugh, and he gave me the ghost of a smile.


    “But I heard about the library,” he said, pulling back just enough to look <b>into </b>my eyes again. “And Jiselle… what the fuck were you thinking?”


    “I wasn’t” I admitted. “I just needed to know. About the runes. The blood oaths. Everything. I couldn’t wait anymore.” He closed his eyes briefly, like he was trying to breathe through the panic still crawling through him.


    “I know that’s what the letter meant. And Jiselle, you scared the shit out of me.”


    “I scare myself sometimes.”


    His fingers tightened slightly at my waist. “Promise me you’ll stop doing this.”


    “I can’t promise that.”


    *Jiselle-


    “But I can promise to stop doing it alone.”


    He opened his eyes again, and something shifted between us.


    Trust, still shaky, still bruised–but beginning to rebuild.


    “I can work with that, he said softly.


    I leaned in, pressing my <b>lips </b>gently to his


    And he let me.


    He kissed me like he had been waiting, like he hadn’t slept either, like everything had been building to this moment. But then–just as things started to deepen–his head snapped up.


    Footsteps


    A secondter, the door burst open


    And Nate stood there, chest heaving, eyes wild


    Max’s body shifted instantly, stepping slightly in front of me like instinct had taken over


    Nate’s eyes found mine, then flicked to Max His lips pressed into a tight line.


    “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Max asked, voice deceptively calm but full of edge


    Nate stepped inside, eyes locked on Max, his smirkzy, <b>his </b>stance casual–but the tension in his jaw t


    betrayed him.


    “Funny,” he drawled, closing the door behind him: 1 w


    <b>just </b>about to ask you the same thing.”