My Greate Husband 159_Mated and Hated by My Brother’s Best Friend

Chapter 159 

 ‘Jiselle* 

 I woke to the scent of scorched earth and the steady rhythm of Nathaniel’s heartbeat against my spine. The explosion that had torn through the canyon still echoed in my bones, but the fire no longer raged. It pulsed now–slow, deep, ancient.

 Inside me, the me had changed.

 It wasn’t the violent hunger that had onceshed out through my veins. It didn’t scream or w or threaten to consume. It breathed. Heavy. Patient. Waiting.

 But I didn’t feel alone in it.

 The bond hummed softly against my skin, like it had coiled itself along every edge of me, quiet but present. Nate’s arm curled tighter around my waist, anchoring me. His breath warmed the curve of my shoulder.

 “You’re awake,” he murmured without opening his eyes.

 “I am.”

 “How do you feel?”

 I rolled slowly to face him. “Like something chose me… and I haven’t figured out whether it’s a blessing or a curse.”

 He opened his eyes, and there was no fear in them. Just devotion. A steady, unwavering thing that made my throat ache.

 “We’ll figure it out together.”

 I nodded. But part of me wasn’t ready to speak yet. Not about the Gate. Not about what I’d seen–what I’d felt in those final moments before the light took us.

 So I slid out from under the covers, wrapping a nket around myself, and slipped outside.

 The camp was quieter than usual. No sparring. No murmured strategy. Just firelight and wind, rustling through tents like a whisper of warning.

 I found Max near the edge of the perimeter, sharpening a de against a t piece of obsidian. He didn’t look up when I approached. Didn’t stop.

 But he spoke.

 “I thought you’d be with him.”

 “I was,” I said. “Now I’m here.”

 He nodded. Another slow scrape against the de.

 “I didn’t expect you toe.”

 “I didn’t expect you to stay.”

 That made him nce up. His eyes were tired. Hollow in a way that no amount of sleep would ever fix.

 “Where else would I go?”

 I sat across from him, cross–legged. We didn’t say anything for a moment. Just breathed the same smokeced air.

 “I’m not angry anymore,” I said softly.

 His hand stilled.

 “I thought I would be, for the rest of my life. But after everything with the Gates.. with Kael… the me inside me…” I trailed off. “There’s no room left for holding onto things that heavy.”

 Max exhaled, long and low. “I never wanted forgiveness.”

 “Then why are you still here?”

 He looked up, meeting my gaze with something raw and painfully human.

 “Because I still love you.”

 I didn’t flinch. Didn’t cry. I just let him say it.

 “I don’t expect anything,” he added quickly. “Not your love. Not your time. Hell, not even your trust. But when that Gate opens, and it will open… I want to be in front of you. I want to be the one it touches first.” 

 “That’s not what love is, Max.”

 “I know. But it’s what mine is.”

 He lowered the de into hisp.

 “I don’t get to ask for a future. I destroyed that. I know that now. But I can still give you something else. A shield. A de. A dy.”

 The emotion tightened in my chest, but not from grief. From closure. From something old loosening its grip.

 “You really mean that?” I asked.

 “I do.”

 “Then be careful,” I said, standing. “Because I might actually let you.”

 He offered a bitter smile. “Wouldn’t be the worst way to die.”

 “No,” I said gently. “But maybe–just maybe–it’s not how your story ends.”

 He didn’t answer. But his shoulders straightened.

 That was enough.

 I turned away before the wind could steal thest of my strength, walking back toward the tent I shared with Nate. The bond tugged as I neared it, like it had felt every word, every breath I’d taken outside.

 When I slipped inside, the firelight was dim. Nate had lit only onentern, casting the space in soft golden amber. He stood at the center, bare–chested, arms crossed, eyes fixed on me like I’d been gone too long.

 “You alright?” he asked.

 I nodded. “I needed to say goodbye to something.

 He didn’t ask what.

 Just opened his arms.

 And I walked into them

 This time, I didn’t tremble. I didn’t flinch.

 I just let go.

 His lips found my temple first. Then my cheek. Then the corner of my mouth. His hands slid across my waist, up my spine, grounding me in ways even the bond couldn’t replicate,

 “I want to mark you,” he whispered.

 My breath caught.

 “I know it won’t fix everything,” he went on. “But I want it to mean something. Not survival. Not desperation. Just… us.”

 I tilted my chin up, eyes burning.

 “Then do it.”

 He paused.

 “Are you sure?”

 “I’ve never been more.”

 Nate didn’t waste another second.

 He bent, lips brushing the curve of my neck. My breath hitched as his canines grazed my skin–not biting, not yet. Just waiting. Asking onest time with nothing but silence.

 And then-

 I nodded,

 His teeth sank in gently. Not with violence. Not with hunger. With reverence.

 The bond didn’t just re. It sang. It lit up every vein, every nerve, every old wound that hadn’t yet healed. And in its ce, something new took root.

 A seal.

 Of choice.

 Of love.

 Of sovereignty.

 I gasped, arching into him as the mark sealed. Nate caught me as I nearly copsed, cradling me in his arms like something sacred.

 But we weren’t finished.

 The kiss that followed wasn’t desperate.

 It was slow.

 Measured.

 iming.

 His hands moved under the nket I still wore, trailing over my skin like he was memorizing it for the hundredth time–and still couldn’t get enough.

 My fingers fumbled with the ties of his pants. He hissed softly against my lips but didn’t stop me.

 There was no rush.

 18

 09:06 Hill 13 Jun 10,

 Chapter 1591

 Just the hum of magic. The thrum of bond. The ache of two bodies, two souls, finally finally whvold

 When he slid into me, I didn’t cry out.

 1 breathed.

 Because this wasn’t fire anymore.

 It was home.

 He moved slowly at first, like we had all the time in the world. My hands gripped his shoulders, nails digging into skin as I rocked against him

 We kissed through every thrust. Every slow roll of hips. Every gasp that turned into a whisper of names, of promises, of things we’d never gotten to say

 before this.

 “I love you,” I choked out, trembling as the pleasure built low in my spine.

 His eyes burned into mine. “Then take everything.”

 And I did.

 I let myself shatter.

 Let myself fall.

 Let the me inside me rise–not to consume, but to crown.

 His name left my mouth on a moan, and he followed with mine, breaking into me one final time, marking not with teeth now, but with body. With soul.

 When it was over, we stayed tangled.

 Naked.

 Marked.

 Whole.

 And for the first time in a long time-

 Safe.

 The bond settled quietly between us, a gentle, living thing no longer frayed or cracked. I could feel it weaving deeper than ever before. Through flesh. Through magic. Through memory.

 fell asleep with my head on his chest, his hand in my hair, and the mark on my neck still warm.

 But peace doesn’tst long in our world.

 A sharp gasp jolted me awake,

 The tent p burst open.

 Eva stood there, wild–eyed and shaking.

 Her voice broke.

 “I saw it,” she whispered.

 Nate sat up beside me. “Saw what?”

 09:06 Fri, 13 Jun O

 Her lips parted.

 “Not fire,” she said.

 “Then what?” I asked, heart already sinking.

 She looked at me.

 Then at the mark on my neck.

 And finally at the scar still glowing faintly on my back.

17kNovel

My Greate Husband 159