LOGINThe book slipped from my hand and hit the floor with a dull thud.I didn’t pick it up.My eyes burned from reading, but I reached for another one anyway, dragging it off the shelf with shaking fingers. Dust scattered as I flipped it open, scanning lines too fast to fully process.“Severed bonds often result in—”I slammed it shut.“Useless,” I muttered, tossing it onto the growing pile at my feet. Another book followed. Then another. Titles blurred together—Fated Pairings, Ritual Disruptions, Wolf Instinct and Divine Order.None of them said what I wanted.None of them gave me a way out.I grabbed a thinner text, flipping straight to the marked section.“Rejected mates experience—”I forced myself to read this time.“—intense physical backlash, including—”I stopped.My hand tightened around the page.Fatal.The word sat there, bold and clear, like it had been waiting for me.“Of course,” I whispered, letting out a weak breath. “Of course it ends like that.”I dropped the book and lea
"Move.”I didn’t wait for her to respond. I grabbed her wrist and dragged her out of the Ritual Hall before anyone could stop us. Voices rose behind us but I didn’t turn back. I couldn’t.“Cassian—wait—what just happened?” she stumbled beside me, nearly tripping as I pulled her down the corridor.“Not here,” I snapped, tightening my grip when she tried to slow down.“You’re hurting me.”“Good. Then keep up.”She yanked once, hard. “Stop—!”I shoved open a side corridor door and pushed her inside. The door slammed shut behind us, cutting off the noise. For a second, neither of us spoke. My chest was rising too fast. My wolf wouldn’t shut up.Her scent was everywhere.Damn it.She stepped back, rubbing her wrist, eyes wide. “What was that back there? The ritual—why did it react like that?”I turned away, running a hand through my hair. “It didn’t matter.”“It does matter,” she shot back, voice shaking. “Everyone saw it. That wasn’t normal.”“Nothing about you is normal.”Silence dropped
The ritual hall smelled like chalk and old magic.Eight circles had been drawn on the stone floor in silver compound, one for each pair, spaced evenly, each one exactly the same size. The students filed in quietly. Nobody was performing confidence this morning. The notice had said advanced practical and Cain's name had been on it and that combination had done something to the atmosphere that even the most arrogant alphas in the room could feel.Cain stood at the front, clipboard in hand, watching us take our positions with that patient, cataloguing attention."Find your assigned pairs," he said. "Step into your circle. You'll know which one is yours."I found Val already standing at ours. She looked at me when I crossed the room. I looked at her. Neither of us said anything.We stepped into the circle together."The exercise," Cain said to the room, "is a shared resonance channel. Both partners join hands. You open your wolf's awareness, not your dominance, not your aggression, just
The tea was on my desk when I woke up.Still warm. A plain ceramic cup, no note, set exactly where I would reach for it without having to lean. I sat up and stared at it for a moment. The door was already closed. His side of the room was empty, bed made with the precise corners he always made, jacket gone from the hook.He'd been up before me. Had made tea. Had put it on my desk without waking me.Had left before I could say anything about it.I picked up the cup. Held it with both hands.I drank the tea and prepared for the day.Drills started at six.I arrived to find Cassian already in formation, running the Solas team through footwork sequences with the particular focused quiet he used when he was processing something he hadn't finished yet. He didn't look at me when I took my position.I didn't look at him either.We started the sequence.By the third rotation something had shifted. Not in the drill, in us. The way we moved around each other had stopped requiring thought somewhe
The academy went quiet around eleven.I preferred it this way. The noise of students, the dominance posturing, the manufactured rivalries, the constant performance of strength, had always struck me as exhausting in a way that said more about their insecurity than their power. Real power didn't need an audience.I turned another page in the case file.Val Rhen. The notes went back seven weeks now, compiled from classroom observations, assessment data, the suppression rune interaction report, and the resonance readings from the bond theory exercise. I had cross-referenced everything against three different academic texts on omega physiology and two restricted studies on mate-bond amplification that the High Alpha Council had sealed twenty years ago for reasons that had more to do with politics than ethics.I circled two phrases for the fourth time tonight.Omega resilience.Alpha amplification."The interaction between the two," I said to Marcus, who was sitting across the desk making
Harlan was in a thorough mood.He had the full symptom list on the board, written out in neat columns, dated references from three different academic books, and the particular energy of a professor who had found his material genuinely interesting and intended to make sure everyone in the room felt the same way whether they wanted to or not."Rare cases," he said, moving along the board. "Bonds that form despite significant mutual resistance. Both parties actively rejecting the connection. Both parties, in some documented cases, entirely unaware of each other's classification." He underlined something. "The bond forms anyway. The wolf doesn't ask permission."My pen stopped moving."Psychosomatic pain is the most documented symptom in resistant bonds," Harlan continued. "Manifesting as pressure, aching, or acute pain along the chest or ribs, the area closest to the wolf's core, triggered specifically by separation from the mate. Physical proximity relieves it. Touch accelerates relief
The great hall buzzed with conversations. It seemed everybody was curious about who they were about to be sharing a room with.And from the look of things, I wasn't the only fresher. There were some people with bags. Obviously they didn't have to run away from their homes to be here.Students gathe
The silence that hung between us wasn’t peaceful. It was thick, stiff and heavy in the very corners of the room like dust no one dared to sweep.Val didn’t answer my question.Didn’t even flinch.Just climbed into bed and pulled the blanket up like I hadn’t asked a damn thing.And that pissed the h
Raven tasted like cherry lip balm and something feminine. She was soft in the way I liked as we locked lips.Her fingers tangled in my hair, her body warm against mine as she shifted on my lap, lips trailing down my jaw. I let my head fall back against the wall, exhaling through my nose as her han
The training grounds were alive with tension. Everybody seemed uneasy on the field. They were about to be introduced to something they've never undertaken so their worry was expected. But weakness was not tolerated.Dominance challenges weren’t just a tradition at Dominion Academy—they were law. I







