Se connecterJACE.I was already half pissed when I got to school. My head still throbbed from the night before. I hadn’t eaten breakfast. My stomach felt sour. The second I stepped into the hallway, the noise, footsteps, and lockers slamming. It made my temples ache worse. I rubbed my eyes and tried to focus on getting to class. Just one day, I told myself. One day, get through it, then figure out what the hell my father wanted with the council. But the second I saw the class schedule taped to the wall, my gut twistedNina's name was printed right under mine. Same class. Same lab section. Same damn row. My chest tightened instantly. My grip on my bag strap went stiff. I read it twice just to be sure, but it didn’t change. I swore under my breath. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.” My throat felt dry. I wanted to walk out right then, but that’d only make me look weak. So I pushed through the door.She was already there. Sitting in the same row, one desk over. Her head bent over her notebook, hair tied
JACE.My voice felt rough when I spoke that morning. I had barely slept, and it scraped out of my throat like. My chest felt tight. My head pounded behind my eyes. I rubbed at my neck. My skin was weary, my mouth dry. I told myself to just get through this morning. One more day. One more damn day closer to being done with this semester. I was sick of it. I was sick of everyone. My reflection in the mirror looked like I hadn’t slept in weeks. I scowled at it. I could feel the exhaustion crawling through me, the kind that didn’t go away with rest. It was under my skin. I clenched my jaw. I hated feeling weak. I told myself to move.I pulled my hoodie on, dragged my bag over my shoulder. My body felt heavy. My hands were shaking a little from the lack of sleep, but I ignored them. My stomach churned. I could still taste the bitterness from last night. My mind kept replaying the argument, every word, every silence in between. I sighed sharply. I hated how quiet the house was in the morni
AIDEN.“It’s impossible, He can't be mine,” I said. My voice came out shaky; it was obvious I was scared and anxious My throat felt dry right after saying it. The words didn’t sound convincing even to me. I could feel my pulse hammering behind my ears. I wanted her to flinch, to back down, to take it back. But Amaya didn’t move. She just looked at me, quiet, steady, her arms crossed. “You know it isn’t impossible.”The air between us seemed to thicken. I blinked, jaw tightening, trying to keep my face still. My stomach twisted. She said it like she’d rehearsed it, like she’d been waiting to throw it at me.“No,” I said, shaking my head. “You’re out of your mind. You always do this—make something up when you’re cornered.”“I didn’t make this up,” she said, voice low but clear. “I didn’t want to tell you, but we both know what happened. Twice.”Her tone was calm, almost too calm, and that made it worse. My hands twitched at my sides. I felt the weight of her words dig in under my skin.
AMAYAIt was late, way past midnight, maybe closer to one fucking finally. The house had finally gone quiet, but my head hadn’t.The boy was asleep in the next room, small breaths steady and soft. I’d been sitting beside him for almost an hour after he’d gone under, watching the rise and fall of his chest. The lamp threw weak light across the floor, and I sat there hunched forward, elbows on my knees, hands pressed together like I was praying.I wasn’t praying. I was thinking. Or trying to. My thoughts kept looping back on themselves until they didn’t even sound like words anymore. Today was too much. Too loud. Too many faces, too many fake smiles.The Alpha had said it in front of everyone. *The boy carries Jace’s blood.*That was all it took. One sentence, and everything around me shifted. The pack turned their eyes on me like I’d just grown a crown. Some looked proud. Some looked ready to tear me apart.Either way, I had what I wanted — security. Recognition. No one could touch hi
NINA Killian stood there, right in front of me, and all I could think was—how the hell did he find out? It didn’t add up. Jace couldn’t have told him. That would make no sense. Jace barely talked to Killian unless it was about work, hockey, or family stuff. They were too close for Jace to talk about him being with me like that, but Killian’s face said otherwise. He wasn’t guessing. He probably knew too much.“Killian,” I managed to say, but my voice came out rough.He didn’t even blink. He lifted his hand and slammed it into the wall right next to my head. The noise cracked through the air so hard it made my whole body jump. I froze where I stood. My heartbeat went straight up into my ears, loud, uneven.“You think this is a joke?” he said. His tone wasn’t loud, but it was sharp. Tight. Controlling in that way was worse than yelling.I could barely look at him. “What are you even talking about?”He leaned closer, still keeping his hand against the wall, still blocking the space betwe
NINA.I was breathing hard even though I hadn’t done a damn thing. It wasn’t the kind of anger that came with shouting or breaking things. It was quieter. Right in the chest, pressing against your ribs until you felt like you couldn’t breathe properly. I kept thinking about how we always ended up here, me and Jace running in circles, saying the same things, fighting over the same stupid details, and pretending it was new every time. It was getting pathetic. It wasn’t even heartbreaking anymore. It was just exhausting.I’d stopped crying about it weeks ago. Now it just made me tired. Everything between us had turned into some ugly habit — one of us snapping, the other trying to fix it, both of us pretending that if we just apologized hard enough, it’d go back to how it used to be. It never did. It only got worse.I sat on the edge of my bed for a while, staring at the floor. My phone was next to me, screen down, but I could still feel it there. The way my fingers twitched made me want







