Three

Three

Trisha POV

First period was Physical Anatomy and Physiology. A review day. I’d memorized the material weeks ago. Boredom was a physical weight, so I propped my chin in my hand and stared out the window. The school backed onto a dense, ancient forest, and today a doe and her fawn were picking their way through the undergrowth at the edge of the shadows.

I heard the teacher clear his throat and turned. He was speaking to a new student, a guy I hadn’t seen before. He was tall, at least a foot over my 5’4”, with shaggy brown hair that fell around a face with a confident, almost arrogant set to his jaw. His skin was tanned, and his eyes… they were the deepest, most vivid green I’d ever seen. I wondered if they were contacts. He was listening respectfully, but his attention wasn’t on the teacher. It was on me.

Our eyes met across the room, and my breath hitched. A stupid, involuntary flush crept up my neck, a heat that had nothing to do with the classroom’s temperature. I immediately yawned, forcing a look of supreme boredom as I turned back to the window. But the feeling of being watched didn’t fade. It intensified, becoming a physical pressure, like a beam of heat focused on the back of my neck. This wasn’t the usual lecherous stare I was used to. This was different. Predatory.

I was startled by a soft *thump* as a black pencil case with gold initials—G.A.—slid across my desk and landed in my lap. I looked up. The new guy was gripping the edge of my desk, a picture of clumsiness. “Oh, sorry, miss. These desks are too cramped. Lost my footing. May I have my pencil case back?” His voice was a deep, resonant baritone that vibrated right through me, a dark, velvety caress that seemed to stroke every nerve ending. It was like a dark melody, and my body answered it with a jolt of pure electricity. A shiver traced a path down my spine that ended in a low, sudden clench deep in my core, a tight, needy pulse that made my thighs press together. My mouth went dry. What the hell was that?

As I reached for the pencil case, my mind stuttered. The image of his hands—large and strong—flashed in my mind, but they weren’t just handing me a case. They were… holding me. Pinning my wrists to a bed. The thought was so foreign, so alien, it was like watching a movie of someone else’s life. A ghost of a feeling, of being held down and… wanting it, flickered through me before I violently shoved it away. No. That wasn’t me. I didn’t want that. I had to be getting sick.

I grabbed the case, my movements stiff, and handed it to him. As his fingers brushed mine, a jolt, sharp and electric, shot up my arm. It wasn’t the harmless static of a shuffled foot; it was a live wire. My eyes flicked up to his, and those green eyes seemed to swallow me whole, trapping me, promising things I didn’t understand.

“Thank you,” he murmured.

I noticed the entire class was staring. Why?

I nodded curtly and looked back out the window, wanting this over. “The name’s Gavin. Gavin Aurstone. What’s yours?” he persisted.

I turned back, narrowing my eyes. What was his game? He held out a hand for a handshake. I stared at it, then back at his unreadable face, and deliberately ignored it. “Trisha. Nice to meet you. But class is about to start. You should sit down.”

A flicker of something—hurt?—crossed his face before he smiled again. He retracted his hand and moved to pass. As he did, his hand landed on my bare shoulder in a gesture of false apology.

I didn’t just cry out. I screamed.

It wasn’t a shock. It was a lightning strike. A searing, white-hot agony that ripped through my entire body, a pure, unadulterated pain that ignited every nerve ending as if I’d been plunged into fire. But mixed in with the blinding agony was a split-second of something else. A flash of an image so vivid it stole what was left of my breath. Me, arching my back, not in pain, but in pleasure. His mouth on my neck, his weight on me, a feeling of being so full, so complete, it was a terrifying, exhilarating ache. The phantom image shattered as the pain receded, leaving me breathless and trembling, my shoulder feeling like it had been branded. The entire class was gawking. My face burned with humiliation.

Gavin raised his hands in mock surrender. “I apologize. These shoes are horrible. They generate static shock a lot. It was an honest mistake.” A few students snickered. I glared at him, my mind racing. Static? No way. That was something else entirely. Something violent and violating. And… something else. Something that echoed in a deep, secret part of me I didn’t know existed.

I slowly sank back into my seat, my voice a low grumble. “Yeah, well just keep your hands to yourself…”

“Sorry, Trisha,” he said, his smile never wavering as he sat in the seat directly behind me. I shivered, trying to ignore the tingling that continued to pulse under my skin, a phantom echo of the pain. My core was still clenched with that needy ache, and a mortifying, slick heat had gathered between my thighs, dampening my panties. I shifted in my seat, the sensation uncomfortable and deeply wrong. Why was I suddenly turned on by my own pain? What was wrong with me?

Gavin POV

The moment I entered the classroom, my world shattered. Eon erupted in my head, not with a snarl, but with a frantic, joyous pandemonium I had never felt from him. He was howling, prancing, his excitement a dizzying whirlwind in my mind.

‘Mate.’

I froze, my mind refusing to process the word. *What?*

‘Mate!’ he howled again, his glee overwhelming. ‘The human! Can’t you smell her?’

I was stunned. My mate? A *human*? I was a Prince. My mate was destined to be a Queen, a powerful, high-ranking female, not this… rebellious, inferior creature.

But the certainty coming from Eon was absolute. And it was the third time today he’d surfaced. For my introverted wolf to be so active… it could only mean one thing. He was telling the truth.

My eyes snapped to her, sitting by the window, and I found her already looking at me before she casually turned away. I inhaled, and the world fell away. The scent hit me like a physical blow. It was the most intoxicating aroma I had ever encountered—sweet cotton candy, exotic tangy fruit, fresh lilies, and the clean, sharp scent of soft rain. It was mouthwatering. It was erotic. And it was all *her*. My heart hammered against my ribs, and blood rushed south, a hot, thick rush of warmth that surged to my groin. My cock hardened instantly, swelling to a painful, rigid fullness that strained against the denim of my jeans.

It was true. Of all the beings in this world, Fate had given me the most stubborn, defiant human I had ever heard of.

‘See? Mate! We have finally found her!’

*But she’s human,* I argued, my thoughts reeling. *She’s inferior.*

‘You’re a fool if you believe that,’ Eon shot back, his tone losing its joy and gaining an edge of steel. ‘You’re defying yourself. Go to her. Now. Or I will.’

*You wouldn’t dare.*

‘Try me.’

*Fine.* This changed everything. My plans to tame her, to break her, evaporated, replaced by a singular, all-consuming need to *claim* her. To cherish her. To love her.

I excused myself from the teacher and walked down the aisle, my movements deliberate. I let my pencil case “slip,” watching as it skidded across her desk and landed perfectly in her lap. She startled, and her head whipped up. As I spoke to her, I saw it. The slight hitch in her breath, the way her pulse fluttered in the delicate skin of her neck. And then, the scent. The beginnings of her arousal, a sweet, tangy note that wafted up to me and ignited a fire in my gut. It took every ounce of my control not to yank her out of her seat, bend her over the desk, and bury myself inside her until she screamed my name.

I fought to keep a neutral expression as she handed the case back, her lips slightly parted, her teeth unconsciously biting down on her full, lower lip, leaving a faint, pink indent.

That small, innocent gesture was my undoing.

The world—the teacher’s droning voice, the scent of chalk dust and teenage bodies, the other students in the room—it all dissolved into a meaningless hum. In its place, a fantasy, vivid and shockingly explicit, exploded behind my eyes.

It wasn’t a thought—it was a memory from a life I hadn’t yet lived.

*In my mind, I was no longer standing in a classroom. I was kneeling before her, my hands gripping her hips as she lay on my bed, her brown hair a wild halo on my dark sheets. That same lower lip was caught between her teeth, but this time, her eyes were heavy with lust, her pupils blown wide with desire. I leaned down, replacing her teeth with my own, gently biting that plump flesh before soothing it with my tongue. Her back arched, a soft moan escaping her as I trailed kisses down her neck. My hands sliding up her ribs to cup the heavy weight of her breasts. I could feel her nipples, hard as pebbles, pressing against my palms through the thin cotton of her shirt. I wanted to rip it away, to taste every inch of her skin, to find out if she tasted as sweet as she smelled—like rain and lilies and something uniquely *Trisha*. I wanted to spread her thighs, to feel them wrap around my waist as I drove into her, hard and deep, claiming her, making her mine, erasing every other man who had ever dared to touch her. I wanted to hear her scream my name as she came apart in my arms, her body tightening around me like a vise…*

‘Gavin!’ Eon’s voice, a distant bark in my mind, barely registered.

The fantasy shattered as I intentionally brushed my fingers against hers. The jolt was real this time, a sharp, electric current that shot straight to my groin, making my already hard cock throb with a desperate, painful need. Her body stiffened, her breath catching in her throat, and I knew she felt it too.

‘She feels the bond,’ Eon growled, his own voice thick with satisfaction. ‘She just doesn’t know what to call it.’

*I know,* I thought back, my voice strained. I fought the urge to grab her hand, to pull her against me, to press my lips to her wrist and feel her frantic pulse against my tongue. It took every shred of my thousand years of self-control not to act on the vivid fantasy still playing on a loop in my head.

‘She’s ignoring us,’ Eon noted with amusement as she deliberately looked away after I introduced myself. ‘She has no idea who we are. Or what we are.’

*I know,* I snarled internally. The flicker of hurt was unwarranted, but it was there. Fine. If she wouldn’t touch me voluntarily, I’d make do. I “stumbled” past her, placing my hand directly on her bare shoulder. I braced myself. The jolt, the searing burn of the mate bond activating, ripped through me. I clenched my jaw, grinding my teeth as it reverberated through my entire being, a painful pleasure that was both agony and ecstasy.

Trisha, however, cried out and shot out of her seat as if she’d been electrocuted. I hid my satisfied smirk behind a look of wide-eyed innocence and a flimsy excuse about my shoes. After she sat back down, glaring daggers at me, I took my seat.

The sight of her, squirming in her seat, sent another wave of lust through me. I could see the faint blush on the back of her neck, the way she kept pressing her thighs together beneath the desk. She was fighting it, and it was the most arousing thing I had ever seen.

Another image flooded my mind, this one darker, more possessive. *Her, bent over my knee, her skirt hiked up over her ass. My handprint glowing red on her pale skin as she gasped and writhed, not from pain, but from pleasure. My fingers tracing the mark before dipping between her thighs to find her slick and ready for me. My voice in her ear, low and commanding. “You will not ignore me again, mate.” And her breathless, submissive reply, “Yes, Gavin.”*

I clenched my fists under the desk, my knuckles white. I was losing control. I knew every Lycan in the room could smell her arousal. *Hope you’re happy,* I thought at Eon. *We just painted a target on her back.*

‘Then mate her and be done with it. No one will touch a mated Princess.’

*You know I can’t!* I shot back. *Not only would that make her an even bigger target for our enemies, but she’s human. Fragile. I won’t lose her before I even have the chance to love her.*

‘You know the consequences of that decision,’ Eon said, his voice sober.

Yes, I knew. Mates were sacred to Lycans—our other halves, our souls, split and shared with our wolves. We only ever got one. Rejecting the bond was a death sentence. Resisting it weakened us, drove our wolves feral. And for a Royal, the effects were magnified tenfold. Mating a human was rare. Mating a Royal to a human was unheard of. I had no idea how the bond would affect her.

‘You won’t last a week,’ Eon snickered.

*Watch me.*

The teacher began his lecture, but my focus was entirely on the girl in front of me. I was curious. I let my aura, my Royal presence, seep out and gently caress her. Instead of bowing her head in submission like the others in the room, she squirmed in her seat. The scent of her arousal spiked, becoming almost overwhelming. I couldn’t help the low chuckle that escaped my lips as I withdrew my aura. She felt it, but it didn’t make her submit. It turned her on.

This could work in my favor.

The rest of the class passed in a blur of me watching my little mate struggle with her body’s traitorous response to me. The second the bell rang, she was out of her seat and bolting for the door like the hounds of hell were on her heels.