Lahat ng Kabanata ng Rejected by My Mate, Fated to the Lycan King: Kabanata 521 - Kabanata 530

ErikShe stalks toward me like a flame given form.Scarlett. Furious. Beautiful. Half-lit by moonlight.Her hair wild from the wind, boots muddy from the trail. Fire in her eyes, burning blue now, not gold.“I felt it,” she says, voice low and dangerous. “Back at the grove. You looked at me like you were about to do something stupid.”I don’t answer right away. Because I was. Because I still might.She steps into my space and doesn’t stop, chest pressed to mine, palms flat on my ribs like she could push straight through to whatever’s breaking underneath.“You’re still keeping something from me,” she says.“I’m not.”“You are. I can smell it on you. That twitch in your jaw. The silence.”My hands close around her hips before I can think better of it. “I didn’t know how to say it.”“Try harder.”I look into her eyes and say, “I’m scared.”It slips out quiet. Rough.She blinks.I tighten my grip. “Not of what’s out there. Of what’s ahead. You’ll live for centuries, Scarlett. I won’t.”Sh

IlsaI’m the first to notice.It takes a while. Hours, maybe.The trail is slow-going, the trees too thick, the ground too soft, the light wrong even when the sun should be overhead.But somewhere between one breath and the next, I realize my boots aren’t leaving prints.At first, I think maybe the moss is just too dense. Then I decide maybe it’s the angle, or the way we’re moving.But after the fifth time I glance back and see nothing, no crushed grass, no bent ferns, no sign we ever passed through, I stop.Chris bumps into me from behind.“Why’d you stop?”“Look.”He frowns. “At what?”I nod at the ground. “Where are our tracks?”His gaze sharpens. He takes a step back, then another, before he crouches and brushes the moss.“Nothing,” he says.We both turn at the same time.“Scarlett!”She’s already halfway back toward us, flanked by Erik. Elliott hurries to close the gap.Scarlett raises a brow. “Problem?”Chris gestures behind us. “Check your steps.”She does and stills.“Erik,” s

ScarlettI don’t tell them what Erik told me last night.They heard about the altar, but not everything the voice whispered to him.They didn’t see the way he looked at me after. Like I’m both the lock and the sword that will split it open.It’s not that I don’t trust them.It’s that I can’t be the reason they hesitate.So when I kneel in the moss and begin drawing the protection circle, I keep my voice steady and my hands from shaking.Aunt Cerelia’s notes are folded in my back pocket, scrawled and smudged from travel, but I’ve done this before.Just not in a place that bends any way it pleases. Not in a forest that watches my every move.“Is this really necessary?” Elliott asks, peering over my shoulder.“Yes,” I say, too quickly.He backs off and Chris nudges him with his elbow and mutters something teasing before their hands entwine.Erik stands nearby, arms crossed, tracking every movement I make like every gesture is a secret I might accidentally reveal.Like he’s watching for a

IlsaI never minded the dark until the dark got a voice.It’s a sound so low I feel it before I hear it.A pulse that thrums in the roots under my boots and creeps up my shins like a second heartbeat.I stop on the game trail and press a hand to the nearest trunk. The vibration seeps straight through the bark.Behind me the campfire glow is long gone. Snuffed by fog, distance, and one questionable decision. Just a quick perimeter check, Ilsa, you’re the quiet one, the fast one, you’ll be back before anyone misses you.Now every path looks the same. Slick earth, knotted shadow, and carpets of moss that breathe when the wind holds its breath.Great.I draw my knife despite knowing it’s useless.The blade feels small with all this weighty darkness pressing in, but steel is better than claws and panic alone.I inhale through my nose, tasting for threat the way wolves do. Soil, rot, a hint of woodsmoke. No predator musk, no blood. Still, the humming grows louder.“Forest, stop flirting wit

Scarlett & ErikScarlettHe hasn’t told me like he promised to.I know something happened at the lake. I felt it in his heartbeat last night, wild and unsteady under my hand.I saw the ghost of it in his eyes this morning. Like something crawled in and is still coiled there, whispering to him.But he hasn’t said a word.And now he walks ahead of me like the forest isn’t watching, like the fog isn’t thicker than it was an hour ago, like I didn’t almost kill Elliott two days ago with fire that wasn’t mine.My magic still flickers wrong beneath my skin. It crackles blue when I’m not paying attention. I haven’t told him either.He won’t talk. And I’m not asking.But gods, I want to scream in frustration.ErikShe hasn’t looked at me properly since we left camp.Not since I turned away from that cursed water with its mirror mouth and promises of forever.I didn’t tell her. Not because I wanted to keep it secret, but because I don’t know how to say it.Scarlett, your magic has teeth. Your s