All Chapters of Rejected by My Mate, Fated to the Lycan King: Chapter 551 - Chapter 555

Ilsa“You’re following me again,” Caelan says without turning around.He’s crouched at the edge of a shallow ravine, pale hair catching the last of the light like it’s spun silver, his fingertips pressed to the mossy ground like he’s listening to the earth.“I’m not following you,” I say, stepping up behind him. “I’m hunting.”“Oh?” He glances over his shoulder, smirking. “And what exactly are you hunting, my feral one?”“You,” I say sweetly. “Obviously.”He rises, fluid as always, his movements too smooth to be human.“If I recall correctly, I let you catch me last time.”“No,” I correct, circling him. “You just didn’t run fast enough.”He’s close now, chest bare beneath his open shirt, golden skin catching the shadows like they belong to him.He watches me with those silver eyes, assessing. Teasing. Waiting for the first move.“You look like you didn’t sleep,” he says.“You look like you haven’t shut up in five centuries.”His grin sharpens. “Still sore?”“Still smug?”“Only because

ScarlettI come back to myself slowly.First, it’s sound.Erik’s voice, low and urgent, cutting through the silence. My name, over and over, threaded with panic.Then touch. His hands on my face and shoulders. Warm and steady. The tether I didn’t know I still needed.Then I see the sky.And gods, it’s wrong.“What…” My voice scrapes out like smoke. “What happened?”“You collapsed,” Erik says, cupping the back of my neck. His hand is shaking. “You were burning up.”“I saw it.” My throat sticks around the words. “I saw… everything.”The others are standing around me, silently watchful. I feel their eyes on me like pressure against my skin.Chris crouches a few paces off, his sword unsheathed but lowered. Ilsa’s still as stone. Elliott looks pale.Caelan is nowhere to be seen, but he takes off on his own every day and somehow is back with us when we set up camp.“I couldn’t stop it,” I say. “Whatever that thing is, it was inside my head. Inside my magic.”“Do you remember what it said?”

ChrisThe forest doesn’t want us here.I feel it in the way my skin crawls, the way the dirt sticks to my boots like it’s trying to hold me in place.Everything’s gone too still again. No birdsong. No movement. Just the endless hush of branches pressing in, tighter than they were a few hours ago.Elliott walks a few paces ahead of me, quiet and sharp-eyed.He keeps glancing to the side, like something’s stalking the edge of his vision. I know the feeling. It’s been like this since Scarlett collapsed. Since that thing with antlers spoke and the forest started bending around her.We haven’t seen Caelan since this morning. I’m not sure if that makes me more or less anxious.“You okay?” I ask Elliott, keeping my voice low.He nods without looking back. “No.”Fair enough.We move off-trail. Not far from the others, just… a little space. We need it.Need the hush of trees and the crackle of leaves to settle between us without more questions, more fear, more gods-damned eeriness.The trees t