All Chapters of MOONLIGHT MYSTIQUE : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

By the end of the week, whispers weren’t whispers anymore. They were headlines.Damien and Eliot.Theo left in the dust.Another conquest for the king of campus.I couldn’t walk across the quad without feeling their stares. Some sharp with jealousy, others gleaming with cruel amusement. My name had become entertainment.And Damien loved it.I learned that when he cornered me outside the lecture hall.Students spilled into the hallway, buzzing with chatter, but he didn’t care. He leaned against the doorframe, one hand braced high above my head, the other sliding shamelessly to my hip.“Skipping lunch with me again?” His voice was silk, smooth enough to cut.“Damien—please.” I pressed back against the wall, my face burning as curious eyes turned our way. “Not here.”He grinned, sharp and merciless. “Exactly here.”Before I could protest, he dipped low and kissed me. Hard. Possessive.Gasps rippled through the hallway. Someone dropped their books. The sound of laughter and whispers swell

The message from Theo sat on my screen like a live wire. We need to talk.My chest tightened. The last time we spoke, his words had been knives. And now, after Damien’s hallway stunt, after the library… Theo wasn’t just angry anymore. He was wounded.I told myself to ignore it. To let the night pass in silence. But my fingers betrayed me, typing three words before I could stop them.Where are you?Minutes later, I found myself outside his dorm. The air was cold, sharp against my lungs. When Theo opened the door, he didn’t look like himself. His eyes were rimmed in red, his jaw tight, shoulders stiff with tension.He didn’t waste time. “Did he touch you again?”My lips parted, but no sound came.Theo’s fists clenched. “Don’t lie to me, Eliot. I saw the pictures. Everyone did.”Heat flared in my chest, shame burning through me. “It’s not what it looks like.”Theo stepped closer, crowding the small space between us. His presence was overwhelming—not Damien’s polished arrogance, but raw,

I couldn’t breathe.The music room was still vibrating with Damien’s presence even after he left—the echo of his kiss clung to me like a ghost. My lips stung, my body thrummed with fire, and my mind screamed at me for letting him win again.Because he had.I pressed my palms to the cool piano keys, trying to steady my shaking. I should’ve shoved him away, screamed, fought harder. Instead, I melted. Again.And worst of all?Theo was right.The thought made bile rise in my throat. I grabbed my bag and stumbled out of the music building, desperate for air, but the campus felt suffocating. Every pair of eyes, every whisper—Damien’s boy, Theo’s fool, two-timing slut—it all pressed down on me like weight I couldn’t carry.I barely made it to my dorm before my phone buzzed.Theo. Again.Where were you?The words made my chest tighten. My thumbs hovered over the keyboard, aching to type something, anything. But what could I say? That Damien cornered me? That I let him kiss me? That part of me

The world blurred around me, but Theo’s face was burned into my vision.The look in his eyes when I admitted I didn’t know what I wanted—it haunted me. Hurt, fury, desperation all tangled together. And worse? A hunger that mirrored Damien’s, only less controlled, less predictable.I tried to bury myself in books at the library, pretending I was invisible. Pretending the whispers weren’t still following me. But I felt it—the weight of his gaze.When I finally glanced up, there he was.Across the room, leaning forward, his arms folded across the table like he had been watching me for hours. His eyes were wild—bloodshot, unblinking, burning with an intensity that made my chest tighten.I looked away, shoving my notebook into my bag. If I stayed, I’d suffocate.I slipped out the library doors, the cool night air biting against my cheeks. The campus was quieter now, shadows stretching long across the pavement. I thought I’d lost him. But then I heard it—footsteps.Following.“Theo.” My voi

Damien didn’t leave my side all day.Classes blurred together into static, but he was always there. In the hallways, leaning against lockers like he owned them. In the back of lectures, sprawled out as if the room was his throne. His presence was suffocating, his gaze sharp enough to burn holes into me.Everywhere I went, he followed.People noticed. Whispers chased me like shadows, each one sharper than the last. Why is Damien all over him? Did Eliot actually pick him? Poor Theo…I tried to focus on my notes, on anything, but it was impossible. Every time I looked up, his eyes were already on me, dark and knowing. And every time our gazes locked, something in me faltered.By evening, I thought I had escaped. The library loomed ahead, quiet and safe, a place where Damien’s intensity couldn’t reach me. Or so I hoped.But as soon as I slipped into the courtyard, a hand caught my wrist and yanked me into the shadows of an alcove.My back hit the wall.“Damien—”“Shh.”His hand pressed ag