All Chapters of MATED TO THE ENEMY: Chapter 51 - Chapter 53

Lunch was supposed to be simple.Just… lunch. A plate of food, my two friends, and one quiet hour where I could pretend my brain wasn’t a chaotic battlefield of memories I absolutely did not ask for.Ferna and Elsie sat across from me, chattering like nothing in the world had shattered.This was the first lunch we’d managed to have together since Aklan became my personal tormentor, and I was doing a spectacular job of pretending I was fine.But my fork had been dragging the same stripe through my mashed potatoes for so long that the grooves looked like an artist’s sketch. I kept trying to eat, truly, but each time the fork rose toward my mouth, my stomach tightened. Not from nausea, but from the humiliating, unbearable, pulse-deep reminder of what Aklan had done to me the last time we trained.I was not fine.Every time I closed my eyes, I was back in that changing room:His mouth bruising mine, his hand under my bra, thumb rolling over my nipple until I forgot my own name, his finger

By the time dinner was over and the sun began sinking behind the western towers of Norsen, all I wanted was a bed, a blanket, and the sweet, comforting silence of not having to think about Aklan for even five seconds.Ferna, Elsie, and I made our way down the long stone pathway toward our dorm wing. The courtyard lanterns were lighting themselves one by one, reacting to the fall of night, and the air was pleasantly cool. The kind of cool that made your shoulders relax even after the most stressful day.Elsie was recounting some ridiculous story about how her Lycan noble lover had tried to impress her by lifting a boulder the size of a cow, only for it to roll and nearly crush his foot. Ferna was wheezing with laughter loud enough to echo off the brick walls.And I… I was laughing too.A real laugh.The kind I hadn’t felt in days. For a moment, a tiny, fragile moment, Aklan disappeared from my mind entirely. No memories of his hands on me. No phantom heat blooming in my stomach. No