Not yours to reject
He storms off without another word, leaving me standing there with my heart hammering and my arm throbbing and a bond I never asked for lighting up in my chest like a struck match.
The stranger turns to look at me fully now, and something in his eyes has shifted, gone sharp and focused in a way it wasn't a minute ago.
"What's your name?" I ask, because it's the only question my scrambled brain can hold onto.
"Jaxton Cole." He says it like it should mean something to me. Maybe it will, soon.
His gaze drops to my chest, right where the bond just lit up, and I watch something lurch wrong behind his eyes, like he's just realized exactly how much trouble we're both in.