Chapter 7

She slumped against the tree trunk, completely thrown by how differently he was acting.

He pinned her there with overwhelming force, not giving her an inch to escape, yet every single touch was impossibly gentle.

He treated her like some precious treasure he'd just fished out of the ocean after losing it forever. His lips moved along her collarbone, up her neck, each kiss filled with a kind of worship that made her shake.

She'd never experienced anything like this.

Evre's mind went completely blank. The fever came roaring back even worse, mixed with the full moon pulling at her wolf's deepest urges. Her body completely gave in, moving with his rhythm without any control.

The night wind swept across the riverbank, scattering the broken sounds of gasping breaths and quiet moans.

At the height of overwhelming pleasure, Evre's vision melted into liquid silver. All she could hold onto was a pair of impossibly bright dark gold eyes in the darkness, and that intoxicating pine scent that seemed to burn itself into her very soul.

...

She had no clue how long it had been when the sharp cold of dawn shocked her awake.

The sky was starting to get light, streaks of pale gray spreading across the horizon.

Every muscle hurt like she'd been hit by a truck. She was lying on the cold river stones, completely alone, with only an oversized black leather jacket—smelling faintly of blood—wrapped tight around her naked body.

Flashes from last night's craziness rushed through her head like a fever dream. Bodies tangled together. Hot breath on her skin. Raw, rough groans. That relentless, overwhelming rhythm...

Evre's face went white as a sheet, her fingers digging into the leather jacket with desperate force.

She'd done it. With a man. On some empty riverbank in the middle of nowhere.

Panic and shame exploded in her head, wiping out every logical thought.

She couldn't think. Couldn't process anything. She pulled the jacket tighter around herself, ignoring how badly her muscles were screaming, and ran like a scared rabbit toward St. Aether Academy.

She didn't stop until she'd burst through the door of her crappy single dorm room and locked it behind her. She went straight into the bathroom and turned the shower to ice cold.

Freezing water poured over her head and down her body, but it couldn't put out the strange, lingering heat pulsing under her skin.

While washing, her fingers brushed against the gland at the back of her neck.

There was a deep, obvious bite mark there, radiating a steady, throbbing warmth.

The second her fingertips touched that mark, a violent surge exploded from deep in her soul.

Evre froze completely under the freezing spray, water streaming down her pale face.

As a high-ranking wolf, she knew exactly what this feeling meant with crushing clarity.

It was the most sacred, most unbreakable bond in their world—the claiming mark of a Fated Mate.

The man who'd taken her last night was her true Mate.

The realization made her heart race out of control.

She pressed her fists against her temples, desperately trying to piece together the broken memories from last night. But the mix of allergic fever, full moon madness, and the overpowering scent of a top-tier Alpha had left huge holes in her memory.

She remembered a huge black wolf with a terrible injury. The smell of pine trees. Those mesmerizing dark gold eyes.

But whenever she tried to picture the face of the man he'd become, her brain seized up with blinding pain, like a rubber band being stretched to its limit inside her head.

Who? Who was it?

In those last moments before she'd passed out, she thought she'd called out Bradley's name? Evre shook her head hard, pushing away the ridiculous idea.

Bradley? That childhood pest who'd made her life a constant joke? That irresponsible troublemaker who was wasting his incredible bloodline? He couldn't possibly have that kind of desperate longing in him. He couldn't be the Mate written into her soul.

She must have been out of her mind with panic and fever, must have mixed up the mysterious Alpha with the one person she'd known her whole life.

Evre forced herself to breathe, to think clearly.

Whoever that man was, she couldn't let the truth come out. Sebastian's betrayal had already turned her into the academy's biggest joke. If anyone found out she had a wolf form—and had bonded with some unknown Alpha—her life would be completely ruined.

She found a high-collared academy uniform and buttoned it all the way up to her throat, hiding the claiming mark completely. She grabbed her textbooks and rushed toward the academic building.

The morning classes were hell.

The whispered gossip and staring felt like invisible slaps across her face. Everyone was eating up the drama of Sebastian publicly humiliating her.

When the bell finally rang, Evre made a run for the exit, desperate to get back to her dorm room.

But the second she stepped into the hallway, several figures blocked her way.

Veronica stood there with her arms crossed, looking aggressive. Her followers immediately spread out, cutting off every escape route.

Veronica's face was furious, her eyes glittering with pure hatred.

She looked Evre up and down, her gaze stopping on the tightly buttoned collar of her uniform. A cold sneer crossed her lips.

"You ran pretty fast last night, you pathetic stray." Veronica moved closer, her sharp nails almost touching Evre's nose. "Talk! After you ran into the woods—where exactly did you go?!"

Evre's heart pounded against her ribs, but she kept her face neutral, taking half a step back. "That's none of your business."

"None of my business?" Veronica laughed like she'd heard something hilarious, her fingers grabbing Evre's collar. "In the middle of the night, this massive Alpha presence came from deep in the woods—powerful enough to alert the professors. A worthless wolfless nobody like you shouldn't have been able to survive in that area, but you came back without a scratch. What did you see?!"

Veronica's grip tightened on Evre's collar, her nails threatening to break the skin on her neck.

The air in the hallway seemed to freeze. The crowd of onlookers grew, dozens of curious eyes pressing in on Evre from every direction like actual needles.

Evre's pulse roared in her ears.

She knew exactly what that Alpha presence had been. It was her own Hales bloodline breaking through her shattered emotional walls. Her mother's trackers would be super sensitive to that signature—they might already be closing in on the academy.

If Veronica forced her to slip up here, or if anyone ripped open her collar to reveal the Mate mark, everything would be over.

"What's wrong, cat got your tongue?" Veronica's cruelty intensified at her silence. She noticed Evre's collar buttoned all the way up despite the warm day, and her smirk turned vicious. "Why are you all wrapped up on a hot day? Feeling guilty? Or did something happen in those woods last night that you're dying to hide?"

Veronica's hand shot out, fingers hooking into Evre's collar to rip it open.