Chapter 44
*Jiselle
I didn’t sleep.
I couldn’t sleep.
The note sat on my nightstand like it was alive. Like it was watching me. Waiting for me to reach for it, even though I had already read the damn thing a hundred times in my head.
You’re asking too many questions. Stop. Before we stop you.
It looped endlessly in my mind, a chant I couldn’t silence. My fingers ached from how tightly I kept clenching them into fists, my legs colled with tension. Every creak in the floorboards, every gust of wind rattling the windows made my wolf bristle and press beneath my skin like she was trying to claw her way out.
I kept checking over my shoulder, half–expecting someone to be there. Waiting. Watching. Ready to strike.
But no one came.
Nothing happened.
And that made it worse.
It was too quiet. Too still Like the world was holding its breath, just long enough to crush me with what came next.
By the time the horizon bled with the first grey slivers of morning, I was sitting on the edge of my bed, hoodie pulled tight around me, my heart still pounding like it was waiting for the final blow. My eyes burned from the lack of sleep, but I wasn’t tired. I was strung out. Frayed at the edges. Teetering between fight and flight.
I needed answers,
I didn’t care what Nate said about waiting until second year,
I couldn’t wait
Not after what we found. Not after Hadelyn’s face. Not after the note.
I had barely made it halfway down the corridor, slipping silently through the halls, when someone stepped directly into my path
1 jerked to a halt, breath hitching.
Those silver eyes.
Max
He looked like he hadn’t slept either, though he was dressed like he had woken up hours ago–black tactical shirt stretched over his chest, dark joggers sitting low on his hips, combat boots laced tight like he was ready to take on the world. His expression was unreadable, stoic and cold.
But his eyes… his eyes were anything but.
There was fury there. And something else. Something bitter and betrayed and heartbreakingly familiar.
I from
Neither of us spoke.
Not at first
The hallway, though empty, felt like it was closing in on me. My chest squeezed, painfully tight, as if it already knew what was coming
Then he spoke.
Five words
“I need to talk Now”
There was no emotion in his voice. Just iron. Just finality
Thesitated, heart sinking. I had been on my way to find Nate, to try–even if it was aimlessly- to make him tell me what I needed to do What this place was hiding. But Max’s eyes.
I couldn’t walk away from ther
I couldn’t walk away from him. Nit again
“Okay” I said quietly
Successfully unlocked!
He didn’t respond. Just turned on his heel and started walking. I followed in silence, the space between us thick with everything we hadn’t said
Chapter 44
His room hadn’t changed. It was still so him–minimalist, clean, edges sharp and structured. There was a military neatness to it, like he didn’t allow himself the luxury of mess, not even in the place he rested
The second the door closed behind us, he spun around.
He didn’t yell
He didn’t even raise his voice.
“Someone tried to break into my room last night”
My breath caught and I went still.
“Did–did they take anything?” I stuttered, my heart hammering from my chest.
“No,” he hissed. “But they left this.”
are or
He handed me an almost identical note to mine but instead, it read “Keep her in line, or else it won’t matter who you a how powerful you are. She will die.”
Ty sides.
I felt the blood drain from my face. My hands curled tightly at my sides.
So whoever sent it still thought Max and I were together. It was definitely Hadelyn. Yet, it made no sense, because he knew Nate was my mate. So why would Max get this and not Nate?
Max’s eyes narrowed, reading me instantly. “What did you do, Jiselle?”
I tried to school my face into something neutral, but it was too late. He could see right through me. He always could. “I didn’t-”
“Don’t,” he snapped.
His voice cut through the space like a blade, and I flinched.
“You have one last chance to tell me the truth, Jiselle. No more secrets. No more half–truths. No more protecting me from what you think I can’t handle.
1 swallowed hard, my throat suddenly bone–dry. “I didn’t want to put you in more danger.”
His jaw flexed,
“You think I’m not already there?” he said. “You think after what they did to me, after what I saw with that rogue–after everything–that they don’t know how deep this goes?”
My heart ached at the memory of his bruised face, the slashes that took days to heal even with his enhanced regeneration. The rage, the betrayal, the silent screams in his eyes when he came back to me bloody and broken.
“I know,” I whispered.
“Then why are you still lying to me?” His voice cracked slightly at the end, raw and exposed.
Tears welled in my eyes, but I didn’t let them fall
“1 was trying to protect you,” I said again, this time softer. “Because I love you.”
He stilled
The air seemed to drain out of the room.
His shoulders went rigid. His arms dropped to his sides. He blinked once. Slowly.
You what?”
“I love y
you,” I said, voice trembling but honest. “And I know that sounds like some manipulative distraction right now, and maybe it is. But it’s also the truth.”
The silence between us changed. Shifted.
His face twisted–not with anger, but with something close to p
pain.
thought I imagined it, he muttered. “When I saw your face in the infirmary after the fight. When I heard the way you said my name I thought maybe, after everything, you still felt something. But then
He looked away
Then I saw Nathaniel carrying you. And you let him. And I thought–fuck, I thought maybe I had lost you for good.
“You didn’t,” I said, moving closer
He looked at me then. Really looked
And that’s when I saw it,
The cracks in the armor. The exhaustion. The fear.
The love.
Chapter44
“You still have me, I whispered, taking another step.
“I’m pissed,” he warned, voice low.
1 know”
“I still don’t trust you,” he added, but his voice trembled.
1 know that too.”
you again.”
“I don’t know if I can trust yo
That one hurt deep. But I nodded.
“But I want to,” he said quietly. “More than anything.”
I reached for him then, slowly, like approaching a wild animal. He let me. My hand touched his, then slid up to his chest. His heart was hammering under my palm.
“I should have told you everything.” I said. “About the bond. About the training. About the crap I did that caused you to get this note. But I didn’t know how. I didn’t want to lose you.”
“You almost did”
“I know.”
He exhaled shakily. Then he cupped the back of my neck, leaning his forehead against mine.
“I’m so fucking angry with you.”
“I deserve that”
“But I still love you.”
I didn’t realize how badly I needed to hear those words until he said them. My knees almost gave out.
“I’m sorry.” I whispered.
“You’d better be.”
I let out a wet laugh, and he gave me the ghost of a smile.
“But I heard about the library,” he said, pulling back just enough to look into my eyes again. “And Jiselle… what the fuck were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t” I admitted. “I just needed to know. About the runes. The blood oaths. Everything. I couldn’t wait anymore.” He closed his eyes briefly, like he was trying to breathe through the panic still crawling through him.
“I know that’s what the letter meant. And Jiselle, you scared the shit out of me.”
“I scare myself sometimes.”
His fingers tightened slightly at my waist. “Promise me you’ll stop doing this.”
“I can’t promise that.”
*Jiselle-
“But I can promise to stop doing it alone.”
He opened his eyes again, and something shifted between us.
Trust, still shaky, still bruised–but beginning to rebuild.
“I can work with that, he said softly.
I leaned in, pressing my lips gently to his
And he let me.
He kissed me like he had been waiting, like he hadn’t slept either, like everything had been building to this moment. But then–just as things started to deepen–his head snapped up.
Footsteps
A second later, the door burst open
And Nate stood there, chest heaving, eyes wild
Max’s body shifted instantly, stepping slightly in front of me like instinct had taken over
Nate’s eyes found mine, then flicked to Max His lips pressed into a tight line.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Max asked, voice deceptively calm but full of edge
Nate stepped inside, eyes locked on Max, his smirk lazy, his stance casual–but the tension in his jaw t
betrayed him.
“Funny,” he drawled, closing the door behind him: 1 w
just about to ask you the same thing.”
