Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Imake it through two days pretending everything's normal.
Classes. Training. Meals in the dining hall where I keep my head down and avoid eye contact. Julian's History lectures where I sit in the back row and take notes like I'm any other student, not the girl who knows the truth about multiple bonds and genocide.
The girl who knows she's the last Silverpelt.
Caspian walks me to classes. Knox shadows from a distance. Even Nico hovers at the edges, drawn by whatever broken bond still connects us. The other students notice but they keep their distance. Most of them have since the first shift, since everyone saw proof I'm different.
Only Sera Whitlock refuses to back down.
She's waiting outside Combat Training when I arrive Wednesday afternoon, flanked by her usual group of girls.
All of them from high-ranking bloodlines, all of them perfectly aware of pack hierarchy.
Sera's blonde hair is pulled back in a high ponytail and she's dressed in expensive training gear that probably cost more than everything I own.
She's the one who held my arms while the others cut my hair, the one who said "this is a kindness" before threatening worse.
Students flow around us, heading into the building. Some glance our way, sensing drama. Others intentionally avoid looking, not wanting to get involved.
"Nova." Sera's smile doesn't reach her eyes. "Still playing bodyguard with Caspian?"
I adjust my training bag on my shoulder. "I'm not playing anything."
"Of course not." She steps into my path, close enough that I have to stop walking. "It's just interesting how the mysterious new girl has the Alpha heir following her around like a puppy."
Her friends laugh. I keep my face neutral.
"Maybe he just likes charity cases," one of them says. Emma something. Beta bloodline, destined to follow Sera's lead her entire life.
"Maybe he's just being polite," I reply, keeping my voice even.
"Polite." Sera's eyes narrow. "Is that what you're calling it? Because from where I'm standing, it looks like you've got him wrapped around your finger. No pack, no connections, and yet here we are."
More students have stopped now. A small crowd forming at a safe distance. Pack politics playing out in public is always entertainment.
"I didn't ask for his protection," I say.
"Right." She crosses her arms. "You just showed up out of nowhere and now every important male at this Academy is interested. Caspian walking you to class. Knox watching you from shadows. Even Professor Harmon gives you extra attention in History. What's your secret, Nova?"
I could tell her and watch her face when I explain I'm Silverpelt, that I can bond with multiple mates, that the Council wants me dead. But Julian's warning echoes in my head. No one can know.
"I don't have a secret," I say instead. "I'm just trying to survive this place."
"By stealing other people's futures?" Her voice drops, venomous. "Caspian and I have been promised since we were children. Our families have an arrangement. And you think you can just show up and ruin that?"
"I didn't know you had an arrangement."
"Because you didn't bother to learn anything about pack politics before batting your eyes at him.
" She steps closer and I smell her perfume, expensive and cloying.
"Here's something you should learn fast: I don't give up what's mine.
Caspian will claim me when we graduate. That's how it works. Whatever you're doing, it ends."
I should walk away and let her have this moment of dominance because engaging will only make things worse. But I'm tired of being threatened, tired of everyone treating me like I'm something to be controlled or eliminated.
"Caspian isn't property," I say quietly. "And he's not yours just because your parents made a deal."
The watching students go quiet. Someone actually gasps. No one talks to Sera Whitlock like that.
Her hand moves fast and the slap cracks across my cheek before I can react.
Pain explodes sharp and hot, radiating from the point of impact.
My head snaps to the side and I taste copper where I bit my tongue.
Her friends gasp around her but Sera just stands there, hand still raised, satisfaction written across her perfect face.
I don't touch my cheek even though it's burning.
Don't give her the satisfaction of seeing it hurt.
My hands clench into fists at my sides and every instinct screams at me to grab her stupid bouncy ponytail and yank her to the ground, to show her what happens when you put your hands on someone who's been trained to fight.
But I can't. I'm already under too much scrutiny, already have Chase watching my every move.
One wrong action and I give him exactly what he needs to haul me in for questioning again.
So I stand there and take it.
"That's for forgetting your place," Sera hisses. "You're nothing here. No pack, no family, no future. Remember that before you try taking what belongs to real shifters."
She turns and walks away, her group following like obedient ducklings. The crowd disperses quickly, not wanting to be caught staring. Within seconds it's like it never happened.
Except for the burning on my cheek. And Chase leaning against the building entrance, having watched the entire thing.
I walk past him into Combat Training without saying a word.
The burning starts at midnight.
I wake up drenched in sweat, sheets sticking to my skin like a second layer. For a moment I think I'm sick, fever spiking dangerously high. Then I recognize the sensation crawling under my skin, recognize my wolf pressing against my human consciousness.
Heat.
"No," I whisper to the empty room. "Not yet. Not now."
But my body doesn't care what I want. The heat builds, spreading from deep in my core outward until every nerve ending feels like it's on fire. My skin is too tight, too sensitive. The brush of sheets against my legs makes me gasp. My tank top feels like sandpaper.
I kick the blankets off but it doesn't help. Nothing helps.
Lily sits up in her bed across the room. "Nova? You okay?"
I try to answer but my throat is too dry. She climbs out of bed, takes two steps toward me, then stops dead. Her nose wrinkles and her eyes go wide.
"Oh." Understanding dawns on her face, followed quickly by discomfort. "Oh no."
"Don't," I manage through gritted teeth. "Please don't call anyone."
"You're in heat." She backs toward the door, putting distance between us. "I should get the healer. They have suppressants that can help with the worst of it."
"No healers." I force the words out past the fire in my throat. "No one can know."
"Nova, your scent is..." She trails off, pressing her hand to her nose. Her discomfort is obvious now. "It's making even me uncomfortable and I'm female. Every male within range is going to know. They'll all be drawn here."
I know. I can feel it broadcasting outward like a beacon, invisible waves of pheromones announcing to every shifter on campus that I'm available, fertile, ready to be claimed. Come find me. Complete the bond. Mate with me.
My Silverpelt nature makes it worse. Instead of calling to one potential mate, I'm calling to four. But I can't tell Lily that, can't explain why my heat is so much stronger than it should be. She's been nothing but kind to me since I arrived and I hate keeping secrets from her.
Lily hesitates at the edge of her bed, caught between concern for me and her own rising discomfort.
"Nova, I think... I think I should stay with Emma tonight.
Give you space to get through this." She bites her lip, clearly torn.
"I don't want to abandon you but the scent is making my wolf restless and I don't think I can help you if I stay. I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize. You're being kind by giving me privacy."
She searches my face for a long moment, then nods and grabs her overnight bag, shoving clothes into it with shaking hands. "If you need anything, anything at all, you call me. Promise?"
"I promise."
She leaves and I'm alone with the burning.
I kick off the sheets and stumble to the window, pushing it open. Night air rushes in but it doesn't help. If anything, it makes things worse because now my scent is pouring out across campus. Every shifter with working senses will smell it.
Julian. The bond between us flares painful, responding to the heat. Somewhere on campus he's feeling this, my arousal flooding through our connection. I can sense his reaction, how his control fractures under the weight of my need.
Caspian. The pack claim pulls tight. Alpha instinct demanding he respond to his pack mate in heat.
Even Knox. Even Nico. Wherever they are, they're sensing this. Being drawn toward it.
I press my palms against the windowsill and try to breathe through it. This is biology. Natural. Every female shifter goes through heat cycles. I just have to ride it out and hope morning comes quickly.
My hand slides down my stomach without conscious thought. Under my shorts. Finding the ache that's building unbearable pressure. I touch myself, trying to ease it, but my fingers aren't enough. They're not what I need.
I need more, need someone larger, stronger, filling me and completing the bond that's demanding completion.
I need my mates.
I pull my hand away and grip the windowsill again, trying to focus on anything else. The cool night air. The distant sound of campus settling for the night. The stars barely visible through the light pollution.
It takes me several minutes to notice the shadow moving below.
Someone crossing the quad, heading toward my building. I track the movement and see him stop at the base of the wall directly beneath my window. Looking up.
Caspian.
He stands there for a long moment. Even from two stories up I can see the tension in his shoulders, how his hands clench and unclench at his sides. Fighting with himself.
Then he starts to climb.