Thornhill Academy. Chapter 83

**Kael**

The moment the silver light struck Alison, I felt it in my chest, like my rib cage had been ripped open and set ablaze. My lungs seized, my vision blurred, and every primal instinct inside me screamed *mine.* The light burned through her, glowing so bright it hurt, and then it split. One thread shot straight into Evander, and I braced myself for the heartbreak I’d been drowning in for weeks. But before I could even process it, another beam, blinding blue, pure and electric, whipped across the room and slammed into me. The world exploded. The force of it hit harder than any physical blow I’d ever taken. My knees nearly buckled, my pulse a snarl of fire and need and recognition. For half a heartbeat, I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. The bond roared to life. It was her. It had always been her. I knew it. Every touch, every stolen look, every ache in my chest when she smiled at him, it all made sense now. She wasn’t just his. She was mine too. But when I looked at Evander, that molten dragon bastard was already watching me, and the look in his eyes wasn’t relief; it was guilt. Guilt, because he’d known. He’d known this might happen. He’d known how I felt. And he still told me no.

He told me to back off.

He told me I couldn’t find out.

He told me to stay the hell away from *my mate.*

My hellhound rose inside of me, claws scraping at the surface, begging to rip something apart. The crowd, the lights, the music, it all vanished. All I saw was Evander. Standing there beside her. Holding her hand. The hand that should have been in mine.

The fire in my chest boiled over. The shift tore through me before I could stop it. I barely managed to turn away before the bones in my body cracked, fur and muscle replacing skin. My vision turned red, the ground splitting beneath my paws as I sprinted into the forest, away from the festival, away from her, because she couldn’t see me like this. Not like the monster I was becoming.

But I didn’t get far.

“Kael!”

His voice echoed behind me. Of course, he’d follow. I spun around, half-shifted, claws still out, eyes burning bright red. “You don’t get to say my name right now.” My voice came out as a low, dangerous growl.

Evander appeared between the trees, chest heaving, his golden eyes glowing faintly. “You think I didn’t want this for you, too?” he demanded, stepping closer.

“You didn’t want it at all!” I shouted, the words breaking out of me like fire. “You didn’t even want to let me try! You made me feel like I was crazy, like I was imagining the pull, like I was some fucking joke to you!”

He winced, but didn’t speak. Didn’t deny it.

“So what was your plan, huh?” I continued, advancing on him. “To keep her all to yourself? To play the noble mate while your best friend went insane, wondering why his bond felt wrong?”

“Kael...”

“Don’t Kael me!” I snapped, the last of my restraint slipping. “You had weeks with her. Weeks of touching her, kissing her, sleeping beside her. And I had nothing but the hollow ache of knowing she was meant for me, too. You stole that time from me!”

I didn’t mean to hit him. It just happened. My fist connected with his jaw hard enough to snap his head sideways, and he stumbled back, blood at the corner of his mouth. He didn’t hit me back. He just stood there, wiping the blood away, eyes heavy with guilt. “You’re right,” he said hoarsely. “I fucked up.”

The words barely registered past the roar in my ears. “Damn right you did.”

“I didn’t want to believe it,” he said quietly. “Didn’t want to share her. Not with anyone. But now… now I don’t have a choice.”

My breathing hitched, fury fading into something heavier. “You always had a choice, Evander. You didn’t want to make the right one.”

He looked up at me then, the dragon in his eyes dimming just slightly. “I’ll make it now,” he said, voice steady, like a vow. “You’re her mate too. And I’ll do whatever I have to do to make it right, to make up for the time I stole from you.”

The fight drained out of me all at once, leaving only exhaustion. My knuckles ached. My heart did worse. I turned my gaze toward the distant academy, the celebration still faintly echoing through the night. “You can’t make up for time,” I muttered. “But… maybe you can stop making things worse.”

Evander gave a faint, humourless smile. “That’s the plan.”

The anger burned itself out slowly, leaving only the wreckage behind. I sank onto the cold, damp earth, chest heaving, steam curling from my skin where my hellhound fire still licked beneath the surface. I felt… hollow. Not empty exactly, just wrung out. My fists hung loose between my knees, dirt streaked across my knuckles, and blood crusted on one from where I’d hit him. Evander exhaled sharply and lowered himself to the ground beside me, wincing as he touched his jaw. A bruise was already forming, deep and dark. I should’ve felt guilty. I didn’t. Neither of us spoke for a while.

Eventually, Evander broke the silence. “You done trying to kill me?”

I huffed out something that might’ve been a laugh. “For now.”

He nodded, rubbing the back of his neck. “Good. Because I don’t think I’ve got another hit in me tonight.”

We sat like that, shoulder to shoulder, two idiots too tired to keep fighting but too stubborn to admit how much it hurt.

The bond between us had always been brotherhood, but now, there was this… new thing. A shared pulse that neither of us asked for but both felt. *Our* mate.

I scrubbed a hand down my face and muttered, “I didn’t want to hate you, man. You’re my best friend. But watching you with her…” I shook my head, biting down hard on the words. “It gutted me.”

Evander’s sigh was quiet, heavy with understanding. He leaned his elbows on his knees, staring at the forest floor. “You think it didn’t kill me, too? Knowing you were feeling it, knowing I was being a selfish bastard?”

That startled a weak, humourless laugh out of me. “Well, at least you’re honest about it now.”

“I am,” he said softly. Then, after a pause, he added, “I meant what I said earlier. I’ll make it right. I won’t let this come between us again.”

He turned his head toward me, and the sincerity in his eyes hit harder than any punch. “I’m sorry, Kael.”

I let out a shaky breath and nodded. “Yeah. I know.”

I hesitated for a second, then slung an arm around his shoulders, dragging him a little closer in that rough, brotherly way that said everything I couldn’t put into words. “Guess we’re really in this together now, huh?”

He huffed a tired laugh. “Looks like it.”