My hands curled into tight fists against my knees, my fingernails biting into my palms until it hurt, but I still refused to break my gaze from the window.
"Then it should be glaringly obvious to you that we need to end this," I said softly, yet firmly, though the words felt like broken glass cutting through my chest as I forced them out. "It’s the right thing to do. For both of us."
"No," Magnus cut me off instantly, his tone devoid of even the slightest hint of compromise. "We stay together. You are my girl, Jane. And I am never letting you go. Never. Under no circumstances."
I whirled around to face him, a sudden, scorching flare of fury and heartbreak erupting inside me.
"How can we possibly be together?!" My voice cracked, ringing violently off the car windows. "Explain it to me! You had a fated mate! Everyone says your bond was confirmed and sacred! It’s biologically impossible, Magnus! A wolf cannot have two true mates—you can only be mated to one breeder in your life—it violates every law of nature!"
Magnus yanked the wheel, pulling onto the shoulder and slamming on the brakes so hard the seatbelt bit painfully across my chest. He turned his entire body toward me, his dark eyes burning with something wild, shadowy, and dangerously unhinged.
"The top specialists in the pack territories are working on this right now," he rasped out, dropping every syllable like heavy iron. "At the academy’s central research lab. A whole team of geneticists and werewolf scholars are working around the clock. They are tearing through every archive to figure out how the hell this is even possible. The original bond was confirmed by the exact same medical board that verified ours. The investigation is moving—they’re testing every theory."
He clenched his teeth so hard the muscles along his jaw throbbed violently.
"What complicates everything is the damned fact that Karina has been dead and buried for a year. The Nyland family flatly refuses to grant permission to exhume her body for tissue analysis. They view it as a desecration of their heiress’s memory—her mother nearly suffered a heart attack when the official warrant was served. But I promise you, I will get to the bottom of this. I will unearth the truth, no matter what it takes."
I shook my head slowly, feeling hot, bitter tears finally spill over my lashes, tracking down my cheeks and blurring his dangerous, handsome face into a watery haze.
"—While you figure all of this out—while you look for your answers—it’s better, it’s right, for us to live apart," I sobbed, wiping my face with trembling palms. "I need time. I need to think about everything that’s happening. I’m going back to the dorms. That is the only right choice for both of us."
"No," Magnus growled. His hand shot out, clamping down on my wrist with a grip so crushing it flared with physical pain, drawing a sharp cry from my lips. "You are not going back there. Not today, not ever. You stay with me."
"Magnus, let go of me! You’re hurting me!" I jerked back, frantically trying to tear my arm from his iron hold. "You always do this! You steamroll through everything I say, controlling my every single move! Give me some space! Just a sliver of freedom! I need time to think! I need to process my own feelings—you have no idea how suffocating it is to know the whole world views you as belonging to another female, while I’m just your passing obsession, your dirty little secret!"
"You will never have freedom from me, Jane. You are my mate," he snarled. Yanking me across the center console, he brought my face inches from his own until his hot, ragged breath brushed against my skin. "Do you hear me? Never. You belong to me. Only me—just as I belong to you."
His words—that raw, terrifyingly possessive declaration—sent a violent shiver through my entire body. I was paralyzed by a dark cocktail of emotions: terror at his boundless obsession, heartbreak over the impossible reality of our situation, and a faint, irrational spark of hope that I was too terrified to even admit to myself.
"I am not a toy. I’m not some piece of property," I gasped out. "I’m an actual person, Magnus! I can’t just belong to someone like an object!"
"You can," Magnus growled, pulling me flush against his broad chest, his arms wrapping around me so fiercely it squeezed the air right out of my lungs. "And you already do. To me. Only to me. Remember that once and for all, Jane—and stop running from me."
"Magnus, what are you doing? Stop it!" I gasped, shoving both hands against his hot, muscular chest.
He ignored my feeble resistance entirely. Clamping his hands around my hips, he lifted me effortlessly and set me onto the high wooden console in the entryway. Before I could process the sudden shift, his hands snatched the hem of my sweater, ripping it over my head in one harsh, impatient motion that left my hair a wild, disheveled mess.
The moment we had crossed the threshold of his penthouse, his icy rage had mutated into pure, unadulterated hunger.
"Fuck, I’ve been starving for you," he growled, his voice a low, gravelly rasp saturated with dark, primal need. The raw Alpha frequency in his tone set off a violent tremor along my spine, raising every tiny hair on my skin.
"Don’t you ever fucking run from me again. Don’t push me to the edge, you disobedient little puppy. I spent the entire day with you consuming my mind—thinking about having you beneath me. And then you vanished. I thought I’d lose my goddamn mind looking for you."
His mouth crashed into the curve of my neck—famished, ravenous, as if he meant to devour me whole. He dragged his lips across my burning skin, biting down hard enough to draw a soft gasp from my throat. I knew he was leaving dark, undeniable bruises—possessive marks for the entire world to see. He made no effort to hide them. He wanted every wolf in the city to know who I belonged to.
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