Page 25 of Bitten, Marked, Obsessed

“She didn’t look feral.”

“No.”

“Shelookedlike she knew exactly what she was doing.”

“She’s being trained,” I say, mind racing.

He shoots me a look. “You think the father’s prepping her for something?”

“Has to be.”

Elias whistles low. “Damn. She was beautiful, though.”

I give him a sharp glance.

“Objectively,” he adds quickly, smirking.

I try to hide the twist in my gut, but I know he sees it. He always does.

“You okay?” he asks.

“No.”

I stare at the shadows where she disappeared.

“I think she’s mine.”

The words fall out of me like a confession I didn’t know I was holding back.

Elias stares at me, his expression shifting—less teasing now. More careful.

He doesn’t speak. Just waits.

“But…” I swallow hard, the weight of it catching in my throat. “How can that be… if she’s one ofthem?”

It doesn’t make sense. The bond—the pull—I know what it means. I’vefeltthe legends come to life under my skin. There’s no mistaking it.

But she’s a werewolf.

A fuckingwerewolf.

The kind we’re warned about. The kind who burn hot, fast, and out of control. The kind Mathis says are little more than walking disasters waiting to happen. The kind who gave us all a bad name when the Veil dropped and the world finally saw what monsters could really do.

She didn’t look like a monster.

She looked raw and alive. Terrified andfocused, all at once.

She looked likemine.

Elias shifts beside me, rubbing the back of his neck. “Fated bonds don’t lie, man.”

“Yeah, well… maybe this one’s broken.”

He gives me a long look. “You don’t believe that.”

I press my hand to my chest, where my heartbeat hasn’t settled since I saw her. “No,” I admit quietly. “I don’t.”

“But you wish you did,” he says, not unkindly.

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