Page 70 of Bitten, Marked, Obsessed

“I don’t.”

Fair.

“But I’m out of options.”

I glance at Kendall.

Her hand brushes mine, just barely.

Not enough to spark the bond. Just enough to ground me.

“Then we start tomorrow,” I say.

But my brain’s already screaming behind my eyes.

If Adora is Mathis’s daughter… If she’s shifter bybloodbut something else entirely from her mother, which is what my senses are telling me, then this whole thing just got way more complicated than anyone knows.

Even for Kendall, because that means she’s not just Bolvi, which is combustible enough.

And I’m the only one who’s figured it out.

For now.

29

KENDALL

Something’s off. And no one’s saying it out loud.

Not Callum. Not Adora. Definitely not me.

But Ifeelit. In the tight-lipped looks. In the awkward pause before Callum offered to train her. In the way Adora wouldn’t meet my eyes after she said yes.

It’s late now, the day bleeding into dusk, and I’m pacing my room with too many thoughts crawling under my skin. I keep replaying it all—how stiff Callum went when Adora walked into the clearing, how she acted like she didn’t care, like she didn’t feel the pull I saw ripple across her face for one split second before she smoothed it out.

I’m not stupid. I saw something.

But when I tried to bring it up, Adora shut it down fast.

“We had a couple classes together. He was older. No big deal.”

“You sure?” I asked.

“Don’t make it weird, Kendall.”

And maybe that should’ve been the end of it.

But then she said,“I’ll keep you updated on how training goes. I think it’s better if you’re not there.”

And that? That stuck.

Why the hell would she want to train alone with Callum? Withmyperson?

Not that he’s mine, not officially, but still—the bond is there.Real and undeniable.

Still, I nodded. Because what else could I do? She’s my sister. And she’s barely hanging on. But there’s a knot in my gut now. And it’s tightening by the second.

I grab my jacket off the chair and head for the back alley, where I know Dad waits when he doesn’t want to be seen. His version of subtle is dramatic as hell—always somewhere shadowed, always leaning like he’s in a noir film and not just a shitty alley behind a diner.

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