Filed to story: Mated and Hated by My Brother’s Best Friend Book PDF Free by Anna Campbell
Nate’s eyes burned with something dark. “If we’re alive after Solstice, I’ll find you.”
No one questioned that. They just accepted it.
Jiselle thanked Aneira softly. There was no hug, no tears, just a look that passed between them-shared grief, shared understanding.
When the others left, Nate locked the door and slid the bolt into place. Then, slowly, he turned back to me.
He said nothing for a long moment. Neither did I.
The silence didn’t feel heavy anymore. It felt sharp. Waiting.
Finally, he gestured toward the desk. “Let’s talk.”
I sat down across from him, the soft glow of the lantern casting flickering shadows across the map laid out in front of us. It was the academy’s master layout-one Nate m underground. My heart thudded once, hard.
“What really happens at Solstice?” I asked quietly. e archives. Every wing. Every level. Even the
Successfully unlocked!
His expression tightened. “Some of it I can’t say. The oath…”
I saw it. The way his breath hitched. The way his hand came up to grip his chest like something invisible had just stabbed through it.
“It’s okay,” I said softly. “Tell me what you can.”
He nodded, inhaled slowly. “Every first-year goes into the mountain. It’s a sacred place. An ancient place. They say the moon blesses it once a year-when the veil is thin.”
I leaned in, listening.
“There are circles,” he continued. “Layers. The first is a test of control. You manifest what’s inside you. Even if it’s dormant. The second-if you survive-is about loyalty. That’s where the blood oath comes in.”
My pulse throbbed. “They force it?”
“No.” He looked at me. “They manipulate it. Convince you it’s tradition. That it’s for your safety. For the Pack. But once it’s done, it binds you to the Council. To the school. Forever.”
I stared at the map. “And no one ever says no?”
“If they do… they don’t make it past the third circle.”
“What’s in the third?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I never got that far. My trial was different.”
Of course it was. He was veilborn. So was Max.
I looked at him, heart hammering. “Nate… I’m not taking that oath.”
His eyes flicked up. “Jiselle..”
“I’m not.”
He sighed. “How will you stop it?”
I smiled then. Just barely. Just enough.
“We’re going to make a plan.”
He raised an eyebrow. “We?”
I nodded. “We’re going to need Eva and Ethan.”
His face tensed, and I could see the hesitation instantly.
Of course. It was about Max. Still about Max.
“She can be trusted,” I said firmly. “She hates this place, Nate. And whatever the council’s doing, it’ll cost her too.”
He leaned back slightly, fingers tapping the desk. “Ethan I trust. Eva… not yet.”.
“She doesn’t trust you either,” I snapped. “But that doesn’t mean she’s the enemy.” wanted to kiss him.
He smirked, and I wanted to smack him. But I also the
“She’ll help,” I said again. “She’s one of the only people who would burn this place down for the right reason.”
He nodded finally. “Alright. Then we talk to them. Carefully.”
I exhaled, some of the tension slipping from my spine.
He leaned forward, tapping a spot on the map. “The inner sanctum-the binding circle-is here. Deep underground. Reinforced by lunar stone and shielded by council blood.”
My eyes narrowed. “So we disrupt it.”
He nodded. “We’ll need a distraction. Something big enough to fracture their control. Something they won’t see coming.”
“A rupture,” I whispered, the word slipping from my lips like prophecy. could feel it-energy curling under my skin, the silver power humming like a secret.
He looked at me, eyes dark and steady. “We fake one.”
I met his gaze.
“Or we cause one.”
He smirked, and I wanted to smack him. But I also the
“She’ll help,” I said again. “She’s one of the only people who would burn this place down for the right reason.”
He nodded finally. “Alright. Then we talk to them. Carefully.”
I exhaled, some of the tension slipping from my spine.
He leaned forward, tapping a spot on the map. “The inner sanctum-the binding circle-is here. Deep underground. Reinforced by lunar stone and shielded by council blood.”
My eyes narrowed. “So we disrupt it.”
He nodded. “We’ll need a distraction. Something big enough to fracture their control. Something they won’t see coming.”
“A rupture,” I whispered, the word slipping from my lips like prophecy. could feel it-energy curling under my skin, the silver power humming like a secret.
He looked at me, eyes dark and steady. “We fake one.”
I met his gaze.
“Or we cause one.”
The lantern flickered between us.
And somewhere beyond the stone walls of this cursed academy, I swore I could hear the ground beginning to shift.
*Jiselle*
Nate couldn’t explain the truth to them.
Blood oath.
But nothing said I couldn’t.
That’s how it started-our last full day before Solstice. Sitting in the back corner of the library with Eva and Ethan, surrounded by ancient books that no longer mattered, the smell of dust and moon-sealed ink curling in the air. My palms were damp. My throat felt like ash. But I told them everything.
Not just about the council.
Not just about the mark on my chest and what it meant.
But about Solstice. What it really meant. What happened in that chamber beneath the mountain. What the rituals were designed to do. And the fact that none of us were ever meant to survive it as ourselves.
Eva didn’t say anything at first. She just stared at me, her brown eyes wide and wet with something like grief-but deeper. More raw. She reached across the table and took my hand, her fingers trembling.
Ethan swore under his breath. “This place is sicker than I thought.”
“You think this is why Max started acting the way he did?” Eva whispered.
I didn’t answer. I didn’t have to. We all knew the answer. Max saw it-maybe not clearly, maybe not fully-but he saw enough. He knew what I was first, before anyone else. And it had eaten him from the inside.
They sat in silence as I told them the rest. The plan. The barest fragments of what Nate and I intended to do-not how, not where, but why.
When I finished, the quiet between us was solid and sharp.
Eva looked up, her voice dry. “Well, shit.”
Ethan exhaled hard through his nose, leaned back in his chair, and nodded once. “Then let’s tear it all down.”
And just like that, they were with me. Completely. No hesitation.
That night, I barely slept. I lay on Nate’s chest, counting each rise and fall like it might stop without warning. I’d gotten used to the way his arms curled around me in the quiet hours, used to the rhythm of his fingers brushing up and down my spine when he thought I was asleep.
We didn’t speak
We didn’t need to.
Because the next day-today-was Solstice.
They dressed us in silence.
No words. Just motion. Just hands adjusting lapels and pinning silversilk cloaks across our shoulders. My dress uniform fit too tightly at the neck. My boots were polished but scuffed at the toes from too many battles that no one saw.
The academy had never looked so pristine.
The stone courtyards were lined with banners etched in lunar script. Torches floated in perfect circles around the perimeter, enchanted to burn in silver and violet hues. Music drifted through the halls-low and ceremonial, the kind of tune that made your chest ache even if you didn’t know why.
And the people…
Everyone was here.
Students. Instructors. Council envoys. Even some of the final years who rarely emerged from the upper wings. It was lik royal court, watching as we-the first years-lined up in silence.
We were to be escorted, one by one, into the Solstice Chamber beneath the school.
A rite of passage.
A ritual of power.
A blood-soaked lie.
An instructor stood in the middle of the courtyard, ensuring we all had our daggers that were issued to us weeks ago-the daggers that I now realized were to be connected to our life force.
I figured it was also the dagger that would be used to perform the blood oath. This school was sick.
I stood beside Eva and Ethan, the crowd murmuring around us like distant waves. The air was too still. Like it was holding its breath.
I looked around.h
Most of the list had made it.
Some faces were missing-names I remembered circled in red. Two more had died since the day Nate told them about it. Quiet deaths. Quiet cover-ups.
But Nate and I were still here. We made it.
For now.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?