Filed to story: Mated and Hated by My Brother’s Best Friend Book PDF Free by Anna Campbell
“We shouldn’t be this far in,” Bastain said quietly, but he didn’t stop walking. “The ley lines are starting to twist. This isn’t Council magic anymore.”
“I don’t care,” I said. “If she walked through fire, I’ll do the same.”
He gave me a look. “Even if she’s not the same when we find her?”
I didn’t answer.
Because I didn’t know.
A rustle in the underbrush snapped my head around-and suddenly, I wasn’t in the forest anymore.
For half a second, the world shifted. My vision tunneled. The sky turned red. The trees vanished. In their place, flames danced across black stone, and above it all stood a figure cloaked in silver light, her back to me, her body surrounded by burning wolves. Her hair whipped in the wind like wildfire.
Jiselle.
Her power pulsed outward like a heartbeat, and it nearly knocked me to my knees.
Then it was gone.
Just like that.
I staggered, breath catching, head spinning. Bastain caught my arm.
“What did you see?” he asked urgently.
“I-I don’t know, I rasped. “It wasn’t real. But it was her.”
“A bond echo,” he said. “You’re still connected.”
“No, the bond is broken.”
He stared at me. “Maybe it didn’t break the way you think it did.”
My chest tightened.
“Whatever they’ve done to her,” he said carefully, “she’s changing. That wasn’t a vision. That was a tether. A scar. You felt her power. Not her fear. That’s important.”
I wanted to deny it. But I couldn’t. My wolf was howling in my head now, restless and primal. He didn’t want to run. He wanted to fight. But not against the rogues.
Against time.
We came upon the rebel camp by accident-or maybe fate.
The forest thinned near the edge of a ravine, where the river had carved deep scars into the earth. Bastain paused, frowning.
“There’s a shield here,” he said. “But it’s not rogue-made.”
I stepped forward, letting my wolf rise behind my eyes. And sure enough, the air shimmered faintly in a half-circle around the bend. Not a physical barrier. A magical one. Camouflage.
“Drop it,” I said.
Bastain didn’t argue. He muttered a low chant under his breath, fingers sketching runes in the air. The moment the spell cracked, a spear of fire flared up in front of us.
“Don’t move.”
A woman emerged from the trees, followed by two more. They weren’t Council. And they weren’t rogues.
They were something in between.
“I’m not here to fight,” I said calmly, raising my hands.
The woman studied me, her eyes sharp as flint. “Nathaniel Vareen.”
“You know me?”
“Hard not to.”
She lowered the fire. “You’ve come looking for the girl.”
“Her name is Jiselle.”
“And she’s not just a girl anymore.”
Something cold slid down my spine.
“We’ve been watching Kael’s movements for weeks,” the woman continued. “He’s consolidating power. Gathering gifted. Preparing for something.”
“War?” Bastain asked.
“Worse,” she said. “Ascension.”
I frowned. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Kael believes he’s the true successor to the Ethereal line. That he was forged, not born. And that Jiselle… is his match.”
My heart nearly stopped.
“He’s going to try to claim her,” she said. “Not as a hostage. Not as a prisoner. As a queen.”
Bastain swore under his breath.
The woman looked at me. “And from what we’ve seen-she might let him.”
“No,” I said automatically. “She wouldn’t.”
“She’s changing,” she said. “We’ve seen the fires. Felt the ley shifts. She’s waking up into something new. And that kind of transformation comes with a price. Loyalty bends. Memory fades. The more power she accesses, the more she’ll forget who she used to be.”
“No,” I said again, but the ground felt unstable beneath me.
“You’re not just racing to save her from death,” she said gently. “You’re racing to save her from becoming someone else.”
I turned away, every nerve on fire. My wolf paced behind my ribs, wild with panic.
“She’s not lost yet,” I said.
“Maybe not, the woman said. “But you better find her before she forgets what it means to be found.”
I nodded once, the scar in my chest pulsing again-not pain, but pressure.
A warning.
A countdown.
I would find her.
Even if I had to follow her into fire.
*Jiselle*
They led me into the caverns before sunrise, when the air was still thick with mist and the scent of burned pine clung to the stone like memory. Kael didn’t speak as we walked. Neither did the two cloaked figures who flanked me-rogue elders, I’d learned, though no one used titles here. Only roles. You either survived the flame, or you didn’t.
The tunnel narrowed, sloping downward in slow, deliberate curves. Runes glowed faintly along the walls, humming with magic I didn’t recognize. Not Council glyphs. These were older. Wilder. Etched by claw, not pen. Carved in blood, not ink. “Where are we going?” I asked, finally breaking the silence.
Kael looked over his shoulder. His expression was unreadable. “To meet yourself.”
I nearly laughed. “That sounds ominous.”
“It should.”
The tunnel opened into a wide chamber that pulsed with heat. No torches lit the space. Instead, fire burned from deep cracks in the stone floor, casting molten light across the walls. A pool sat in the center-dark, still, and perfectly round, as if carved by something divine. Around it were five stone pillars, each etched with symbols that shimmered faintly when I stepped into the room.
“The Trial of Flame,” Kael said. “Every gifted wolf who survives suppression must face it. Not all return.”
I stiffened. “And you brought me here without asking?”
He held my gaze. “You would’ve come eventually. The fire calls those who carry it.”
My cuffs began to thrum. A slow, rhythmic pulse.
“What happens in there?” I asked.
“You face the truth of who you are,” he said. “Or who you could become.”
“And if I fail?”
“You burn.”
The other two stepped back as Kael extended his hand. I didn’t take it. I stepped past him and knelt beside the pool, watching as the surface rippled beneath my breath. It reflected nothing. Not the firelight. Not my face. Only black.
And then I dove.
The water wasn’t cold. It wasn’t even wet. It wrapped around me like heat incarnate, pulling me down-not drowning, not suffocating-just consuming. Light vanished. Sound faded. And then I was somewhere else.
A burning field stretched out before me.
Ash fell like snow.
I stood in the center, barefoot, unchained, dressed in nothing but a thin shift of white. My hands glowed faintly, sparks dancing across my fingertips.
“Hello?” I called.
No one answered.
Until they did.
Three figures emerged from the smoke. Each one a mirror. Each one me.
The first dragged her feet, her body slumped, her arms bound in chains that rattled with every step. Her eyes were hollow, her voice a whisper. “You let them take everything. You begged. You broke.”
The second walked upright, but her hands were coated in blood. Her eyes gleamed red, and her smile was feral. “You killed them all. The Council. The rogues. Even your mate.”
The third wore a crown of silver and flame. Her posture was regal, serene-but cold. Detached. Her voice rang like a bell. ” You ruled. You rebuilt. But you lost yourself to become what they needed.”
My heart pounded.
“Choose,” they said in unison.
“I don’t understand,” I said. “Choose what?”
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“Who you become,” they replied. “Power doesn’t make the path. You do.”
The broken one stepped forward. “Choose safety.”
The monstrous one bared her teeth. “Choose vengeance.”
The crowned one lifted her chin. “Choose legacy.”
And in the center, I stood-unburned, uncertain, unwilling.
“No,” I said. “I choose none of you.”
“You have to choose,” they said, voices rising.
The fire closed in.
“No,” I said again. “I’ll make a new path. Mine.”
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?