Filed to story: Mated and Hated by My Brother’s Best Friend Book PDF Free by Anna Campbell
Eva’s voice was quiet, but certain. “We don’t have time to argue.”
I took one more breath.
Then I pressed my palm against the ground beside her and let the tether open.
The bond lit up instantly.
Not gently.
It roared.
Not with pain, not exactly-but with intensity. As if her magic recognized me and reached, desperate, not for power, but for familiarity. I let it pull me under, through the link scarred between us, down through fire and memory and light.
Everything went white.
Then-
Darkness.
And then…
The throne.
It sat in the center of what looked like her mind-a space forged from ash and memory, built from ruined thoughts and flickering memories trying to hold shape. I stood on stone. Cracked. Floating above a sea of black nothing. Pieces of images moved like glass through the void. Jiselle as a child, laughing. Her in the training yard. Her with Ethan, shoulder to shoulder. Her first kiss. Her first shift. Her first kill.
All of it drifted like shards.
And in the center, a throne rose from scorched marble.
On it sat Eira.
She was Jiselle’s mirror in every way-but aged by ruin, shaped by power, draped in shadows that moved when she didn’t. Her eyes glowed white, her hair a crown of pale fire. She didn’t speak as I approached. Just watched me like a priestess watching someone step onto sacred ground uninvited.
“This is hers,” I said.
Eira tilted her head. “Not anymore.”
I stopped two feet from her, fists clenched. “Let her go.”
“She’s still here,” Eira said. “Sleeping. Safe. I’ve protected her.”
“You’ve buried her.”
“I’ve given her silence.”
“She doesn’t want silence. She wants her life back.”
Eira’s lips curled faintly. “And look what she’s done with it. Murdered scouts. Burned her brother. Run from everyone who ever tried to love her.”
“She didn’t mean to-“
“But she did.” Her voice cracked like a whip. “Don’t you see? The more she resists, the more dangerous she becomes. She wasn’t built to carry this power.”
I swallowed, throat dry. “Then neither were you.”
She laughed. It was soft. Not cruel. Almost… pitying.
“I was built for it,” she said. “Forged in prophecy. Crowned by necessity. I gave up everything so she wouldn’t have to.”
I shook my head. “You don’t care about her. You care about legacy.”
“I care about what survives.”
Eira stood then, descending the steps slowly. She was beautiful and terrifying-light coiled around shadow, mercy sharpened to a point.
“I’m offering you a gift,” she said.
“What gift?”
“Freedom. For both of you.”
I didn’t move.
She stopped in front of me. Close. Too close.
“If you let go,” she said, “if you break the bond-right here, right now-I will leave her intact, I’ll disappear into the gate. Her mind will heal. Her soul will stitch closed. You’ll lose the bond, yes. But she’ll survive it.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then I stay. Until she begs for silence. Until she forgets she was ever more than the flame.”
My chest ached. My heart pounded.
It sounded like a good deal.
Too good.
“You’re lying.”
“I’m offering,” she said. “But the longer you wait, the more I settle in. And once that happens, even I won’t be able to leave.”
She lifted her hand.
“Choose,” she said. “Let her go, and I’ll let her be.”
I looked into her eyes.
And for a moment, I did see Jiselle.
But not the one I knew.
A hollowed version. A voice that no longer sang. Eyes that no longer danced.
It was enough.
“No,” I said.
Eira’s face didn’t change.
But her hand moved.
And in the space between one heartbeat and the next-
She grabbed me.
And everything shattered.
??/p>
Subscribe
*Jiselle*
I knew this wasn’t real the moment I opened my eyes.
The air didn’t breathe right. It felt too smooth, too still. The scent was faint-lavender and parchment, like old books and pressed bedsheets. The lighting glowed gold, but no sun filtered through the window. There were no windows.
Just walls painted soft cream, an arched mirror beside the dresser, and a bed I hadn’t seen since I was sixteen.
My bedroom.
The one I’d left behind when the Trials came. Before the Academy. Before the Council. Before Kael. Before everything burned.
It was perfect.
Untouched.
Frozen in time.
I sat up slowly. The bed didn’t creak. My fingers sank into the comforter-quilted, sun- stitched, handmade by a mother I barely remembered and a future I no longer believed in. The shelves still held trinkets from childhood. A cracked snow globe. A ribbon from my first run in wolf form. A photo of me and Ethan, arms around each other, wild- eyed and grinning like we had time to waste.
I stood.
The mirror caught my reflection.
But it wasn’t me.
Not fully.
The girl who stared back at me was younger. Her hair shorter, her eyes wider, clearer. No circles under them. No burn scars across her collarbone. Her hands didn’t shake. Her posture wasn’t braced for betrayal.
She looked whole.
And she was crying.
“Why are you here?” she asked me, voice soft and trembling.
I backed away. “This isn’t real.”
“Neither are you,” said another voice, sharper. I turned-and saw her.
Another me.
Successfully unlocked!
Older.
Academy-era. Dressed in my old uniform, hair scraped back, eyes cool and guarded.
“You’re a construct,” she said. “A patchwork thing. You think you’re Jiselle, but you’re just what’s left.”
More footsteps echoed.
I spun around, heart racing now.
Three more girls stepped out from the corners of the room, each one shaped like a version of myself I’d locked away.
The quiet one who stayed silent when Max touched her.
The ruthless one who fought to survive the Trials and won.
The burning one-eyes glowing, fingers singed-who whispered back to Kael when he asked, “Will you rule?”
They surrounded me.
“You’re broken,” one said.
“You’re lying to everyone,” said another.
“You keep running,” hissed the third. “Even from yourself.”
I backed into the dresser. My reflection fractured in its surface-each girl a shard, slicing through me.
“Stop.”
They didn’t.
“You let the flame in.”
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?