Filed to story: Mated and Hated by My Brother’s Best Friend Book PDF Free by Anna Campbell
I placed my hands over hers.
And the world tilted.
Heat surged through my arms, into my chest, into every crack the bond had once left behind. I felt her magic clash against mine, not in battle, but in panic. Wild, frayed, desperate. I anchored down, gritting my teeth, forcing stillness through our link.
Beneath us, the leyline responded.
A high, whistling hum split the silence.
The ground glowed.
And then-cracked.
A jagged rupture spread outward from beneath her spine, crawling across the stone like lightning. Power surged, pulled straight from the leyline into her, through her and back into me.
“Nate!” she gasped, trying to pull away.
But the bond wasn’t listening.
Theld firm. “I’ve got you.”
“No-you don’t understand. It’s taking-“
“I said I’ve got you.”
The wind howled.
The stone beneath us fractured again, heat bleedin leyline. Not just her flame.
Something ancient.
Something watching. through the fissures like veins of molten silver. And then something deeper stirred. Not just the
I heard it-not with ears, but in my head. A voice, like a hiss of steam on cold iron.
“She is not yours to hold.”
The words stopped my breath cold.
Jiselle froze too. Her eyes locked on mine.
“You heard it too,” she whispered.
The voice didn’t speak again. But its echo remained-sinking under my skin, settling in my spine like a curse etched into bone.
I pulled my hands away.
The magic snapped back into her like a whip, and she gasped, slamming her palms to the ground to steady herself. I stood, pacing backward, heart pounding.
“What the hell was that?” I asked.
She rose slowly, wiping the sweat from her temple, her body trembling. “It’s part of the gate. I think… I think it’s been watching us longer than we thought.”
“You think the gate itself is sentient?”
“No.” She paused, swallowing hard. “I think something inside it is.”
I didn’t like the way her voice dipped when she said that. Didn’t like the way the shadows beneath her eyes deepened, like her body was still here-but part of her had drifted somewhere further.
She looked up at me. “It’s warning you.”
“Of what?”
She hesitated. “Of me.”
I stepped forward. “Jiselle, no-“
“You felt it. The bond pulled you into something that wasn’t me. That Volce-It didn’t threaten. It warned.”
It was wrong said. “You are mine. Not because of power. Not because of fate. Because you are you,”
Her mouth trembled.
But she didn’t cry.
She nodded instead.
And then collapsed into my arms.
I caught her before she hit the ground fully, her weight curling against me like she was just… tired. Of fighting. Of fire. Of prophecy.
I lowered us both to the stone, her head resting on my shoulder as I rocked her gently, breathing her in. She still smelled like ash and summer rain. Like
Jiselle.
“I’m scared,” she whispered into my neck.
I brushed my hand down her spine. “I am too.”
We sat like that for a long time, saying nothing. The wind passed overhead. The leyline quieted beneath us. But the crack in the stone didn’t fade.
It pulsed faintly.
Like something alive was waiting just beneath it.
And I couldn’t shake the words:
She is not yours to hold.
Not because I didn’t believe they were wrong.
But because some part of me feared… they might be right.
It pulsed faintly.
Like something alive was waiting just beneath it.
And I couldn’t shake the words:
She is not yours to hold.
Not because I didn’t believe they were wrong.
But because some part of me feared… they might be right.
Jiselle stirred against me, her fingers twitching against my chest. I glanced down, half-expecting to see her flames rise again, but what came instead was softer-an almost imperceptible ripple of violet threading along her palm.
“I didn’t call it,” she whispered. “I swear, Nate. I didn’t summon anything. It just… knew.”
I nodded, though my throat was too tight to speak. I didn’t need her to explain. I’d felt it too-some primordial current older than either of us, crawling up from the leyline’s core like a memory laced with teeth.
“What does it want from you?” I asked, my voice barely above wind.
Her breath hitched. “I think… I think it doesn’t want anything.” She looked up at me, eyes glassy but clear. “I think it wants to become me.”
The silence that followed was heavier than any thunderclap.
I didn’t let go. If anything, I pulled her closer.
Because no matter what came clawing through the cracks-no matter what ancient hunger stirred beneath her skin-I’d hold her as long as I was able.
Even if one day, she couldn’t hold herself.
Jiselle*
The messenger came at dawn.
He didn’t wear armor or wield a blade. No threat in his posture, no challenge in his hands. Just robes the color of old parchment and a symbol pressed over his heart: the empty circle. It wasn’t inked. It had been burned in, branded so deep the skin around it gleamed with scar tissue and silence
He didn’t speak at first.
He simply stepped into the clearing like he belonged there-like the valley had already been given to him in some forgotten bargain. Max moved to intercept him, a snarl coiled behind his eyes, but Bastain raised a hand. One gesture. One word.
“Wait.”
We waited.
The messenger looked at me and dropped to one knee, pressing his fist to the earth. “The Gatekeeper requests audience with the Etherest Alone
His voice was dry. Dust and gravel. It didn’t echo, and yet it seemed to ring louder than it should’ve. Beneath it, I felt the leyline stir-not in resistance, in recognition.
Nate stiffened beside me. “Absolutely not.”
“It’s a trap,” Eva said immediately. “Who sends a single man into an armed camp unless they know something we don’t?”
“They all know something we don’t,” Bastain muttered, stepping closer, eyeing the man with a scholar’s restraint. “You said alone. What kind of terms are these?”
The messenger looked up at me. Only me.
“Veil-fire,” he said. “The Gatekeeper will meet her at the threshold of the valley. Beneath flame and stone. No weapons. No allies. No lies.”
“And if I refuse?” I asked.
His expression didn’t change. “Then he burns the land.”
Ethan cursed softly behind me. Max took another step forward, but I raised a hand. Not to stop them. To steady myself. Because my power had started to hum again.
Not burst. Not lash.
Just hum.
Like it recognized something in this moment.
“Tell him,” I said slowly, “I accept.”
Nate turned toward me, jaw clenched. “Jiselle-“
“But I go on my terms,” I continued, my voice steady despite the heat climbing my spine. “You’ll tell him the Ethereal will meet him under weil fire, but the place and time are hers to choose. No exceptions.”
The messenger tilted his head. “He will not accept conditions.”
“He already has,” I said. “By sending you.”
UY.UY
???
He paused. Then gave a single nod and stood. No parting word. No threat. He simply turned and walked Back toward the wunds like he had pa delivered a line of fire to our doorstep.
When he vanished past the treeline, I turned to Bastain.
“Where’s the closest veil-fire point?”
He frowned. “There’s a gorge two miles east. The leyline cuts directly through it. If you fight your flame there, it’ll reach the rest of the valley in under a minute.”
“Then that’s where I’ll meet him.”
“You shouldn’t go alone,” Nate said, voice low, intense. “Not even for show.”
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?