Filed to story: Mated and Hated by My Brother’s Best Friend Book PDF Free by Anna Campbell
As if he knew, Nate had been particularly bold the next day, leaning down to me when I was walking with Max and telling me that I had a piece of lint on my shirt, then brought his hand incredibly close to my breasts to remove it, never once letting his eyes fall from Max.
When Max came to bed a few hours later with some very evident punch marks over his body, I knew he picked a fight with Nate, but I chose not to address it.
But overall, Nathaniel was not happy.
Even now, I could feel his gaze on me, sharp enough to cut. He was pissed.
Sometimes, I wasn’t sure if it was because I was with Max or because Max was making sure he knew it.
“You gonna eat?” Max asked, nudging my tray toward me and breaking me from rny thoughts.
I blinked back to reality, forcing a smile. “Yeah.”
But my appetite was shot.
The training grounds were tense, wolves stretching, cracking knuckles, mentally preparing.
Today was challenge day in Combat and Training class, and I wasn’t ready. Not really.
Nate pushed me twenty minutes longer last night, and I was sore everywhere. I tried to hide the guilt every day when I had to hide it from Max.
Nate said I was doing much better and would soon be able to get through my challenge on my own and actually win, but that didn’t help the dread of when I’d have to tell Max. I was already keeping our matebond from him. How would he take this too?
“Okay, silence!” Instructor Bastain shouted, getting every single attention in the field.” It’s time to get the challenges started.”
He started calling names and my hands grew sweaty. I didn’t know I was jittery until Max steadied my shoulders.
“Hey relax,” he mumbled in my hair, placing a soft kiss there. “Eva said you’re doing extremely better, though I still wish you’d let me train you too.”
And that, also, was another reason why I dreaded telling this specific secret to him. Though Nate started training me before me and Max became… whatever we were, how would he feel about it? Not even Eva knew.
“I know I just… I don’t want to get overly confident and then end up dying.”
Max actually snorted. “Like anyone would try that.”
“Why because you’d kill them if they killed me?” It was meant to be a joke, but he didn’t smile.
“Because I would kill them before they even had the thought.”
I waited for the laugh to come, but he didn’t, and I was suddenly worried for whoever would be my challenge me today.
“Morningstar and Johal!” Instructor Bastain shouted, and I flinched.
Ethan moved towards the empty ring, but Instructor Bastain held up a hand to stop him.
“Jiselle Johal,” he announced and my stomach plummeted.
“He can’t be serious,” Eva mumbled from my left, and I felt Max stiffen.
Did this instructor have something against me? Why was he always pairing me with Nate!
“That can’t happen,” Max said in a growl that made me raise a brow at him. Did he forget that this was a professor?
“Do you have a problem with the challenge, Laker?” Instructor Bastain closed his notebook of doom and gave Max his full attention.
I didn’t need to glance at Nate to know he was ready for blood.
I had done my best to ignore him outside of training, where we didn’t even talk much, but today, there was no ignoring him.
“She can’t fucking take him! He’s one of the strongest third-years-if not students-in the academy!”
Nate smirked, already in the ring. “Thanks.”
Max shot a glare at Nate that I wouldn’t even wish on my worst enemy, before redirecting it to Instructor Bastain
“He’ll kill her!”
The instructor didn’t even seem fazed. “He won’t.”
“He won’t,” Ethan repeated, though he looked a bit nervous, too. I’m sure he’s been on the receiving end of Nate’s pissy mood these past few days.
“Laker, if you have a problem with this challenge, then you have a problem with at least half the pairings I’ve already made,” Instructor Bastain pointed out, and I looked away just in time as a third-year killed a first-year a few rings away.
Nate won’t kill me. Nate won’t kill me.
It was the only thing that got me moving, though Max’s grip on my hand was deadly tight.
“He’s right,” I said to Max with a soft smile. “I’ll be okay.”
The fear in Max’s eyes told me one fact. He could and probably would kill anyone else in this school if he thought they would kill me in a challenge. But something told me he couldn’t kill Nate.
Instructor Bastian’s voice cut through the air. “Johal, Morningstar. In the ring.”
I turned my head slowly, and there he was-Nate.
Smirking.
*Jiselle*
I stepped into the ring, heart pounding, muscles tensed.
Nate stood across from me, rolling his shoulders and stretching like he wasn’t even the least bit concerned. Cocky bastard.
The moment Instructor Bastian gave the signal, he moved. Fast.
I barely dodged his first strike, shifting my weight to the left as his fist cut through the air. He was testing me.
I knew that. I knew him.
Just like he knew me.
Every move I made, he had seen before. He taught me them. But what he seemed to forget was that I had watched him too. I knew his movements just as well as he knew mine.
He went for a leg sweep, and I jumped, barely missing the hit. I spun, aiming a kick at his ribs, but he dodged effortlessly.
“Good,” he murmured. “You’ve been paying attention.”
I went for another strike, only for him to catch my wrist midair and yank me toward him.
The moment my body collided with his, I felt it-the warmth of him, the solidness of his chest, the sheer heat flaring between us. His grip tightened, holding me firm against him.
“I can feel you quivering, Jiselle,” he whispered, his lips close enough to graze my ear. I bet your little boyfriend doesn’t make you feel this.”
Rage exploded in my veins.
I threw my weight back, kicking hard against his shin, breaking free from his hold.
Asshole.
But he just smirked as if that’s what he wanted. I knew he was holding back. I could feel it.
Every move he made was precise, calculated-not trying to win, just trying to get a rise out of me.
I clenched my teeth and pushed forward with everything I had. I moved fast, striking with an accuracy I knew he’d taught me, and used every counter, every tactic he had drilled into me over the past few weeks.
For a moment, it worked. His footing shifted, and his balance momentarily wavered,
But with a sharp twist, he recovered, dodging at the last second as his fingers curled around my wrist. Before I could react, he used my own momentum against me, spinning me so fast that the world blurred. My breath hitched as panic flared for a split second before he took me down.
My back hit the ground with a breath-stealing thud, and I bit back a wince. He pinned my arms above my head, caged my thighs between his knees and brought his chest directly to mine.
The air between us crackled with heat, frustration and something darker churning beneath the surface. His grip flexed around my wrists, his chest rising and falling against mine, and his lips were barely inches from my own.
“Too easy,” he murmured, his voice thick, mocking, and his smirk dangerous.
I bucked against him, twisting my hips to break free, but he only pressed down harder, his body holding me still like he belonged there.
I gritted my teeth, struggling, but he had me pinned. His weight pressing me down was supposed to remind me he was stronger, faster and better. Always better.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Max stepping toward Instructor Bastian, tension radiating from him. He didn’t like this.
“You fought well,” Nate murmured, too close.
“The fight isn’t over,” I snapped. “I haven’t tapped out, the instructor hasn’t called a draw and we’re both alive.”
His lips twitched. Smug bastard.
“I know you like having me this close,” he murmured. “But you could have just said so.”
“You’re annoying,” I hissed. I struggled, but it was no use.
He completely avoided me. He was enjoying this.
“I know you miss me,” he said. “Every time you’re with him, you just think about how much better it was with me, don’t you?”
I growled.
-+would never compare them. Ever.
Max was good-hell more than good, and that’s all that matters. I wouldn’t give Nate the satisfaction of getting what he wanted-to know that he was ‘better.’
Instead, I laughed. “Do you not have better things to do than think about my sex life with another man?” I asked and I saw that I hit a nerve. Good. I could taunt too.
“I do,” he replied in a low growl. “But who’s to say I don’t just pity you? You must tire from… whatever he does.”
I growled again as I twisted my hips and used every ounce of strength I had to shift our positions. My muscles burned from the effort, but I refused to let him keep the upper hand,
With a sharp thrust of my weight, I finally flipped him, and in an instant, I was on top, my thighs straddling his waist as I pressed him down for once.
I barely had a second to feel victorious before I felt it.
A sharp gasp escaped me as heat shot up my spine, my body instantly aware of the unmistakable hardness pressing against me. My breath caught in my throat, and I knew Nate felt it too because his smirk deepened, slow and infuriating, as his hands settled on my hips like he belonged there.
He had the audacity to smirk.
“I can’t control what my body wants,” he said smoothly, voice dark and low.
I swallowed, forcing myself to keep my face impassive. “Yeah, but you can control what you want, right?”
He rolled effortlessly as if I weighed nothing, flipping us again, but this time bending my legs at an uncomfortable angle.
“You’re still bitter about that?” he taunted. “I thought you were happily in a relationship.”
I exhaled sharply, not answering immediately.
Instead, I stared up at him, searching his face, looking for something-anything-that made sense of this push and pull.
“What’s your problem, Nate?” I demanded. “You’ve told me more than once, in more than one way, that you don’t want me. Now, when someone actually does, you go around brooding like a-“
“Like a what?” he cut in, voice sharper than before. Like he dared me to finish it.
“Like a child,” I spat. “You push me away, act like I don’t matter, and now, suddenly, you care?”
He chuckled, the sound dark and humorless. “I never said I didn’t want you.”
I sucked in a breath. I hated him.
I hated that he said things like that, like he was playing a game only he knew the rules to.
