Filed to story: Mated and Hated by My Brother’s Best Friend Book PDF Free by Anna Campbell
“There was another?” I whispered.
Successfully unlocked!
He nodded once. “Centuries ago. Before this academy was what it is now. Her name was Spring — stories said, she was-brilliant. Gentle inet like
Did he just say… Centuries? How many to be exact? Did this have to do with what he called a waste of a millennium?
“What happened to her?” I asked when I got the courage.
Bastain didn’t answer at first. His jaw clenched. His gaze fell to the book like it might open old wounds just from being seen.
“From what the texts and readings say, she didn’t make it,” he said finally. “They found out too early. And there wasn’t enough protection in place. She… she died before her gift fully awakened. Of course, I don’t know her, but she was a direct ancestor of my family, so I know a bit about her…” He met my eyes. “About you.”
My throat closed. “So this really is a death sentence.”
“It doesn’t have to be,” he said quickly. “That’s why I brought you here. This journal-what’s left of it-it’s written in code. A kind of mental cipher only an Ethereal can access. My family have tried for decades. I’ve tried, Carrow too. No luck. But we believe that once your powers evolve a bit more… you’ll be able to read it.”
I stared at the journal. My name still echoed in the back of my mind from the book I’d found days ago. The scrawl in the margin. Was it a prophecy?
“Why me?” I asked again, this time softer. More broken.
Bastain sighed. “The moon doesn’t choose lightly, Jiselle. And it rarely chooses the willing. But she does choose.”
I reached for the journal. My fingers hovered over the worn leather cover. It was cold. Heavier than it looked. Like it was holding memories no one should carry alone.
“She didn’t survive,” I said.
“No,” he admitted. “She didn’t.”
I looked up at him.
“Then what makes you think I will?”
Bastain’s expression softened for the first time since I’d met him. Not the false softness of an instructor trying to comfort a student. But real. Raw. Almost paternal.
“Because you have something she didn’t,” he said quietly. “You have people willing to burn the world down to keep you breathing. You have a mate who would die before letting them take you. You have me. And Carrow. And whatever else still give a damn.”
He moved closer then, crouching slightly so he was eye-level with me.
“But most of all… because you have her journal. Her truth. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned from watching this academy chew up students and spit them out-it’s that truth is power.”
I nodded slowly.
Bastain stood. “You need to hide it. Somewhere safe. Somewhere even I don’t know.”
“I’ll keep it safe,” I said before I could think.
Bastain didn’t react. Just nodded once, like he’d expected that.
“I’m going to do everything I can to buy you time,” he said. “But if something changes-if the council votes early or you feel anything… strange-you tell me. Immediately. Do you understand?”
“I do.”
He reached out, gently squeezing my shoulder. “You need to survive, Jiselle.”
I nodded again.
He hesitated… then said something that chilled me deeper than any prophecy ever could.
“Not just for yourself,” he murmured. “But because she didn’t.”
*Nathaniel*
Pain was easy.
It didn’t ask questions. It didn’t demand explanations. It didn’t stare back at me with wide eyes full of fear and faith and ask, Can you really protect me?
Pain just came.
And right now, I welcomed it.
My fist connected with the padded target again, and again, and again, the sharp crack echoing through the training dome like a metronome set to rage. The instructor standing across from me was seasoned-old scars down his jaw, knuckles that had long stopped bleeding-but even he looked winded. I didn’t stop.
“Again, I barked.
“You need to slow down,” he grunted. “You’re running too hot.”
“I said again.”
This time, he complied.
I wasn’t fighting for discipline. I wasn’t even fighting to improve. I was fighting to feel something that didn’t include the image of Jiselle whispering those three words-Then let them come-and knowing exactly what they’d unleash.
Every council meeting. Every whisper in the halls. Every time Bastain went too quiet, or Carrow shifted just slightly before answering my questions. They all knew something. Something they weren’t telling us. And no matter how closely I held her, I couldn’t shield her from it.
Not yet.
I struck harder. My bones rattled. My muscles screamed. Good.
That was when I remembered it.
The first time I ever felt it-that odd, magnetic pull in my chest at eleven, when Jiselle had laughed at something I said while leaning over a combat mat. I remembered thinking, this is dangerous. Because even then, I’d known. Ethan’s twin sister. The girl I wasn’t supposed to touch. And yet, that laugh? That spark? It had undone me.
And I’d made the promise.
One that nearly cost her everything.
By the time I left the dome, the sky was bleeding with dusk. I didn’t want to go back inside. Not yet.
So I found Bastain instead.
He stood alone on the observation deck, arms folded, his eyes on the horizon like he could see the future and hated what it held.
“What happens if she manifests too much?” I asked.
He didn’t look at me. “We pray she doesn’t.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one I have right now.”
I clenched my fists. “If you’re asking me to keep her contained-“
“I’m asking you to keep her alive.”
His words were quiet. But they hit harder than any punch I’d taken all day.
“Nathaniel, you’re a veilborn wolf-one of two in your generation. You’re extremely dangerous and feared. There’s only one veilborn on the council and she’s… unique. My point is, use it. You’re not feared for nothing.”
Then, he turned, and left.
When I returned to the dorms, Jiselle was in my bed, curled on her side in one of my shirts-legs tangled in sheets, her hair a wild halo of soft brown chaos. I watched her for a long moment. Just breathing. Just being. Something tightened in my chest.
I couldn’t believe after all my crap, after all the 1.
Successfully unlocked! was now… mine.
I knew I still need to gain her trust, and I knew she still had her reservations. Worst of all, I knew she still loved Laker. But for now, I would take the tiny part of her that I have with gladness and gratitude. Moon goddess knows I didn’t deserve it She stirred and blinked up at me.
“You look like hell,” she mumbled with the cutest yawn that made me want to devour her right this minute.
I snorted. “You should see the other guy.”
Her lips twitched. “There was another guy?”
“Barely.” I sat at the edge of the bed. “He tapped out after five minutes.”
“Poor man.”
I brushed her hair from her forehead. “I need you to get up.”
She groaned. “You can’t just wake me up with vague threats and cryptic declarations. I require coffee and at least a light threat of pastries.”
I smiled. “You’ll like where we’re going.”
She stretched, then sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes. “If this turns into a rooftop murder or some intense survival training, I will end you.”
“You wound me.”
“I’d rather wound Max.”
That sobered me a bit.
I kissed the crown of her head. “You ready?”
She shrugged on a jacket, then followed me down through the west stairwell, out into the woods. The air was crisp, scented with pine and the distant promise of frost. The clearing waited just ahead-wide open under the stars, the grass silver with dew. Where we had had multiple training sessions before.
She looked around. “Okay. So you brought me into the woods. Alone. At night. To train.”
“I brought you under the stars,” I corrected. “Very romantic.”
“You are the worst mate,” she muttered, and I caught the teasing glint in her eyes.
“You’re admitting that we’re mates?” I asked, pretending to be shocked. “I thought we were still in our enemies-to-lovers era.” She shoved me lightly, laughing. “We are very much in the ‘don’t make me cry before Solstice’ phase.”
That sobered me. Again.
I had a lot of triggers, it seemed, when it came to my mate.
I drew a breath, then gestured toward the center of the clearing. “Let me see what you can do.”
“I don’t know what I can do,” she muttered.
“Doesn’t matter. Try anyway.”
She exhaled, closed her eyes, and centered herself.
And we began fighting.
She was a bit sloppy on footwork due to days of not training, but she was as great as I trained her to be.
I was so freaking proud.
We circled each other slowly, falling into rhythm. I threw a feint-she dodged. She lunged-fast, clean, practiced. I grabbed her wrist, twisted, and she flipped out of it like second nature.
When we crashed into each other, it wasn’t with violence. It was with connection. Like two pieces slotting back together. We rolled, landed in the grass, breathless.
“Do you still want to stab me?” I asked.
“Ask again after Solstice.”
She smiled, but I saw the flicker of fear behind it.
“That’s why you’re doing this, aren’t you?” she asked softly. “You want to ensure I can defend myself.”
She knew the answer before I even answered. Yet, I nodded with a sigh.
“Jiselle, all I can think about is that people are going to come after you… You, Jiselle. I can’t stand the thought of you being helpless.” She smiled then, and heavens help me, that smile undid me.
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?