Chapter 319: Stay Away From My Mate
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Chapter 319
~Dristan’s POV~
For a long moment, I didn’t move. The air in my room felt like the walls were closing in on us.
My mind ran through every possible answer, every possible place she could be, and came up blank.
"I... don’t know," I admitted finally. The admission didn’t sit well. I was supposed to know where she was. We all were.
Kai’s jaw flexed, his eyes narrowing like he was fighting the urge to punch the nearest wall.
Axel exchanged a look with Xade, both of them silently gauging my reaction.
"We can’t just stand here," Kai snapped suddenly. "If she’s not answering, if she’s not here..."
"We check her dorm," Axel finished, already turning toward the door.
I hesitated for a beat, a strange mix of dread and urgency crawling over me, before I followed them out.
The four of us moved fast, heading for the female dorm.
When we reached the girls’ dorm room, I could already feel my wolf pacing restlessly beneath my skin. Kai was the first to knock, with sharp, hard raps against the door.
No answer.
"Valerie!" His voice carried down the hallway, but there was nothing on the other side but silence.
Xade stepped up next, trying the handle, but it was locked.
Emerald’s faint scent lingered in the air, mixed with Valerie’s and Isla’s, but it was stale like hours old.
Kai glanced at me. "We break it?"
I shook my head slowly, scanning the hallway. "Not yet. Let’s go back first. If she left with her roommates, maybe we’re overreacting. Maybe she just needs space."
"But..."
I held my palm to stop Kai from speaking, and then it occurred to me. "Wait, did anything happen between the two of you last night?"
Xade and Axel arched their brows, waiting for his reply, but Kai did not answer.
"Kai, aside from you being intimate with her earlier in the day, did you two have..."
"No."
"Are you absolutely sure?"
He bit back the urge to speak, raked his hand through his hair as his feet began pacing outside her room.
"Kai."
"Yes. Fine, we... we argued."
"About?"
"She wanted me. She wanted us to continue from where we left off in the afternoon before I left."
"Which was?" Xade asked slowly, as though the truth would break his heart even more.
"To have sex."
The silence that engulfed all of us was deafening. I knew what the others felt, but none of us could say anything.
"And?" Axel broke the silence. He gazed at Kai from the corner of his eyes, like someone who was not believing the words he was hearing.
"I refused. I refused her and she felt down."
Somehow, that shouldn’t have been the response he needed but none of us could help the sigh of relief that escaped our lips.
"I was going to apologise to her when Dristan saw me yesterday evening and this morning. Ever since then, I haven’t seen her."
"Then isn’t it evident she just wants space and cannot handle being in the same space as all of you?"
We all turned to the voice. Xander stood not too far from us, with his hands tucked in his pocket.
"What?" Kai voiced.
"I’m sure she’s embarrassed to face you guys and coupled with the fact that..."
"What are you doing here? Are you stalking us now?" Xade cut in angrily, preventing him from continuing.
Xander sighed. "No. I overheard you guys when I came to say hi. But looks like you’ve got it covered. It’s just a shame she isn’t spending the same time and effort she put into you guys, with the Lycans."
With that, Xander turned around and left.
There was truth in his words. But immediately he said that, the idea dawned on all of us.
"What if she’s with them?"
I noticed the veins popping out on Kai’s arms. I did not know what he was thinking, but it would be foolish to act rashly.
"Come on, let’s go." I placed a hand on Kai’s shoulder and darted my gaze to the others. "We lost this one."
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~Valerie’s POV~
We had a nice time yesterday, which I completely forgot to mention to the guys, but by the time we came back, Solstice wasn’t as happy as she had left.
I recalled when she stepped out to use the restroom. I wanted to follow her, but I knew she could take care of herself against any guy.
Besides, it was her birthday. I wasn’t babysitting her or anything.
I tried asking her what the matter was, and she only shrugged it off with a smile.
All night she hugged and cuddled me on my bed like I was leaving or she could not believe she was here with me.
By morning, I told her about her dye and Astraea, the clue she left me. She smiled and hugged me hard.
We took our bath together, dressed up and headed to the cafeteria with Emerald and Isla.
As soon as we walked into the cafeteria and heads turned, the whispering began.
No one had expected to see her—the girl they spoke nonsense about—let alone see her standing here in their school, and what’s more, she did it using her real name.
Stares followed us like a shadow, the hiss of gossip curling through the air as we moved toward the food line to take our food.
And just as we turned to head to our seats, a figure walked into our line of sight and immediately, Solstice froze completely.
But then... he appeared.
Riven.
The moment Solstice’s eyes landed on him, her entire body went rigid. She didn’t speak, didn’t even blink.
Her fingers curled so tightly around her tray that her knuckles bleached white, and without a word, she stepped aside, as if putting space between them could erase the pull.
She turned to skirt past, head down, moving quickly, but before Riven could even react, a leg shot out from the side.
Her foot caught before she could avoid it.
The tray tilted violently, causing food to splatter across the floor in a messy crash.
She didn’t fall. Solstice’s reflexes were too sharp for that, but she’d barely regained her footing when a hand shot out, clamping around her wrist.
The brown haired idiot yanked her back toward him with a smirk, clearly proud of himself.
That was his last mistake.
Anger surged towards me as I dropped my tray on the table beside me, ready to grab his head.
Before anyone could react, though, the air shifted, detonated, as a deadly force ripped through the cafeteria.
In a blur of motion, Riven was no longer standing where he’d been.
In the next heartbeat, he was on the guy.
He lifted him clean off the ground as if he weighed nothing and drove his fist into the boy’s face with bone-shattering force.
The impact sent him flying across the room until he slammed against the nearest wall with a sickening thud.
Gasps and screams erupted from every corner, trays clattering to tables as students scrambled back.
Riven’s chest heaved once, twice, his eyes burning a deep, dangerous red as his voice cracked through the silence.
"Stay away from my mate."