Rejected, Then He Begged. I Chose His Brother

"Delete the post, Trent, or I will snap your phone in half!"

Maya’s voice pierced the thin walls of my dorm room.

I pulled the blanket off my face. My chest throbbed. A dull ache had replaced the fiery agony of last night’s rejection.

*You're not dying. You're just mutating.*

Elias's rough voice echoed in my skull. I did not feel mutated. I felt hollow.

Maya stomped into my room. Her fingers gripped her phone so tightly her knuckles turned white.

"Do not open the campus forum," she ordered. She tossed her device onto my mattress.

"How bad is it?" I asked. I sat up, wincing as a sharp twinge hit my ribs.

"They are calling you the Academy’s biggest joke," she admitted. Her shoulders dropped. "There are memes, Bri. Videos of you crying on the cobblestones. People are saying you faked the mate bond just to get close to Kai."

"I gave him my family's Amulet," I whispered. I rubbed my sternum.

"I know. And I am going to make him pay for it." Maya grabbed my arm. "But right now, you need to get dressed. They kicked you out of the study group chat this morning. If you hide in this room, they win."

"I refuse to give them the satisfaction," I said.

The chatter died instantly when we walked into Alpha History.

Every head turned. A girl in the front row scoffed. She slid her chair away from the aisle as if my presence might infect her.

"Look who decided to show her face," a guy sneered from the back row.

"Thought she would be in the gutter where she belongs," another chimed in.

Maya slammed her textbook onto the nearest desk. "Say one more word, Liam, and I will rip your tongue out."

Liam rolled his eyes but stayed quiet.

Professor Higgins walked in, adjusting his glasses. He paused at the front of the room, his gaze landing on me.

"Miss Mercer. I see you decided to attend," Higgins said, his tone thick with condescension. "I assume you will be transferring out of the Alpha track by the end of the week?"

"I earned my spot in this track," I replied. I gripped my pen.

"We will see," Higgins dismissed me, turning to the whiteboard.

I took my seat. My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out, ignoring Maya's earlier warning. The campus feed was flooded.

*Kai and Sloane: The True Royal Couple.*

A photo showed them at breakfast. He was feeding her a strawberry, smiling like he had won the lottery.

My stomach churned.

After class, Maya went to the restroom. I waited by the lockers.

Footsteps echoed down the hall. I looked up.

Kai.

He was alone. No cameras, no Sloane, no adoring fans. The golden boy image vanished the second our eyes met. His posture was rigid. His fists clenched at his sides. He did not look victorious. He looked like he had not slept at all.

He closed the distance between us in three long strides. He slammed his hand against the metal locker right next to my head.

"Where did he take you?" Kai demanded. His voice was a harsh rasp, completely stripping away his polished Alpha tone.

I flinched, pressing my back against the cold steel. "What?"

"Elias." He spat the name like poison. "Where did my brother take you last night?"

"Why do you care?" I shot back. I lifted my chin. "You rejected me, remember? You got the Amulet. You got Sloane."

Kai’s jaw clenched. A muscle ticked wildly in his cheek. His eyes darted down to my lips, then snapped back to my eyes. They burned with a frantic, chaotic energy.

"Did he touch you?" Kai demanded, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "Did my brother put his hands on your bare skin?"

"That is none of your business."

"It is my business!" he shouted. "He is a monster, Brielle. He was banished for a reason. You think he saved you? He is using you to get to me."

"At least he caught me when I fell," I shot back. "You just laughed."

Kai flinched. The truth hit him, but he immediately masked it with rage.

"I do not care about you," he snarled. His chest heaved as he leaned closer. The scent of rain and pine—Elias’s scent—still lingered on my jacket. Kai’s nostrils flared. He grabbed my lapel, his knuckles brushing my collarbone.

"You reek of him," Kai hissed.

"Take your hands off me," I said, my voice steady despite the hammering of my heart.

"You think I am jealous?" He laughed, a brittle, ugly sound. He released my jacket and took a step back, dragging a hand through his perfectly styled hair, ruining it. "I am not. I just hate him touching my things. That is all this is."

He was talking fast, pacing a tight circle in front of me.

"I do not love you," Kai muttered, pointing a finger at my chest. "I never did. I just hate someone else taking what belongs to me. It is an Alpha pride thing. Nothing else."

I stared at him. He was trying to convince himself, not me. The panic in his eyes was raw. He had thrown me away, but the image of Elias carrying me off had clearly shattered his perfect reality.

A strange, bitter laugh escaped my throat.

Kai froze. "What is so funny?"

"You," I said, pushing off the locker. "You broke the bond. I do not belong to you anymore, Kai. I am not your thing."

"You are mine until I say otherwise!" he roared. He slammed both hands on the lockers, trapping me again. His face was inches from mine. "I decide when we are done."

"We were done the second you chose Sloane," I replied, my voice dropping to a whisper.

"Kai?"

The sweet, melodic voice echoed from the end of the hall. Sloane stood there. Her smile faltered as she took in our proximity.

Kai shoved off the locker as if I had burned him. He smoothed his shirt. The frantic obsession vanished behind a mask of cool indifference.

"Just taking out the trash, babe," Kai called out to her. He did not look at me again as he walked away, wrapping an arm around Sloane’s waist.

But I saw his hands. They were shaking.

Maya jogged up to me, her eyes darting toward the retreating couple. "What did he want?"

"He is losing his mind," I muttered.

Before Maya could ask what I meant, a sharp, searing pain shot through my spine. I gasped, dropping to my knees. It was not the dull ache of the broken bond. This was new.

My bones felt like they were melting.

"Brielle!" Maya screamed, dropping to the floor beside me.

"My back," I choked out, clawing at my shirt.

*You're not dying. You're mutating.*

The pain intensified, ripping a scream from my throat as something hard pushed against the skin just beneath my shoulder blades.