Mated to Her Alpha Instructor (Eileen and Regis) novel Chapter 227

Chapter 227

Nina

The lavender bundle slipped from my fingers.

Not because I dropped it–because every muscle in my body locked up at the voice that suddenly filled my head.

“Hello, Nina. It’s been a long time.”

Male. Deep. Carrying a twisted kind of satisfaction that made my skin crawl.

I grabbed the storage shelf to keep from collapsing, my heart hammering so hard I thought it might crack a rib. Thea surged to the surface with a snarl, hackles raised in my mind.

This wasn’t possible. I’d cut off all links decades ago. The moment I’d shoved Thea down and locked her away, I’d severed every mental connection to the wolf world. It was the only way to stay hidden, to stay safe.

So how-

“Don’t try to shut me out,” the voice continued, amused. “You can’t. Not anymore. Not since you stopped suppressing that beautiful wolf of yours.”

My stomach dropped.

Of course. Thea was awake now. Active. The barriers I’d maintained for years had crumbled when I finally let her surface.

But links didn’t work like this. You couldn’t just force your way into someone’s head. Both parties had to consent to open the channel. It was one of the fundamental rules-

No.

“Your mother,” Cornelius said, and hearing that name–that connection–made bile rise in my throat. Tanthe. She’s not dead, Nina. She’s been waiting for you all these years. Asking for you.”

And now I had a name to attach to that violence. A face.

My father.

I don’t know how long I sat there. Long enough for the sun to shift angles through the high window. Long enough for the stone to make my knees ache.

When I finally pushed myself upright, my legs were unsteady. My hands still trembled.

But beneath the horror, beneath the nausea, something else was rising.