The Human Among Wolves (Aurora) novel Chapter 31

Zayn

Aurora crossed her arms, her eyes narrowing just enough to make it clear she wasn’t hacking off. “You don’t have to be so defensive,” she

said, her voice calmer now, but with an edge that cut straight through me. “It was just a question.”

Just a question.

That’s what she thought.

I clenched my jaw, staring at her. She couldn’t possibly understand. My father had chained me to Charlotte the way a man chains a dog to a post–iron, unyielding, humiliating. I’d never had a choice. Never had a say. I was the Lycan Prince, but in that moment, I might as well. have been a pawn on his board.

And Charlotte… she’d accepted it. Of course she had. She wanted the power, the name, and the bond. She wanted me–just not in the way

that mattered. I was a prize, not a person.

So yes, I’d rejected her. I’d spoken the words, carved the bond apart with my voice. And she had accepted them, her tears falling but her mouth repeating the ritual all the same. But acceptance didn’t mean it was over. I could still feel it in my bones, like a storm building far out at sea, waiting to make landfall. She wouldn’t let me go. Not really.

And now Aurora–Aurora of all people–was pressing me about it.

I raked a hand through my hair, trying to keep my voice from snapping. “You think it’s that simple? That rejection ends it clean? My father might have forced me into it, but Charlotte…” I shook my head, bitterness curling in my chest. “She doesn’t give up. Not when it comes to me. Not when it comes to power.”

I glanced at Aurora then, and something about the way she looked at me–steady, unflinching–unnerved me. She wasn’t prying to hurt me. She was trying to understand.

Still, I couldn’t let her in. Not all the way.

“It doesn’t matter,” I muttered, my tone harsher than I meant. “Just… drop it.”

“What do you mean, your father forced you to?” Aurora’s voice was quiet, but there was steel under it, the kind that always made me feel like she saw more than I wanted her to.

I bit down on my lip hard enough to taste blood. The truth was boiling on my tongue, pressing to get out, but I swallowed it back. If I let it slip, if I told her everything, there’d be no taking it back.

Why did she care anyway? As she’d so graciously reminded me earlier–we weren’t friends. She didn’t trust me and didn’t even like me most days. So why did her eyes look so damn intent now? Why was she pushing past walls I’d spent years building?

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Chapter 31

I forced a laugh, low and bitter. “Why are you so in

me.”

a sudden, Aurora? Thought you made it clear you didn’t want to know

But she didn’t flinch. She just kept staring, calm bu

me feel cornered.

hat was the thing about her–she didn’t have to raise her voice to make

1 dragged a hand down my face, the weight of memory pressing on me like chains. My father’s voice, the Alpha command that left no room for disobedience, Charlotte’s expectant eyes… the whole twisted ritual of it. I’d never wanted her. Not then. Not ever. And yet I’d

been bound to her by my father, the King.

“It wasn’t my choice,” I muttered at last, the words slipping before I could stop them. “None of it was. My father wanted it, so it happened. That’s how it works in his world. In his pack.”

She looked at me, opening her mouth like she wanted to say something more, but I interrupted her.

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I am so pleasantly surprised with this book so far!

2 days ago

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