Chapter One

Aurora’s POV

Michael broke up with me over the phone later that day, but he did it in the middle of the night, probably expecting that I would be asleep by then but I wasn’t.

In fact, I was at my friend, Jasmine’s house, devouring a large cone of ice cream to calm my nerves when I got the notification of his text.

Jasmine and I had been really close around freshman year, but then we drifted apart a little because that was exactly when Michael had decided to step up our friendship game a notch, and like the bitch that I was, I had abandoned her, focusing instead on the stupid thing I had going on with Michael; and now I regretted it.

I couldn’t even look into her eyes for fear of what she would say to me about it. Fortunately, she said nothing… until Michael texted.

“So this is it?” She cried incredulously, pointing at the screen of my phone as if it was some sort of vile object. “He’s just gonna dump you after everything? Even when you’re both mates?!”

At the mention of the word ‘mate’, I doubled over as if in physical pain and held my chest. I could feel a burning sensation in my chest but I had no idea what it was.

In a bid to calm it down a little, I scooped some more ice cream and dumped them into my mouth, but instead of feeling better, I felt worse!

It felt as though something was ripping me apart from the insides. I cried out in pain as I fell to the floor. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t say a word. It felt as though my world was being ripped apart and I could feel it as it was being torn down, bit by bit.

“It hurts!” I cried, grabbing at my chest and writhing in pain but Jasmine neither said nor did anything as she sat by me, patting my back.

At first, I wanted to yell at her to get help because I just couldn’t fathom why she would decide to just watch me when I was in obvious pain but I couldn’t open my mouth to speak.

The pain went on for a few more minutes and after it had successfully subsided only a little, I snapped; “why didn’t you call for help?”

Tears streamed down my eyes as I screamed but right now, I wasn’t sure if it was because Jasmine had refused to call for help or because Michael had just broken up with me. I just knew that I felt sad, so sad that I could no longer control my tears.

“Why?!” I yelled.

“Arie, I’m sorry but trust me you wouldn’t want anyone to see you like that… it’s shameful and I feel bad that I had to witness it.” She said softly, causing my eyes to widen in surprise.

I had no idea what she was talking about but from the looks of things, the thing that had just happened to me wasn’t a mere chest pain. It was something more, something that I had no idea of but Jasmine knew all too well.

“Jasmine?”

“I’m sorry,” she interrupted, waving her hands dismissively. It has happened already, and trust me I won’t tell anyone about it!”

Her words seemed to throw me off every time she said something new, and with confusion burning my insides, I sat back down on the cold floor, the ice cream cone next to me was totally forgotten.

“Would you believe me if I said that I do not understand a word you say?” I asked quietly, looking down at my hands like it was suddenly the most intriguing thing in the world.

My face flushed in embarrassment when I saw the look of shock on Jasmine’s face, and with a derisive laugh, she muttered; “you mean, you did not know you just felt your mate bond get ripped off?”

As soon as he said those words, my eyes snapped open in shock. “What do you mean?!”

“What I mean is, Michael’s already rejected you… and being the coward that he was, he couldn’t do it to your face but rather waited till you were supposed to be asleep, thinking that it’ll help nullify the pain maybe just a little.”

A sudden silence descended in my head. I couldn’t make out anything anymore; nothing made sense to me aside from the fact that I had just been rejected. I felt tears well in my eyes, burning on my eyelids but they never dropped.

“…you were always better off without him, let it go!” She said softly but as soon as she said those words, my anger flared and with it burning my insides, I rose to my feet and snarled;

“You cannot tell me to simply just let it go because I can’t! Do you know how long I’ve doted on him?! Do you know how happy I felt to be his mate? Only for him to simply just turn around and leave like I was nothing but a bug he’s been trying to get rid of! Do you know how that feels?!”

“Of course I do!” She shouted back, rising to her feet to be at the same height as me. “I know exactly how it feels because I’ve also been there once!” She added, causing my eyes to widen in shock.

I stared at her for a long while, searching through her eyes to see if she was simply making this up but then when I saw the unshed tears in those deep cerulean eyes of hers, my heart broke again, but this time, it wasn’t for me… it was for her.

“You forget that I’m a year older than you are… and so, I am supposed to have found my mate by now.” She mumbled under her breath, causing me to feel more sympathy toward her than I felt for myself.

“Oh,”

“He’s Trevor, the head of the school’s baseball team,” She said and as soon as she mentioned his name, I gasped in realization.

Trevor was the perfect bad boy of our pack school. He had every girl’s pants in a twist, well aside from mine because I was busy clinging around Michael to notice anyone else.

At some point, there were rumors about him and Jasmine but then it quieted down, and nobody said a word again. Maybe it was that time! I thought about asking her about it but then, after deciding that she talked at her own pace, I simply said;

“Who doesn’t know Trevor?”

Jasmine laughed at me, and then with a small forlorn smile, she added;

“Trevor found out that we were mates, and then told me about it. I was elated that I had one of the hottest boys in school but do you know what? I was wrong!” Her voice trailed off as she cried.

“On my birthday, I finally felt the bond… and to celebrate it, we went to a party. We drank, we had sex, and did all sorts of nasty things, even way worse than you can imagine.”

“In the middle of that same night, he rejected me and then went off to tell all his friends that he had popped my cherry!… So you see? I’ve gone through it, and worse.” She exclaimed, causing my eyes to widen in shock.

“I believe that Michael wouldn’t stop tormenting you now though, so you just have to be prepared.”

Her words made me gasp in shock. I couldn’t believe that someone could be that evil and to think that he still jovially called her out whenever he walked past her in the school halls made him even more evil.

I slumped back on the floor, picked up the now-molten ice cream, and gulped it down.

All these were just too much to take in…