I Severed Our Wolf Bond After All Three Mates Broke Me

Coach didn't even look up from his clipboard.

"You're quitting? Mid-season?"

"I'm transferring." I slid my team manager badge across his desk. "Harlow High. Starting Monday."

"Harlow?" Now he looked up. "That's a *human* school, Vera."

"I know."

"Kieran and Rhett know about this?"

I almost smiled. "Does it matter?"

He opened his mouth. Closed it. Then he pushed the badge into a drawer like it had never been mine.

That was it. Three years of taping ankles and tracking stats, gone in under a minute.

---

Harlow High smelled like floor wax and burnt coffee. No wolves. No scent of pine and fur in the hallways. Just humans with backpacks, yelling about a math quiz.

Nobody here knew what a bond was. Nobody here would laugh at me for having one.

I made it to the front office. I made it through the paperwork. I even made it halfway down the B-wing with my new schedule in my hand.

Then the bond woke up.

It didn't ache this time. It *twisted*. Like three hooks had been sunk into my ribs and someone was pulling them in different directions.

My schedule fluttered to the floor. I caught the edge of a water fountain and hung on.

*Not here. Please, not on the first day.*

"Whoa. Hey."

A pair of muddy cleats stopped in front of me. I followed them up. Track pants. A faded Harlow Hawks hoodie. A guy with sandy hair and a sunburned nose, holding a mesh bag of soccer balls over one shoulder.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Fine," I lied.

"You're kind of the color of printer paper."

"First day nerves."

He set the ball bag down. Slowly. Like he didn't want to spook me.

"I'm Nolan," he said. "Nolan Pruett. I'm supposed to be at practice, but honestly, Coach won't notice if I'm late. He never notices anything before ten."

Another wave hit. I bent forward, gripping the fountain so hard my knuckles cracked. A small sound slipped out of me.

Two girls walking past slowed down. One whispered, "Is she gonna puke?"

Nolan shifted so his back blocked their view.

"Keep walking," he told them. Pleasant. Firm. They kept walking.

I waited for the questions. *What's wrong with you? Are you sick? Should I call someone?* I had a whole list of lies ready.

He didn't ask any of them.

He just leaned against the lockers beside me and stayed.

"You don't have to stay," I gasped.

"I know."

"Practice."

"Practice will survive." He nudged my fallen schedule with his toe, then crouched to pick it up. He glanced at it. "Oh, nice. You've got Mr. Delgado for chem. He brings donuts on Fridays. Bad donuts, but still."

I laughed. It came out cracked and wrong, and it made my ribs scream, but I laughed anyway.

He grinned like he'd won something.

"There it is," he said.

The pain rolled again. My legs started to fold. I slid an inch down the fountain before I caught myself.

Nolan straightened up. He didn't grab me. He didn't haul me anywhere. He just held his arm out between us, elbow bent, waiting.

"Do you want to hold on?" he asked. "Totally up to you."

I stared at his arm.

Kieran had stepped in front of another girl to protect her from *me*. Rhett had dragged me by the wrist so I wouldn't embarrass him. Asher had held me close just long enough to snap a picture.

None of them had ever *asked*.

My throat went tight.

"Why are you being nice to me?" I whispered. "You don't even know me."

He shrugged. "You looked like you needed someone to stand here. So I'm standing here."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

I didn't take his arm.

I took his hand.

His fingers were warm and rough from cold mornings on the field. He blinked once, surprised, then folded his hand around mine and held on.

And the bond *screamed*.

Not inside me. Not this time.

It shot outward, down the thread, like a rubber band snapping back. For one second I felt all three of them at once.

Kieran, in a classroom miles away, slamming his palm flat on his desk.

Rhett, on a practice field, stumbling mid-sprint, a hand pressed to his sternum.

Asher, somewhere in Pine Hollow, sucking in a sharp gulp of air like he'd been punched.

Then it was gone. The hooks in my ribs loosened. The pain drained out of me so fast I felt dizzy with it.

"Hey." Nolan squeezed my hand. "You good? You just went really still."

"I think…" I straightened up. My legs held. "I think it's passing."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

He didn't let go right away. He waited until I let go first.

"Cool," he said, and picked his ball bag back up like nothing strange had happened at all. "Room 214 for chem. Up the stairs, take a left. If you get lost, just follow the smell of burnt sulfur."

I stared at him. "You're really not going to ask?"

He paused. Thought about it.

"Nope," he said. "If you ever want to tell me, I'll listen. If you don't, that's fine too."

He walked off toward the gym doors. Halfway there, he turned around and walked backward.

"Welcome to Harlow, new girl!"

The doors swung shut behind him.

I stood there, flexing the hand he'd held. It still felt warm.

Then my phone buzzed in my back pocket.

I pulled it out.

**Kieran calling.**

My thumb hovered over the screen. In two years, Kieran had never called me first. Not once. Not on my birthday. Not the night I got the flu so bad the healer kept me for three days.

I watched it ring until it stopped.

The screen went dark for exactly two seconds.

**Rhett calling.**

I let that one ring out too.

Before I could even put the phone away, it lit up a third time.

**Asher calling.**

A bell rang somewhere above me. Lockers slammed. Kids poured into the hall around me, laughing, shoving, completely normal.

I turned the phone face down against my palm and let it buzz.

Once. Twice. Five times.

Then it went quiet.

I tucked it into my pocket and started up the stairs toward Room 214.

I was on the third step when it buzzed again. Short this time. A text.

I shouldn't have looked.

I looked.

It was from Kieran. Just four words.

**Who the hell touched you?**