CHAPTER 58: _ AWAKENING CEREMONY (MATE BONDS)

Heidi tries to smile back, but her mind is a whirl.

Across the aisle, the Bellamys are stone statues of outrage. Darien’s jaw ticks like he’s grinding his teeth down to dust. Grayson’s arms are crossed so tightly that it looks painful. Morgan looks like he might leap across the room and drag her away bodily. And Amias...Amias just stares. His gaze pins her unwaveringly, like he knows he can just stand up and do to her whatever he wants if he so pleases.

Heidi swallows. She should be afraid. She should be shrinking.

But instead... She lets herself lean back, casual as anything as her smile begins to slightly widen while she lifts her chin in their direction.

It’s petty. It’s reckless. It’s dangerous.

But watching their fury burn hotter and hotter across the aisle? Watching Daphne vibrate with the effort of not screaming?

It’s worth it. Worth every damn dare.

The headmaster adjusts his glasses, his booming voice resounding through the great hall like a rolling drum. "That said," he declares, "I’d like to invite Ms. Vesper onto the stage, as mate bond and relations are her forte."

A hush rolls over the students immediately. It seems the seniors also know just as well how critical Ms. Please Have Mercy

can be.

The sound of the shuffle of fabric as Ms. Vesper rises gracefully from her seat is the only audible sound in the now silent hall. Her long skirt swishes softly as if the floor is too honored to creak beneath her as she walks. Heidi feels her spine straighten without realizing it. Pride warms her chest. She’s only attended one of Ms. Vesper’s classes, but there’s something magnetic about the woman and the way her words seem to pierce straight through the noise of adolescence and touch something primal.

Daphne, from across the aisle beside the Bellamy brothers, folds her arms with a scoff, as if Ms. Vesper’s very existence is an inconvenience. Heidi catches the movement out of the corner of her eye and almost smirks. Almost. Because for once, she has something Daphne doesn’t: the prime seat next to Nash, who is paying far more attention to Ms. Vesper than to Daphne’s perpetual sulk.

Not that she cares about Nash, but she definitely loves the face slapping it is sending over to her oppressors.

She also tries not to think about the Bellamy brothers’ view of her right now. She knows they’re watching. She wants them to be watching. And judging by the burn of their glares drilling holes into her skull from across the aisle, they definitely are.

Ms. Vesper lifts a hand in greeting. "Good evening, students," she begins.

The crowd answers back in a half-synchronized mumble of greetings.

"To add to what our Headmaster has said," she continues, "I want to remind all of you—new and old alike, that this ceremony, although it seems fixated solely on the Moon Blessed, belongs to all students. As always, it is a time of awakening, a time of clarity. The seniors who have not yet been fated or mated..." She pauses deliberately, and Heidi notices how some of the older boys in the crowd suddenly sit straighter, "...will also have their chance for their wolves to choose. If their mates are here, fate may reveal them during this time."

That one word ’mates

’ is enough to silence even the rowdy side conversations. Mates. A single syllable that carries an entire universe of hope, terror, and possibility.

Heidi doesn’t want her eyes to drift to the Bellamy brothers, but they betray her anyway. For once, their smirks and smug confidence are gone. Even their simmering irritation over where she’s seated has dimmed, replaced by a sharper sheen. Like Sobriety and Anticipation.

She wonders what must be running through their minds right now. Bet they are silently praying that this strange connection that tethers them to her is not that of a mate bond. Bet they’d give everything to find out she isn’t their fated mate at the end of it all.

Heidi fears this too. She can’t help but wonder if life in Duskwind would be easier if she weren’t bearing the weight of being fated to not one, but four of their golden heirs. She imagines what it’d be like to be fated to just one, normal pack member.

A humble, loving, and caring mate who would actually have her back and can’t stand to see her in the tiniest bit of pain.

For a flicker of a moment, she wonders what it would be like to be chosen by someone’s wolf. To have that undeniable connection spark into life. She quickly shoves the thought down before it blooms into anything dangerous in case that someone actually truly turns out to be the Bellamy brothers.

Ms. Vesper goes on with a sly smile tugging at her lips. "This new development—living in dorms together for three nights, eating together, waking together, breathing the same air until you wish you could strangle each other..."

The crowd chuckles at that, and even Heidi cracks a grin.

"... this is not just for study. It is for connection. It is for bonds. For all of you to test the limits of your tolerance, your affection, and perhaps, if the Moon Goddess wills it, to discover your mates. You may think of these three days as... vacations."

The hall erupts in cheers. Applause bounces off the high stone walls, whistles pierce through the clapping, and a group of senior girls squeal as though Ms. Vesper just promised a holiday at a beach resort instead of three nights trapped with unpredictable wolves.

Even Heidi feels a twinge of excitement at the thought, though it’s quickly smothered by a wave of dread. Three days. Around the Bellamy brothers. No escape. No reprieve. That doesn’t sound like a vacation. That sounds like locking herself in a lion’s den with a steak tied around her neck.

Still, she sits tall, basking in the tiniest drop of schadenfreude at how the Bellamys are forced to watch her laugh at Nash’s comment about "vacation meaning no homework." They look like they’re chewing glass, and Heidi savors it.

Ms. Vesper inclines her head gracefully. "Use these nights wisely, students. You never know—your destiny may be sitting beside you this very moment."

Or opposite you – Heidi adds internally.