bChapter /bb46 /b

Caleb’s bPOV /b

I sat bin /bmy usual seat, tapping my fingers against the desk as the morning annancements drened on. It was rifiutons (fat 1 watas Mattrest. Unt therapi seat btwo /brows behind me felt like a gaping hole in the room. Aurora wasn’t here. I didn’t know why that bothered bme/b, it fouble’t. Búát fur sithe trupit.

did.

1 slouched further in my chair, running a hand through my hair and forcing my gaze to the front of the ssroom. It wasn’t my problem she won’t my problem. Maybe she was sick. Maybe she just didn’t feel like showing up. Either way, it had nothing to do with me.

But Caroline had other ideas.

“Do you know why she’s not here today?” she asked, her voice light but probing, like she already knew the answer. “It’s been a work atrouty!

I didn’t look at her. “Don’t know. Don’t care.”

Caroline scoffed. “You don’t care? She’s your mate, Caleb.”

I stiffened. My jaw clenched so tight I was surprised my teeth didn’t crack under the pressure. “We don’t know that for sure,” I said, my voice t, controlled.

Caroline turned in her seat to face me fully. “Keep telling yourself thatb,/bb” /bshe said, a smirk tugging at her lips. “Maybe one day you’ll actually believe it. And you’ll regret this decision the second you turn eighteen next week and find out she’s really your mate”

I exhaled sharply, shaking my head. She was wrong. She had to be wrong. Because if she wasn’t, then that meant the ufortable tightness in my chest, the way my mind kept drifting back to Aurora’s absence, wasn’t just some stupid coincidence. And I wasn’t ready to face what that bmeant/b.

Not yet. Maybe not ever.

“Like I said…we don’t know for sureb./bb” /b

Caroline scoffed at me. “Trust me, you’ll know just how big of a fool you had been as soon as the bond snaps in bce/bb, /band since she’s human, who wouldn’t instantly fall head over heels in love with you after what you put her through; you’ll be the one running around after bher/b, begging her bfor /bforgiveness for being an asshole…which isn’t going to be a possibility if you keep up your attitude.”

My frown deepened. “That’s a very detailed description of what may or may not happen in the futureb, /bespecially from someone who hasn’t even turned eighteen or found their mate yet.”

“You have absolutely no remorse, you proud, idiotic wolf!” Caroline rolled her eyes when I remained silent beside her, before taking out a notebook and beginning to scribble on the pages.

Caroline simply shook her head and gave me a knowing smile, before she turned to face the front of ssb, /bwhere the history teacher was handing out btest /b

results.

I turned my attention back to the ss as well, but no matter how hard I tried, I just wasn’t able to focus on anything at all.

And apparently…the only person who knew me better than I knew myself…was Caroline.

“Caroline,” I started, my voice calm but firm. “I need to understand. What did I do so wrong?”

She finally met my gaze, her blue eyes flickering with something I couldn’t quite ce–was it frustration? Disappointment? Something else? She let out a quiet sigh, shaking her head before turning slightly in my direction.

“You really don’t see it, do you?” she murmured, leaning back slightly.

I clenched my jaw, willing myself to stay patient. “See what? That I tried to help? That I did something good?”

Caroline’s lips pressed into a thin line before she exhaled through her nose. “Tell me this, Caleb,” she said, tilting her head slightly that schrship–if you had the chance to take it, even though you could afford to pay for school yourself–would you take it?”

meone offered you

bChapter /bb46 /b

I bfrowned/bb, /bbtaken /baback by the question. “No, I knowered hanestly, “nferate bnot /bI don’t feed 16. –

“Exactly,b” /bshe said, nodding slowly, as if I had just proved her point. “But Aurora dises.”

b“/bYes, and that’s why I helped her,” I argued, my frustration seeping into my vatre. “Why is that on wrongi? /i

Caroline sighed again, but this time, there was something softer in her expression something almost synspachaton Boxes Aura migler she bsaid /bquietly. “Eint she hasn’t earned it. And for someone like her someone as fiercely independent as she is taking something feel like a failure, not a victory.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but the words died on my tongue, I wanted to tell her that Aurora deserved the whrship more then injore, for de harder than half the students who applied, that I was only giving her what she had already earned in spirit. But I knew what Caroline ma

Aurora wasn’t just independent she was proud, stubborn, and relentless in proving that she could stand on her own. By intervening, & had taken away that choice from her. I had stripped her of the chance to prove to herself that she could do it without anyone’s help.

I ran a hand through my hair, letting out a slow breath. “I just…wanted to help,” I said finally, my voice quieter this time

Caroline gave me a small, knowing smile. “I know,” she said. “But sometimes, helping means letting people ovee their struggles on

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if mother died 6 years ago, Riley should be 6, not 5

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