40. BREAKING POINT

40

brEAKING POINT

A iden squeezed Charlotte's hand before unlocking the door to their dorm room. The meeting with the headmistress took a turn he didn't expect when she brought Noah into the room. Allowing him to join the school hadn't settled well. Aiden couldn't decide if he trusted Noah or not.

The guy seemed sincere, but too many times people his friends thought they could trust had proved them wrong.

"I'll be out in a sec," she said after slipping her shoes off, disappearing into the ensuite while he went to his bedside table to put his phone down.

Knowing Charlotte favored a neat living space, he picked up his discarded T-shirt and placed it on the bed, freezing when a blood-curdling scream broke the silence.

Charging into the bathroom, he jerked to a stop to avoid running into Charlotte. She stood in front of their smashed mirror. Shattered glass littered the counter's surface and the floor. Among the shards were dead pink roses and petals everywhere.

Her hand pressed to her forehead, and she spoke with a fearful voice. "Why is he doing this if the stalker is dead? What does he want?"

When she turned to seek comfort from him, she shrieked and stumbled back, almost stepping onto the broken shards with her bare feet, until he pulled her against him.

Turning with her in his arms to look behind him and see what frightened her, he couldn't suppress the snarl that escaped at the message on the wall crudely written in blood:

YOU'RE MINE

Charlotte sobbed, clinging onto his chest as her body shook violently.

Of everything they experienced together, he never felt her fear like this. It wasn't even because he could physically feel the fear with their growing bond. He'd never seen her respond so poorly, even with the break-in.

She had reached her breaking point.

There were limits to how long someone could remain strong before they eventually broke.

He bent, putting his hands on the back of her thighs, lifting her. She threw her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his waist. He carried her into the bedroom and sat down on the bed, holding her to his chest, grabbing his phone from the bedside table and placing a call.

Even though he wanted to destroy the room in a fit of rage after someone came into their space and made his Korrena feel unsafe, he had to remain calm for her. Although she sensed his fury, he refused to display it. He noticed she responded better if he didn't make an outward display of anger.

"Hello?"

"Lukas," he said, clenching his teeth, voice tight.

"What's wrong?"

"Get over here." Aiden ended the call before Lukas could respond and tossed it to the side.

Minutes later, his best friend burst into the room. Charlotte screamed, her entire body jolting.

"Fucking hell," Aiden said when her nails dug into his skin through his shirt. He'd forgotten to warn her they were coming. He put a hand on the back of her head, tucking her face against him as he rocked her like a child, making gentle shushing sounds against the top of her head. "I've got you, Kitten. I've got you."

Blaire shoved Lukas out of the way to get over to the bed, crawling beside Aiden. "What's wrong with her?" Before he could say anything, Seth and Riley piled into the room behind Lukas. "They were with us when you called."

"What's going on?" Riley demanded at the sight of Charlotte. She joined Blaire on the bed.

"The bathroom," he said, keeping his voice calm and low while continuing to rub Charlotte's back and cradle her head.

Lukas turned and went into the ensuite, Seth trailing behind him.

"What the fuck?"

Riley hopped up at the tone of Seth's voice and rushed into the bathroom. "Holy shit." She gaped from the doorway.

Blaire glanced over her shoulder and then back at Aiden. "What is it? "

"I'm going to kill Noah, that's what."

Charlotte whimpered.

All this time they thought the stalker wasn't dead after finding a rose on campus, only to have Noah waltz in and change their perspective. Was it all a ploy to lure them into a false sense of security? Noah's arrival brought with it the biggest disturbance they'd encountered since the break-in at Charlotte's old apartment. It hadn't escaped Aiden's notice that the blood in the bathroom was human blood. Where had he gotten it?

"Why do you think he had anything to do with that?" Riley asked, coming over and taking Blaire's place when she got up to see what everyone had already seen.

Aiden didn't have it in him to explain his theories, not when he needed to focus on the frightened girl in his lap. "It's too convenient that on the night he arrives, this happens."

Charlotte lifted her head, sitting up on his lap now that her trembling and tears had abated. Black streaks marred her cheeks from runny mascara, and her nose looked red and irritated. He took the T-shirt he'd dropped on the bed and wiped her nose. "The rose and that note came before Noah ever joined. It's that guy James."

That made him pause and rethink his position. If James didn't know they were aware of Brent's identity as the stalker, his continuation of the ruse after Brent's death wouldn't seem strange. Still, the convenience of Noah's arrival and this incident struck him as odd. Maybe James used him as a distraction. Did Noah provide that distraction willingly or was it mere coincidence? He didn't want to trust the guy.

"I get you're upset, man." Lukas leaned against the back of Aiden's desk chair, crossing his arms as Blaire took a seat. "I know what you're going through with the new bond. It makes things chaotic, and anytime the worst happens, you're going to suspect someone you see as a threat to her."

"It makes you irrational," Seth added, scratching the back of his head.

Aiden was glad they had been through the bond's trials already. He didn't know what he would do if they hadn't. In situations like this, he would be the one to point out that James was the likely culprit, but instead, his emotions were too volatile to allow him to focus and not think of Noah—the guy who showed interest in his Korrena—as the real threat.

He needed to get his head on straight.

Lukas ground his teeth together. "If the rogues are getting onto the campus and doing things like this without being noticed, Blaire is in danger, too."

"Isn't everyone?"

He looked at Riley.

Like Aiden, Lukas only thought of his Korrena when the situation became dire. No one could expect otherwise—young bond or not. The protective instincts around the Korrena bond ran deep.

The rogues didn't care about Vasirian law. They would hurt any student who got in their way. They could easily slip in amongst the students and no one would blink. It was still summer break, so no one wore their uniforms. It made infiltration easier—especially if the rogues were young like Noah. Even then, with aging at a snail's pace, older rogues would blend in just fine.

A hard knock sounded on the door. Charlotte pressed herself against Aiden, gripping the back of his shirt, and he tightened his hold to soothe her.

"It's probably security," Seth said. "I called them from the bathroom. "

Riley opened the door, and several members of Blackthorn Security stepped into the room, crowding the space. Their eyes scanned the room's occupants.

"Who's dorm is this?"

"Ours," Aiden said.

"You and who? Her?" The man nodded at Charlotte.

"Yeah, my Korrena."

The bearded man decked out in all black combat gear, complete with a tactical vest, grunted. "What's going on?"

"Their bathroom is destroyed," Lukas said. "Someone wrote on the wall with blood."

"You sure it's blood?" the man asked. "What'd they write?"

"‘You're mine,'" Riley read aloud, frowning at Aiden, her gaze sliding down to Charlotte in his arms.

Whoever wrote the message was sorely mistaken if they thought Charlotte belonged to them. The porcelain-skinned goddess in his arms belonged only to him. Only he could worship at this altar. She was his, and he would die to protect her and ensure his place at her side.

"Not sure who or what it belongs to, but the smell is definitely blood," Seth said, his nose wrinkling. "I don't think it's Vasirian blood. Maybe human."

"What makes you say that?"

"I'm not good with human blood."

The man nodded in understanding. Not everyone had an iron will. Those who didn't avoided putting themselves in positions that made them susceptible to weakness.

Aiden looked at Seth. His eyes had a faint white glow at the edges of his silver irises. He remembered how hard he had it when Blaire bled on multiple occasions. He wouldn't attack anyone, but he struggled around copious amounts of human blood.

A female security guard with brunette hair tied back in a low ponytail stepped forward. "The headmistress has debriefed us about the other human on campus and about her circumstances with the rogues. This related to that?"

He nodded.

"Alright," another man wearing a black ballcap said, coming out of the bathroom, "I want y'all to go elsewhere for now while we secure the location and clean up the mess."

The woman guard stepped to the side. "We'll let the headmistress know of the situation and have her contact you all when we're done gathering evidence and running a check on the blood on the wall to confirm if it is human DNA and if we can find a match in the local law enforcement's database. In the meantime, avoid letting anyone know about this."

"We don't need a bunch of panicking kids running around," the bearded security guard said. He didn't look much older than Aiden, but that didn't say much for his age.

Aiden hoped taking a walk and getting fresh air would ease the prickly feeling crawling over his skin. He needed to remain calm and not go after Noah. He hated that he needed to continuously remind himself that the real threat to Charlotte wasn't the curly-haired guy with smiling blue eyes.