Mass release: 6/9
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Nikko Cornelius Hetherington's pov
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I am majestically screwed.
In fact, I don't think there's any other living being as screwed as me right now. Nein, I highly fucking doubt that. I'm as screwed as anyone could impossibly be, because of course, of bloody course it would be Mahnoor Arianna Bianchini.
I barely remember shit because little after she fainted, before my body, that moved alone, could get to her, I fainted too, probably because I overly used my barrier magic to set a dome and lock her and I away from the others, or because I took a lot of damage from her. In any other case I don't think I would've acted like that, but the second I saw her falling to her knees and losing it, in clear pain, I couldn't be froze like the others and neither could I just watch, and before I realized, I was already there, but she was so out of it that she didn't notice.
She's fully out of it since the professor called her.
No. Even before he called her, she was already out of it, something happened to her in the summer, and I think it could be related to her losing it in the arena. Then after she told us she can manipulate time, which actually makes a lot of sense now that I think about it, plus the way the headmaster acted that triggered her up, until she lost it, and made the headmaster lose it too, then she actually losing her mind... it all bottled up.
I swear to Gods I was trying to make her stop thinking when I kissed her. Did I dream of kissing her before? Of course, sure, but it was different, and wrong. Or so I thought it was wrong, I certainly made myself believe it was wrong, and I hated it. But at that moment I wasn't taking advantage, I just wanted to help because seeing her like that, feeling her shake and freak out in my arms made me want to crawl out of my skin.
But mate, I was sooooooo wrong on doing that.
Gods, I wish I hadn't, even if her lips are so painfully soft and taste like cherries and cappuccino, I shouldn't have done that, I would rather die without knowing it was her. I would rather never know at all, then spend these three years that are to come from now and on, ruminating the fact that's it's her, because I just know she will do her everything to pretend this is isn't happening, and that we are both hallucinating, and I just know I won't be able to hold it much longer, even though everything but this tells me that's it's wrong.
Fuck.
Covering my face with my hands, I remained laying down, feeling six people around me, around my bed, "Fuck," I groaned.
"Nik," my baby sister Addy cried.
"Fuck," I cursed again.
"You scared the shit out of us, mate," Trist gasped.
"Look at us, stop scaring us, Nik," Ralph snapped.
"What even happened back there?" Kai asked. "I'm still so confused."
"We all are, Kai," Cali sighed, "we all are."
"It was scary as hell," Lucy gasped.
"Nik, are you okay?" Addy insisted.
Clenching my jaw, I passed my hands over my hair and sat down on the bed, and when I opened my eyes, I found myself in my dorm, them surrounding me. "Addy, I'm screwed. I'm so, so, so, so, so screwed," I clapped my eyes closed again, head back on the headboard. "I'm screwed."
"Because you kissed her?" She pressed.
"I'm still shocked you had the guts to do that," Trist gasped.
"She might actually kill you for that, mate," Ralph mocked.
I scoffed bitterly, "She can't kill me."
"I bet she could find a way," Trist giggled. "You did it in front of us."
"She can't kill me," I said firmly. "Fuck. Fuckfuckfuck."
"What... do you mean?" My sister asked slowly.
"I mean I am fucking screwed," I giggled maniacally. "I'm screwed."
"Why...?" They all asked, looking haunted.
"Because," sigh, "Arianna is my mate," I dropped the bomb.
"No way," they mumbled, covering their mouths with their hands in sync.
"I know," I cried, groaning. "I'm screwed."
"Screwed is an understatement," Trist mocked, haunted.
"Now I get why you constantly eat her with your eyes," Ralph scoffed.
I glared at him, "I don't."
"You do," Kai chuckled anxiously.
"Nein, I don't!" I growled annoyed.
My sister bounced her head negatively, "You actually do."
"Soleil!" I gasped. "You are my twin, come on."
"But you do," she chuckled then froze. "Ugh, we are screwed."
"How are you more screwed than me?" I scoffed.
Sigh, "Because Arianna is your damn mate, I'm your sister, she'll be my sister in law, and she'll be with us," she pointed at our friends, "and she's problem. She's chaos on its finest living form."
Rich coming from her or me. "No, she won't."
"She won't what?" She frowned.
"She won't be your sister in law, because she will never accept the bond, Soleil," I scoffed, self-deprecatingly, feeling like screaming. "She will never accept being mated to me. She absolutely hates me, and even if it starts to fade away, she will force herself to keep hating me, because she's that infuriatingly stubborn, and if I try anything, such as keeping her close to me, she will run from me. Because she's terrified, I saw it in her eyes, terror, as pure as it comes, she's absolutely scared of this, of the fact that I'm her mate, because this will go against everything she learned. Plus, her obvious traumas regarding relationships."
"It's the mating bond," my sister stated matter-of-factly.
"She can't run from it," Trist exclaimed.
"It's impossible," Lucy, his mate, added.
"Watch her try doing exactly that," I covered my face with my hands. "I wish I didn't know, I wish I hadn't fucking kissed her, I wish I'd die without ever knowing this, because now it'll be agonizing. Now that we know, now that the bond snapped into place, it will be impossible to ignore. I've seen it happening and my parents told me about it, we studied about it, damn it. I'll want to be with her, to get closer to her, I'll feel murderous if anyone try to get close to her, especially males, and I'll get possessive, territorial, and slowly, I'll began to feel what she feels, and she'll feel the same."
"And there's still three years to go here," my sister finished my thoughts.
I nodded, "I don't think I'll be able to even look at her, or to be in the same room as her, without making her stay near me. And I just know she will force herself, even if she breaks, to fight it, to go against it, all because it's me. All because of this grudge between our families," I cursed. "Fuck, our families will go absolutely insane, Addy."
She cursed, they all did.
"Seems like the Fates are playing you," Trist groaned.
Feeling something hurt inside me, I pressed a hand over my naked chest, "Do you know how she is? What happened to her there? Is she awake?" They all shared weird looks, probably because of my questions and I felt my skin burn, then I curse. "See? I'm screwed. What the hell am I going to do now?"
"Why don't you talk to her?" Lucy suggested and we all stared at her.
"Talk to Arianna?" I mocked. "Me? You really think anything good will come out of us talking in private? Alone? Me and her? Didn't you see how she acted after I kissed her? You really think she'll accept being in the same place as me at all? Arianna? Mahnoor Arianna Bianchini?"
She blushed, "She's your mate, Nik."
"And she hates it!" I snapped. "She loathes it."
"That feeling won't last," she scoffed. "I know from experience," she pointed to Trist, "I am mated to Nero after all, we both know how it's like."
"You were already friends, Lucy, me and Arianna have been archenemies at each other's throats since we freaking met, there's never been peace, only war when it came to us both, we are like the storm and the ocean, angry and in a fight that take many lives on the way. So, no, I don't think she would want to talk to me, even less will I be able to control myself if we stay alone."
"So the kiss was good, uh," Trist provoked.
"Get fucked, Nero," I gave him my middle finger.
"That's a yes," he burst out laughing.
"It's not time to laugh, bastard," I snapped at him.
"You are gloomy for us all together, Nik," he chuckled. "Besides, difficult or not, you found your mate, just like you've always wanted, it's a happy moment, mate, come on, cheer up!"
"Not if my mate is Mahnoor Bianchini," I barked.