KALEN I felt like our talk provided some healing on both of our parts. It helped to put all of our cards on the table and be on the same page. Just like I had expected, he felt horrible when he found out that I could feel him with others. Him breaking down because of him sleeping with the dead bitch was unexpected, but it proved to me that the fully understood and accepted fault for what happened. It might seem to early to say it definitively, but I knew that he would never willingly do it again. It was a gut instinct, and those had never let me down before. I was also relieved that he wanted to share the suite with me. Despite everything that happened, I felt safe around him. I needed that, especially right now when I was still trying to come to terms with everything that happened during my vacation with the mysterious Calvin Fucking Stark. I had Mom set up an impromptu meeting regarding everything that I discovered. It was time to pull in the big guns because this affects everyon

MADDOX This day was shaping up to be completely different than I had expected. Honestly, my mind was about ready to completely explode right now. I knew that Kalen had told me that she would stand up for me, but I had not anticipated her doing towards her father. She stood there, unafraid, and unwilling to back down. I thought that hearing about the bond was a shock to him. Not only because she was yet to reach eighteen. Then something unforeseen and completely shocking happened. He accepted me. Even more shocking was that her mother gave me a hug. Goddess, it had been such a long time since anyone actually embraced me for completely platonic reasons. It felt weird because it was new, but it felt like I had come home if that made any sense. It did not make sense to me, but I just rolled with it. Everyone decided to shut it down for the day so that some of them could do research on the Demacores. Whatever the fuck those were. I could not believe that my fa– Calvin got involved in th

KALEN I woke up this morning surrounded in warmth and tingles. The feeling was amazing and something I could definitely get used to. I totally understood why mates were so touchy feely. The sparks were incredible. It took me a minute to remember what happened last night. I woke up with my heart pounding in my chest and memories all mixed up in my head. The line between reality and fantasy was blurred. Then Maddox came in and helped me to calm down. He helped me to realize what was real. The way that he helped me during one of my weakest moments made me realize that I wanted us to have a fresh start. He was not even upset when I told him that intimacy might take a while. He understood my reasoning. He just accepted it. He promised to never break my trust again and promised to fight for me. I almost started to cry when I heard those words because it was something that I longed for since I learned about what would happen after the bond snapped into place. I slept soundly, wrapped up

KALEN I still could not wrap my head around what Bianca did. She set me up to where I had to strip off my clothes and streamed it. There had been a full-length mirror in front of me, showing my front as well. I had no idea what would have happened if Maddox had not come in when he did. He saved me once again. Then he brought Bianca, and had Zion bring two idiots who had been watching it on their phone, to the headmaster’s office. My mate demanded that something be done or else he would not stop until all hell broke loose and the new headmaster lost his job. In the end, we went home, and he held me while I broke down. I had never felt so violated in my life. He just held me while I got everything out. We must have fallen asleep at some point. The next thing that I knew, my eyes opened up to see Selene’s realm. Next to me stood my mate. I could feel his absolute awe as he looked around us. It was understandable because I was still in awe even though I had been here before. “Where a

KALEN I reached out to Angel once we woke up from our trip to the Godly Realm. I still could not fully comprehend everything. Maddox was the key to wiping out the Demacores. It literally would not be possible to end this war without him. I really prayed that meeting his mother and all of that would help him heal some from the trauma of his past. That was the thing about trauma though – it could embed itself so deeply into who you were that it created a version of yourself, which was marred by it. Before we left out, I went into the bathroom and looked at my back in the mirror. There was not a single mark on it. With tears in my eyes, I called Maddox to come see. His jaw dropped some in amazement. He had seen the scars because of the bullshit with Bianca. He had also felt so damn guilty for what Calvin had done. His fingers reached out and trailed along the silky-smooth skin. A shiver went down my spine and straight to my core. His touch was featherlight. Sparks rushed through me. I