My lover's brother is my fated mate

The door opened again not long after Lucian left.

Adrian stepped in and closed it behind him. He didn't come straight to the bed. He stood there for a second like he wasn't sure what to do with his hands.

"They finally let me in," he said.

I pushed myself up a little against the pillows. My chest still ached but it was better now.

"I'm fine," I told him.

He let out a short breath and walked over. He sat on the edge of the chair Lucian had been using, elbows on his knees, looking at the floor more than at me.

"You're not fine. You passed out in front of the whole pack."

"I know,I tried to stay calm but the bond was just too harsh on me."

We were quiet for a moment. I could hear people moving in the hallway outside.

Adrian rubbed his face with both hands and then looked at me properly.

"We should leave," he said.

I blinked "What?" 

"Leave the pack. Tonight or tomorrow,i can get us out without anyone noticing for a few hours. We go somewhere else,somewhere the Council and all this mate stuff can't reach us."

I stared at him. His voice was steady but his knee was bouncing.

"Adrian"

"I'm serious, Elena. You saw what happened,the way they all looked at you. The way my father talked about consequences. This isn't going to get easy along the way,It's going to get worse."

I shook my head "I can't just run,not just like that ."

"Why not?" 

"Because I don't even understand what's happening yet." I kept my voice low "The bond, the way it felt, that thing I saw before I blacked out? I need to know what it all means,running won't fix any of it."

Adrian looked toward the window for a second, then back at me.

"So what then? We just stay and watch them try to push you and Lucian together?"

"We stay and we keep seeing each other," I said "Secretly,like before, nothing has to change between us unless we let it."

He didn't answer right away. 

"You really won't leave?" he asked.

"Not yet,not like this."

He nodded once, slow. "Alright. Then let's do it your way for now."

He reached over and took my hand. We sat like that until a healer came in to check on me again and told him visiting hours were over.

By the next afternoon the rumors had already started.

I heard them while I was walking back from the infirmary to my family's house. Two older women were talking near the water pump and didn't bother lowering their voices when they saw me.

"trapped him with the bond, that's what she did."

"She must have done something,lucian has never looked at her twice before."

I kept walking and didn't look at them.

Later that evening Adrian found me behind the old storage sheds.

He looked tired.

"They're saying you forced the bond," he said without greeting "that you somehow trapped him."

"I know,they literally gossip me at my front ."

He leaned against the wall beside me, arms crossed.

"My brother's been acting strange too,very unusual.Disappearing for hours,not showing up to training. Last night I saw him leaving the eastern woods long after dark."

I stayed quiet.

Adrian glanced at me.

"I'm going to talk to him."

"Adrian"

"I need to. He's my brother,and if people are going to keep saying you did something to him, I want to hear it from his own mouth."

He left before I could say anything else.

I didn't see Adrian again until much later that night. He came to the side window of my house and tapped once. When I opened it he looked angry.

"What did he say?" I asked.

Adrian climbed in and sat on the edge of my bed.

"I found him near the training grounds,confronted him about the rumors. Asked him straight if he thought you did something to force the bond."

I waited.

Adrian let out a short, bitter laugh.

"He looked at me like I was crazy. Then he said, 'I don't want her.'"

The words sat between us.

"That's all?" I asked.

"That's all. He didn't explain,he just said it again. 'I don't want her, Adrian,make sure she knows that.'" Adrian dragged a hand through his hair "then he walked off."

I sat down beside him.

Neither of us spoke for a while.

Outside, the pack was quiet. Inside my room it felt heavier than before.

Adrian finally looked at me.

"He doesn't want you," he said. "Whatever the Moon did, he doesn't want it. So maybe,maybe we still have a chance to get through this without everything falling apart."

I nodded slowly.

But the bite mark I had seen on Lucian's neck earlier kept coming back to my mind.

And the way he had covered it so fast.