Chapter 47: Worlds apart

"I’m finished," I said, pushing the empty plate aside.

I glanced around the sunlit dining room, my gaze chancing upon a vaguely familiar girl. For a second, I felt like I had seen her before—and not just her. Sitting beside her were several extraordinarily stunning females.

Immaculate, dressed in designer clothes, with flawless hair, they repeatedly shot glances in our direction, their eyes dripping with greedy curiosity and poorly veiled envy. Though, in all honesty, they were probably just admiring Magnus.

And who could blame them? Magnus was terrifyingly, hypnotically handsome, and half the campus was utterly obsessed with him. Swarms of girls chased after him, and there was even an unofficial fan club that whispered about him in the restrooms, though very few ever dared to actually approach him.

His reputation at the university was downright lethal.

Even now, remembering the gossip I’d overheard from the girls at the club sent a cold shiver down my spine. It was insane how desperately they lusted after him, fully aware that he was ruthless—and, as the rumors claimed, brutally dominant in bed. That didn’t scare them off. If anything, it drew them in like moths to a flame.

"Then let’s go," Magnus said, standing up abruptly and cutting our brief moment of peace short.

As we stepped out of the cafe and walked toward his car, I could feel the sharp stares of those girls burning into my back.

"I can make my own way back to the dorm," I offered, struggling to match his long, easy strides and practically jogging to keep up.

"We aren’t going to the dorm."

"Where are we going, then?" I froze for a fraction of a second before rushing after him, realizing that shouting at his broad back was a terrible idea. "Don’t take this the wrong way, but I need to study. I’m going to be busy all day..."

"And what exactly are you going to be busy with, Lang?" Magnus asked, pausing by the passenger door and slanting a cold look over his shoulder. "If I remember correctly, Sunday is supposed to be your day off."

I blinked several times, feeling the ground give way beneath my feet. How? How did he know Sunday was my day off? I hadn’t told a soul. Even Annie didn’t always know my exact work schedule.

"Don’t look so surprised. I made it my business to find out where you work and what your schedule looks like."

"Why? You didn’t... you didn’t..." I gasped, a cold sweat breaking out across my back.

Magnus turned his entire body toward me. Caught off guard by my own momentum, I stepped too close, almost slamming into his rock-hard chest before his hands shot out and caught me by the shoulders. His palms were scorching, heavy and possessive even through the thick knit of my sweater. He leaned down, his face so close I was entirely engulfed by his scent.

Looking straight into my eyes, he said, "I need to know where my mate wanders. A little cafe with fluffy rodents is a far cry from a filthy bar full of perverts. I’m not a monster."

Heat flared through my body at those words, sharp and sudden, like an electric shock. My mate. He viewed me as his mate, and for the first time, he had said it out loud, directly to my face.

Not just a piece of property, not just a breeder, but his mate. My heart hammered wildly against my ribs, choking off my air supply. I couldn’t tell which emotion overwhelmed me more—a primal, animalistic fear, or a strange, dark thrill that sent a shiver straight down my spine.

***

On Sunday morning, I woke up with a head that felt as heavy as lead.

It was all because of the sheer chaos that had greeted me when Magnus dropped me off at the dormitory the previous afternoon. I had walked straight into a construction zone.

An entire crew of workers had taken over the room, carelessly shoving all of our belongings into the center and covering them with plastic sheets while they systematically patched every crack in the walls. A full, impossibly expensive renovation was underway. By the time I arrived, they were already packing up their tools, but seeing Magnus step through the door sent them into a panic, stammering apologies for the slight delay.

As it turned out, when they went to replace the rotten window sill, the decaying masonry beneath it had completely crumbled into dust. They had been forced to rush out for extra materials to rebuild and reinforce the entire wall structure from scratch.

An older man who appeared to be leading the crew wrung his cap nervously in his hands, rambling on to Magnus about how abysmal the building conditions were—how the walls were practically hollow and the electrical wiring was a fire hazard waiting to happen.

Magnus listened in dead silence, his brow furrowing deeper with every word, driving the workers into a frenzied rush to wrap up.

In the middle of the chaos, he had coolly announced that I was no longer living there.

He simply stated it as an absolute fact, declaring the dorm a dump unfit for my habitation. I had been forced to summon every ounce of willpower I possessed to fight for my right to stay.

A fierce clash erupted between us, escalating almost to a full-blown shouting match. He exerted his crushing Alpha pressure, but I dug in my heels, refusing to let him uproot my life.

Every single interaction with him only reinforced how worlds apart we were.

He could never comprehend what it meant to fight for one’s independence—to cling to it with your teeth when it was the only thing you had left. He had been born with a gold spoon in his mouth, dominance and authority woven into his very bloodline. I, on the other hand, had nothing in this world except my freedom.

After dressing quickly and splashing icy water over my face to shock away the remaining fog of sleep, I took a moment to survey the room. It practically radiated quality. Crisp wallpaper, a perfectly smooth ceiling, a sturdy new window sill, and a heavy, solid steel door to replace the flimsy cardboard panel that had been there before.