Chapter 65: Something Is Wrong

Astrid

I woke up feeling relieved, which was such an unfamiliar sensation lately that it took me a second to place it. No immediate disaster waiting. The project notes were recovered. Selene had faced consequences. For once, nothing felt like it was about to fall apart the moment I got out of bed.

I got ready for class, grabbing my things, and my eyes landed on my phone sitting on the desk where I’d left it charging overnight. Ivy had practically bullied me into getting one after our wilderness trip, insisting I couldn’t keep living like I’d wandered out of another century. I’d agreed eventually, mostly to make her stop bringing it up.

I still barely used it. Forgot to charge it half the time. Left it buried at the bottom of my bag for entire days without checking a single message. The only reason I remembered it this morning was because Ivy had complained loudly last weekend about searching the entire dorm floor trying to find me.

I glanced at the screen. A few messages from her, nothing urgent. I slid it into my pocket and headed out.

Ivy and Camilla were already talking about Selene by the time I found them before class, the whole academy apparently buzzing with the story of the twins’ project saboteur getting caught red-handed. Ivy looked delighted about it. Camilla had heard an even more exaggerated version already circulating.

I didn’t want to dwell on it too much. I was simply happy the project was safe.

Then Ivy noticed I kept glancing toward the hallway.

"What are you waiting for?" she asked.

"Nothing," I said.

I was expecting Reed and Xander, if I was honest. After everything with Selene, things between the three of us had felt normal again. I assumed today would continue that way.

Then Reed walked past.

Something felt off immediately.

Normally he’d at least acknowledge me properly. Today he gave me a brief nod and kept walking, nothing more. I found myself staring after him longer than I meant to.

In class, I noticed even more. He was distracted, still answering questions correctly, still taking notes, but something underneath it all felt wrong, tense in a way I hadn’t seen from him before. Like he was forcing himself to stay focused through sheer effort.

At one point I reached across the desk for a book, and my fingers accidentally brushed his hand.

He pulled away instantly. Not rudely. Almost instinctively, like his body had reacted before his brain caught up.

I froze. He glanced at me for half a second, his expression difficult to read, then looked away entirely.

I started wondering if I’d done something wrong. Maybe he regretted everything that had happened since the ball. Maybe he’d decided distance was easier after all.

But if that were true, why did he look like being near me actually hurt him?

I ran into Xander later, and that was somehow even stranger. Xander was usually impossible to ignore, always teasing me about something, stealing food off my plate, finding some ridiculous excuse to bother me until I laughed despite myself.

Today, nothing.

I made a sarcastic comment expecting the usual comeback. Instead he gave me a tight smile.

"Very funny," he said, and walked off.

I watched him go, thoroughly confused. A while later I caught him looking at me, not casually, actually staring, and the second our eyes met, he turned away fast.

Then I noticed something else. He was keeping his distance too, physically, deliberately choosing not to stand close to me the way he usually did without thinking about it.

Both of them, doing the exact same thing.

Neither one explaining why.

That evening I returned to the shared apartment, expecting to find them working on the project like usual. They were there, but the moment I walked in, both of them tensed visibly.

I stopped in the doorway. "Did I interrupt something?"

"No," Xander said quickly.

"We can continue working later," Reed added.

I was confused. They’d never acted like this before. I asked if something had happened. Neither answered properly.

"I need to go somewhere," Xander said.

"I’ll go with him," Reed said.

I watched them both leave, the door closing behind them, and stood there alone in the apartment feeling completely lost.

My first thought went straight to the bond. Maybe they finally regretted it. Maybe this was them creating distance after everything I’d put them through the night of the ball.

But there had been something else in their expressions, something I couldn’t quite place.

I pulled out my phone and, after staring at it for a second, called Ivy. She was probably the only person I could ask without making the whole situation more awkward than it already was.

She answered almost immediately, teasing me for actually using my phone for once. I told her to shut up, and she laughed, which helped a little.

Then I explained everything. Reed avoiding me. Xander avoiding me. Both of them tense whenever I was nearby.

"Maybe you’ve finally made two princes nervous," she joked.

"It’s not that," I said, and explained further, how different they seemed, how deliberately they were keeping their distance, how Reed had pulled away the second I touched his hand.

Her joking tone faded. "How long have they been acting like this?"

I thought about it. "Just today."

"Have they been eating normally?" she asked.

I wasn’t sure. I remembered Xander barely touching his food at lunch, though I hadn’t thought much of it at the time.

"Have they been sleeping?"

Again, I didn’t know.

Then she asked something more specific. "Have they been unusually warm?"

I paused. Yes, actually. I’d noticed it without really registering it, the heat radiating off both of them whenever they got close.

Ivy went quiet on the other end of the line.

She started asking a few more questions, careful, precise, and I answered what I could. Restless. Avoiding me. Tense. Warm. Clearly struggling to control themselves whenever I was near.

Something in her voice shifted entirely once I finished.

"What?" I asked.

She hesitated.

"Ivy."

A longer pause this time.

"Astrid," she said finally, "I think they’re entering their rut."

I went completely still. I’d heard the word before, vaguely, in passing conversations I’d never paid much attention to. I never imagined it could have anything to do with Reed and Xander.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

She didn’t answer right away.

"You really don’t know what happens to an alpha during a rut, do you?"