Page 56 of Glitched Fates & Stolen Mates

My chest heaved as I continued to catch my breath, still clutching the hoodie like evidence in a murder trial. The streetlight above us flickered, casting shifting shadows across Kit’s anguished features.

“Can you just… tell me what the hell is going on?” I said, before adding, “Else I’m calling Seb.”

Kit flinched like I’d physically struck him. “Okay,” he said. He took a deep breath, ran his hand through his hair.

A car passed, its headlights sweeping across the pavement before disappearing around the corner. Kit’s mouth opened and closed several times, like he was rehearsing words in his head.

Finally, he spoke. “Do you… Do you believe in soulmates?”

I stared at him. That was absolutely the last thing I’d expected him to say. Nervous laughter slipped out of me before I could stop it, high-pitched and slightly hysterical.

“Soulmates?” I repeated, my heart skipping about ten beats. “Like… like Rory and Theo?”

“Aye,” he said quickly, like he was relieved I’d made the connection. “Like Rory and Theo.”

He stared at me as if waiting for me to say something else. Or maybe waiting for me to figure out what he was trying to say. His eyes were wide and desperate, searching my face for some kind of understanding that I definitely didn’t have.

My brain felt like it was running through treacle. Soulmates. Kit asking about soulmates whilst standing on a dark London street after I’d just discovered my stolen hoodie in his bed.

The pieces were there, floating around in my head, but I couldn’t quite make them fit together into a coherent picture that made any sense.

“You’re mine, Felix,” he said. “You’re my mate.”

The world tilted sideways, streetlights streaking into blurred lines of orange. Oxygen vanished from my lungs as my knees buckled, and I had to press my back harder against the brick wall to keep from sliding down it completely.

Mine.

Mate.

The hoodie slipped from my numb fingers, hitting the pavement.

Everything went white around the edges. Sound became muffled, like I was underwater. Kit’s mouth was moving, but I couldn’t hear the words over the roaring in my ears.

Snap.

Kit swam back into focus, his face inches from mine. His hands were clenched into fists at his sides, and his grey eyes flashed like lightning in storm clouds.

“No.” My head whipped back and forth. “No, Kit. No. That’s not right. It can’t be.”

His eyebrows drew together, lips pressing into a thin line. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice just above a whisper. “But it’s true. I’ve known since the moment I met you. That’s how it is with some wolves. The second I laid eyes on you, I felt it. This pull inside me. This intense desire to be close to you. To… be with you.”

My head had been moving the entire time he spoke. Violently shaking back and forth like some broken toy stuck on repeat.

“No. It can’t be. It must be some sort of glitch. A glitch in the matrix.”

He shook his head slowly, sadly. “It’s okay, Felix. I get it. Please don’t panic. I’m obviously not asking you to be with me, or anything crazy like that.” He laughed hollowly. “I know you’re in love with Wren. That you’ll never like me… like that. But I wanted to tell you. To be honest with you. Finally. You deserve that.”

I looked at the hoodie at my feet. At him. My brain was buffering, trying to process information that didn’t compute.

“But… why were you at SEVENTEEN earlier?”

His eyes widened with something I recognised as fear. Pure, undiluted terror.

And suddenly, I knew.

Knew with absolute certainty.

“Oh my God. It was you, wasn’t it?” The words poured out of me. All those times I’d felt eyes on me. All those times I’d convinced myself I was being paranoid. “You, all along? My… my stalker? That man, outside my house?”