in'

I was gatherin

line beyond the academy fence and watched the students move b

, always with the same three people, the tall boy who talked too much, the sharp girl who w

he ate lunch at the same table, spent her free periods near the old oak against the east wall, and laughed diffe

ndow was hers b

t was still infor

e, a girl passing her on the path between buildings, and it

a Moo

ed back through the forest and spent the entire journey reminding myself wha

p as much as i

*

her first shift, my

ays carried. No weakness. Nothing missing. According to everything I had been taught, I should have lost it by now. The legend was specific. Miss

not a

the warning every Alpha before me had carried was not entirely accurate. A story repeated so many times it had s

ognition move across her face through the window, confusion first, then clarity, then the stillness

Her eyes widened slightly

r school. I have one request. I want to enroll at Draven Wolf Academy. My name stays as Ravin. My

"You want to enr

es

At this

s what

to. She was weighing her options and finding, as most people did in a

y word that nothing will threate

owly. "This st

plet

n. "You sta

warning passed between pack elders, not as a face, and I intended to keep it that way. Walking into a school full of wolves who would scatter at the sight o

*

second day, though I had

ly walked into each other. She stepped back and i stepped back. She looked up at me and someth

," she

I said, and

t lasted four minutes and felt longer. She was curious about me the way sharp people were curious about things they could not immediate

d away the same t

pposed to

ded softer than the last. Since I knew her name, since I had heard her laugh, s

d thrown back mid laugh, her friends around her and the th

was born, without asking my permission, in

s the one person I was never supposed to let mys