CHAPTER TWO: WIDE AWAKE

Eden walked fast. Her fingers shook on the strap of her bag. The hallway behind her was empty again, but it didn't feel quiet anymore. Her whole body buzzed.

What just happened?

Her chest rose and fell too quickly. She turned a corner. Then another. She didn't stop until she was outside, leaning against the wall behind the admin building. Her breath came in short, broken bursts.

She touched her face where his finger brushed her jaw.

Still warm.

She touched her knee next. The one where his hand had rested.

Still shaking.

Her mind tried to make sense of it. Tried to tell her it was nothing. Just a strange meeting. Just a warning. But her body told a different story. Her skin pulsed. Her stomach fluttered. Her thighs pressed together like they needed something.

She had never felt like this.

Not even close.

Kael Draven had touched her twice. That was all. He hadn't kissed her. He hadn't taken her.

But it felt like he had branded her.

You're in heat.

The words rolled through her again. Quiet but heavy. She didn't even know what they meant. But they felt true.

She closed her eyes.

She could still hear his voice in her ear.

If you stay, I won't let you leave untouched.

She opened her eyes again, fast.

This was wrong. It had to be.

He was the dean. She was just a student.

But when he looked at her...

She didn't feel like a girl anymore.

She felt like prey. Like something hunted. Desired. Claimed.

And the worst part?

Some part of her wanted it.

She had to leave. Go back to her dorm. Wash her face. Pretend nothing had happened.

But her legs didn't move right away.

She stood there, in the shadow of the building, breathing in the scent of autumn leaves and cool wind — and underneath it, something darker. Musk. Leather. Power.

Him.

She turned finally and walked toward her dorm.

Each step felt strange. Like her feet weren't quite on the ground.

By the time she reached her room, the heat in her chest hadn't faded.

She sat on her bed and didn't move for a long time.

Only one thought stayed in her head.

What did he do to me?

~•~•

Kael stood in the silence of his office.

The door had closed behind her, but her scent still lingered. Sweet and human. Soft and clean. It filled the space like smoke. It clung to his lungs. His hands were still on the desk, fingers pressed into the wood. Hard.

He could still feel her skin.

That soft spot just under her jaw.

That trembling pulse in her knee.

The way her chest rose when he leaned in.

He shut his eyes.

His wolf clawed at the edge of his mind. It had tasted her fear and her need. The two mixed together like the oldest wine. She had no idea what she was doing to him. She had no idea what it meant when a wolf found his mate.

She should have run.

Instead, she stood there and looked at him with those wide, innocent eyes. She smelled like untouched skin and blooming heat. A virgin. A trigger. A flame held too close to a gas line.

Kael moved to the window and looked out. The students below walked in groups. Laughing. Talking. Living normal lives. Eden was somewhere down there. His eyes narrowed.

She had no idea the danger she was in.

He had kept control for years. Kept his wolf on a tight leash. Even when the board begged him to take over as Principal, he told them no. Too much risk. Too much heat. He liked the shadows. The office of discipline gave him privacy.

But then Eden Vale walked into his halls.

And something old inside him woke up.

She was not just a girl. She was his.

The bond had snapped into place the second he smelled her. Nature did not ask for permission. It took. It claimed. It burned.

And now his world had changed.

He could not let her go.

But she was human.

She did not know what it meant when a werewolf marked a mate. She would not survive the bond if it snapped too fast. She would not understand the hunger. The pain. The need to protect and devour in the same breath.

Kael closed his eyes again.

Control was a lie.

And he had been lying to himself for too long.

Kael moved through the stone hallway beneath the west wing.

Most staff had no idea it even existed. The entrance was behind the old supply closet, masked by scent wards and old concrete. But Kael knew every corner. Every crack in the wall. He had built this space long ago, when the pack still ran openly in the woods.

Now, it was quiet. Hidden. Waiting.

The hallway opened into a large underground room. The walls were made of rough stone. Torches flickered with low flames. In the center, a fire pit burned with red heat, fed by coals that never cooled. Around it were chairs carved from dark wood. Leather and bone. Symbols lined the walls. Ancient ones. Not written in any human tongue.

Three men stood waiting.

Wolves. Not students. Not teachers. His kind.

One of them stepped forward, tall and lean, his eyes a pale yellow that glowed even in the dark. He gave a nod.

"Alpha."

Kael said nothing.

The man spoke again. "We felt it. The change."

Kael walked past him and sat in the largest chair. The fire lit his face from below. Shadows curved over his sharp jaw, his neck, his shoulders. He rested his arms on the sides and looked straight ahead.

"She's human," the second man said. Shorter. Younger. Nervous. "They'll find out."

"No," Kael said.

The third man, older, dark-skinned with thick scars across his throat, stepped forward. His voice rasped. "Then what now? You claim her?"

Kael's eyes flicked up. "Not yet."

"Why?" the young one asked.

Kael growled low in his throat. The sound shut the boy up fast.

"Because if I touch her too soon," Kael said, "she will break. The bond will tear her apart. Her mind, her body. All of it. You think I waited this long just to lose control now?"

The room went quiet.

Kael stood again, slow and tall. The heat from the fire kissed his chest. He walked toward the far wall, where a black cloth covered something tall and narrow. He pulled it down.

Behind it was a mirror.

But it was no mirror.

The glass shimmered, dull and alive. It was a link. An old one. It showed the future in pieces. Sometimes it showed nothing. Tonight, it showed a girl.

Eden.

Lying in bed. Hair spread over her pillow. Her eyes open. Wide. Afraid.

But curious.

She touched her lips like they still remembered his voice.

Kael stared at her image. The others stepped back.

"She doesn't even know what she is yet," he said.

The older man tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

Kael didn't answer.

Because deep down, he wasn't sure either.

He only knew one thing.

She was not like the others.

She had stirred something in him no other human had. And the way her scent clung to his skin... it was more than a bond. It was a warning.

Something old was waking up.

And if he didn't move carefully, it would burn through both of them.

He finished the meeting still in thought.

A virgin.

His.

He knew it the moment she stepped into the hallway. Her scent was soft. New. Unmarked. The kind that made alphas lose their minds. But it wasn't just the purity.

It was her heat.

It called to him. A silent pull beneath his skin. His wolf stirred. His claws threatened to tear through flesh. Not out of rage. But out of need.

Claim.

Mark.

Breed.

He pushed his chair back and stood, walking to the window. He forced a slow breath out. It did nothing.

He could still smell her.

His voice, when he spoke, was low.

"Mine."

The word echoed in the empty room.

He hated how much power she already had over him. A girl with wide eyes and trembling fingers. No idea what she'd walked into.

No idea what he really was.

Kael closed his eyes.

He had worked years to build this life. Control. Power. Boundaries. He was the Alpha, but no one knew. He ruled from the shadows. Ran the school like a fortress. Kept his nature hidden under skin and silence.

Until Eden Vale walked in.

And everything shifted.

He heard her heartbeat before she knocked. He felt the pulse of it when she sat in front of him. Every time she looked at him, something deep inside cracked.

It wasn't just the bond.

It was something older.

Something deeper.

He turned from the window and went to the sink. Ran cold water over his wrists. Watched it drip.

He couldn't touch her.

Not yet.

Not until she knew.

Not until she chose.

Because if he made the first move, it wouldn't stop.

It wouldn't be soft.

And it wouldn't be forgivable.

Kael looked up at his reflection in the mirror above the sink. His eyes were dark. Almost black.

He could hold back from many things.

But not her.

Not forever.