Chapter Five

The cafeteria roared with life, a chaotic wave of voices, footsteps, and clattering dishes. Lunar magelights hung in crystalline clusters from the ceiling, shifting hue with the noise level — bright gold where laughter was loudest, softer amber in quieter corners. The walls themselves hummed faintly beneath their stone skin, pulsing with the lifeflow that fed the entire building.

Normally, the place felt warm and alive, a gathering hall where every Shifter’s energy mingled in a vibrant, humming current.

Today, the air pressed too heavily against Elora’s skin.

She and Kailee stepped into the current of bodies, weaving between students until they spotted Zayden waving dramatically from one of the central tables.

“About time!” he called, standing halfway from his seat. “Lunch is practically over!”

Kailee rolled her eyes. “It’s been twelve seconds, Storm.”

He grinned. “Which is practically an eternity when you’re starving.”

Elora didn’t answer. She forced a breath past the tightness in her chest and followed Kailee to the table.

Gregory sat beside Zayden.

His posture was immaculate — shoulders back, spine straight, hands folded neatly on the table — but there was a tension in him like a barely contained storm. His plate was untouched. His gaze was unfocused.

No. Not unfocused.

Searching.

And when his eyes found hers, the world seemed to tilt.

“Sit,” Zayden urged, sliding over to make space. “The food’s actually decent today. Someone said the kitchen staff got yelled at, so everything tastes better out of fear.”

Kailee snorted and dropped into the seat beside him. “That’s encouraging.”

Elora sat stiffly across from Gregory, her wolf pacing beneath her skin. She reached for her drink, more for something to hold than for thirst.

Zayden leaned toward Kailee, dropping his voice. “The head chef literally cried earlier. And let me tell you—”

Kailee cut him off with a laugh. “Zay, you’re terrible.”

“Terribly honest,” he corrected.

Their banter wrapped the table in warmth — a familiar rhythm of teasing that had filled Elora’s school years like a heartbeat. For a few seconds, she tried to let the normalcy hold her.

But beside Zayden, Gregory didn’t join in.

He wasn’t laughing.

He wasn’t smiling.

He wasn’t eating.

He sat perfectly still, like a statue dropped into the middle of chaos, and yet the air around him felt wrong — too cold, too stagnant.

Kailee nudged Elora gently. “You okay?”

“Fine,” Elora said automatically, though her voice was thin.

She glanced at Gregory again.

His eyes were gold normally — a warm, bright hue common among dominant wolves. But now, in the flickering cafeteria light, the gold seemed sickly. Dark veins laced through the irises, faint but unmistakable, like cracks forming beneath the surface.

Gregory looked away from her for a moment, turning toward Zayden.

“You’re quiet,” Zayden said, nudging him with an elbow. “Quiet enough to make even me nervous.”

Gregory blinked slowly, as if remembering how to respond. “Just tired.”

“Still?” Kailee asked. “You were tired yesterday too.”

“Father’s been keeping me up late,” Gregory said with a faint smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “More strategy meetings. More preparation.”

“For after graduation?” Zayden asked, eyebrows raised.

Gregory nodded. “He wants me ready.”

“For the trials?” Kailee asked.

“For everything,” Gregory murmured.

There was something strange in the way he said it — like the word everything stretched farther and darker than it should.

Zayden tried to lighten the mood. “That’s the royal life, I guess. Not a lot of downtime when you’re the next Alpha King.”

Gregory didn’t laugh. He didn’t even smile properly.

“Responsibility isn’t something to celebrate,” he said softly. “It’s a weight.”

Kailee lifted a brow. “Still doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy life before it crushes you.”

For a moment, Gregory’s lips curved — but Elora wasn’t sure if it was amusement or something else entirely.

She reached for her fork but paused when a shift in the air brushed across her senses.

Her wolf stiffened.

Gregory had turned his attention back to her.

His gaze swept her slowly — too slowly — like he was assessing a weapon, not a person. His eyes darkened again, a pulse of black threading through the gold before fading.

Elora swallowed hard. It felt as though invisible fingers brushed the back of her mind.

Not touching.

Testing.

Her pulse quickened.

Gregory tilted his head slightly. “You’re pale,” he said, voice low. “Did you eat breakfast?”

Kailee bristled instantly. “She’s fine.”

Gregory didn’t look away. “You look… different.”

Elora forced a steady breath. “I’m tired. That’s all.”

“That’s not all,” Gregory murmured, almost too quietly to hear.

Zayden frowned, sensing tension. “Greg, ease up.”

Gregory blinked again — too slowly — then offered Zayden a placid smile.

But the wrongness didn’t leave him.

The air around Elora chilled slightly, a whisper of frost settling against her spine. Something flickered at the edges of her vision — a shift in the shadows beneath the table.

She glanced down.

For a heartbeat, the shadow under Gregory’s chair pulsed.

Not moved.

Not stretched.

Pulsed.

Like something inside it had breathed.

Her wolf snapped to full alert, ears flat, teeth bared inside her chest.

Elora jerked her gaze back up, heart hammering.

She blinked once, twice — and the shadow was normal again. Just dark space collected beneath the chair.

Her throat felt tight.

She reached for her drink just to steady her hands. Her fingers trembled.

Kailee leaned closer. “Lor?”

Elora forced her lips into a faint smile, though it felt brittle. “Just a headache.”

“You want to go to the healer? Or—”

“No. I’m fine.”

A lie.

A flimsy one.

Zayden launched into another exaggerated story about accidentally setting a practice dummy on fire during combat class the day before. Kailee laughed, swatting his arm, and for a moment the world around them regained its noisy, chaotic normalcy.

But Elora couldn’t shake the sensation of being watched.

She glanced again at Gregory.

He wasn’t looking at her now. He stared down at his untouched plate, jaw tense, hands clasped so tightly the knuckles whitened. Shadows curled faintly beneath his chair — nothing unnatural, not now, but her wolf wasn’t convinced.

Something inside him was shifting.

Something ancient.

Something cold.

Her dream echoed behind her eyes — the smell of ash, the darkness swallowing the forest, the unknown presence pulling the faceless man away.

And the whisper:

Run.

“Elora?” Zayden asked suddenly. “You’re zoning out again.”

She blinked and forced herself back into the conversation. “Sorry.”

Kailee reached under the table and squeezed her hand once, gently. A grounding touch. A reminder she wasn’t alone.

But her wolf remained still, coiled tightly inside her chest, watching Gregory with unblinking attention.

Lunch dragged on, the energy at the table ebbing and rising around her. When the bell finally rang, Elora stood quickly, her pulse still tight under her skin.

Kailee slung her bag over her shoulder. “We’ve got combat next. You ready?”

Elora nodded. “Yeah.”

Combat. Movement. Clarity. She needed that.

Zayden grinned. “I swear, Lor, one day you’ll teach me how to land a clean disarm on Renna.”

Elora managed a faint smile. “One day.”

Gregory rose last.

He didn’t look at her.

But Elora felt something like a cold fingertip trace her spine anyway.

When he walked away, she had to swallow down the urge to shift — to run.

Kailee noticed.

“Hey,” she murmured, looping her arm through Elora’s. “We’ll keep an eye on him. An eye on everything. You’re not imagining this. Something’s off.”

Elora nodded stiffly.

But deep down, she already knew.

Her wolf wasn’t warning her about Gregory.

It was warning her about what was inside him.

And the shadows around her were listening.