Chapter 6: Suspicious Wolf (Cassian’s POV)

The silence that hung between us wasn’t peaceful. It was thick, stiff and heavy in the very corners of the room like dust no one dared to sweep.

Val didn’t answer my question.

Didn’t even flinch.

Just climbed into bed and pulled the blanket up like I hadn’t asked a damn thing.

And that pissed the hell out of me. I was the alpha dammit and when I asked a question, I expect an answer almost immediately.

“Who the hell are you?” I said again, quieter this time, more to myself.

I was surprised by the quiet tone I was taking with him, when everything in me wanted to grab him and shake some answers out of him.

I waited but still, nothing came out of it.

His back was turned, his breathing steady. Either he was fast asleep–which will be too fucking fast—or pretending.

I sat there for a moment, jaw tight, fingers drumming once against my knee before I pushed up from the bed.

Fine. If he didn’t want to answer, that was his problem, but I wasn’t letting this... situation continue.

I need to toughen up and brave through this shit but I will give myself a pass for today because it's the first time.

But henceforth, I'm taking matters serious and I'm going to show him who is the lead of this school even though the thought didn't appeal to me.

Arrrgh!!! What the fuck is wrong with me?

He may have gotten through the first fight and may have fooled half the crowd with that accidental takedown.

But he couldn’t fool me. I was unto him and I swear by the moon I'm going figure out what this thing is.

I don't even want to believe it's attraction because I will never be caught dead with a guy.

Pushing out of my bed, I crossed the room slowly, shutting off the main light and letting the blue-white glow from the moon through the high windows bleed across the floor. The shadows looked better on him.

He looked... small. Something that kept bothering me.

Especially for an alpha, he is too small for this place and too quiet. This school is made for only alphas for a reason.

And this pretty boy is not suited for this place. Did I just think of him as pretty?

No alpha walked around here like that and none took an insult like she did lying. Not even the female alphas.

I wasn’t a complete bastard, but Dominion wasn’t made for the soft and I was not going to have some softie in my room.

I still don't know what the headmaster was thinking giving me a roommate.

So I set the rules—clear, cold, and sharp.

“Here’s how this is going to work.”

Val didn’t move.

I continued anyway.

“No foolish questions. No noise. And definitely no show of weakness. You stay in your corner, I stay in mine.”

Still no reply. Maybe he thought silence was safety. But this wasn’t a pack for friends. In fact there was no pack here. The strong rise and the weak fall. 

That is how it is supposed to be. This was Dominion. People here didn’t let silence speak. They crushed it at the top of their lungs.

“You break those rules, I’ll break you.”

That got a twitch. Just a tiny one. A shoulder tightening under the blanket.

I almost smiled. Almost.

But instead, I turned and headed to my side, pulled off my hoodie and tossed it onto the chair. 

My bed creaked a little under my weight as I sat down, leaning forward, elbows on knees, watching him.

He didn’t move.

I lay back and stared at the ceiling, the wooden beams above me catching the shadows like claw marks.

My mind should’ve been on Raven. Or the next training session.

Instead, it was on him. And it pissed me off.

The scent I caught earlier still haunted the back of my throat.

Not strong. Probably mistakable. But it was definitely there.

It felt wrong and totally off. Like something was trying to hide it.

My wolf shifted restlessly beneath my skin, and I had to close my eyes for a moment to keep it down.

Eventually, sleep crept in. But it wasn't much. Uneasy.

When I woke up, it was still dark. The kind of dark that screamed daybreak was just on the horizon. Sleep fled me as I heard him breathing. Soft and calm.

I wanted to listen more but with a grunt of disgust, I shoved my pillow over my head. 

I'm so getting this boy out of my room.

But as I concentrated on blocking out the sound, my nose picked on something. It smelled familiar yet strange because this place should be the last place to percieve the smell. 

Curious, and unable to block the smell, just as it was difficult to block his damn sound, I decided to hunt for the source.

I sat up silently, eyes narrowing toward the corner of the room.

His bag was open.

A vial sat half-buried in the lining of his satchel, the faint shimmer of green liquid catching a flash of moonlight.

Wolfsbane.

My blood iced.

What the hell was an alpha doing with that?

I stood, bare feet soundless against the floor, and crouched down. He didn’t stir.

I picked it up and sniffed.

Definitely wolfsbane. No mistake.

I held it there for a long moment, fingers curling tighter around the vial.

I could taste the lie now, threaded through everything about him. The way he moved, the way he spoke—or didn’t. The way his scent barely stirred when I was near.

Because he was suppressing it.

Why?

Why would an alpha need to dull their scent?

Unless...

Unless Val wasn’t what he said he was.

I rose slowly, heart beating a little faster than I liked to admit.

And as I looked down at him—still sleeping, face peaceful in the dark—I knew something for sure:

He was hiding something.

And I’d find out what.

Even if I had to burn through every lie he fed me or the whole school.

I held the vial up to the moonlight and whispered under my breath, “What are you hiding, Val?"