LOGINI ran until my lungs burned and my legs shook, until the hallways blurred into a maze of stone and shadow.I didn’t know where I was going, I just needed distance from the lecture hall, from the commander’s shocked face, from the snickers that had followed me out the door.My pulse thrashed in my ears, drowning out everything but the compulsion to get away from the memory of a sharp-mouthed asshole with silver-grey eyes who had absolutely no business affecting me the way he did.My boots skidded slightly against the polished floor as I made a sharp turn, ignoring the sting of the cool air on my cheeks. I didn’t stop until I reached the right wing—too far, too quiet, and rumored to be cursed enough that most students avoided it unless they needed a place to nap or cry or hide. Or, apparently, have a complete breakdown.The right-wing bathrooms were infamous: two years ago someone had been maimed in here, a brutal attack no one could ever fully explain.The lights were dim, the mirrors
If there was a prize for pretending to pay attention, I’d have won it by now—gold medal, trophy, plaque, maybe even my name engraved on Norsen’s wall of fame. But the universe—or rather, the moon goddess—had other plans, because absolutely nothing the commander was saying about war brokering and territorial accords was sticking to my brain.Not one word.Not even a letter.I was supposed to be learning how to broker peace between warring realms.Instead I was learning how many seconds I could survive before my body betrayed me again.The lecture hall was packed, rows of students hunched over notebooks, the commander at the front droning on about territorial treaties and blood-oath clauses.His voice was a dull hum, like bees trapped behind glass.All I could focus on was the persistent, traitorous buzz happening between my legs, the kind that made my thighs twitch under the desk. I shifted for the eighth time in ten minutes, silently praying my chair wasn’t noticing how much I hated
I parked the car just outside the border, legend had it that dark forces lingered in the old kingdom, a place that vanished without a trace and I wasn’t about to become dinner for whatever demon was lurking out there.We found the gates of the old beastiary after an hour’s trek, a shimmering tear in the air, like heat rising off black stone. Everything felt dark and hauntingKiyan hesitated at the gates. “Last chance to turn back. You don’t want to die without knowing what sex during rut feels like.”I stepped through without a word.The darkness of the place swallowed us whole. My heart beat traveled a mile, a minute, my fingers trembled and I struggle to slow my breathing, creating the illusion of calmness.Shadows were everywhere—twisting trees with leaves like ink, the skies were perpetually twilight, the air was thick with the scent of damp earth and forgotten magic. The ground squelched under our boots, and whispers rode the wind, half-heard voices that made my skin crawl.Sius
The hallway was a ghost town at this hour—midnight had come and gone, and the academy slept under a blanket of silence broken only by the distant hoot of an owl. I leaned against the wall, bag slung over one shoulder, filled with essentials: dagger, cloak, a few potions from the black market, and the scroll we’d stolen. My blood hummed with adrenaline, and rut, every shadow feeling like it hid eyes watching me.Kiyan arrived exactly on time, because of course he did. He always moved like someone who expected to be graded for punctuality. Bag packed, expression set in that grim determination I’d seen during battles we weren’t supposed to survive.“This better be worth missing Seraphine’s warmth,” he muttered, handing me one of the flashlights we’d grabbed from storage.“It is,” I said, clicking mine on. The beam cut through the dark. “The Realm of Shadows holds the origins of the Mark. We will go to the halls of dread just outside of Norsen at the banks of the shadow river. The old war
Silent for four years. Silent since Rivan died. Silent through every night I wished I weren’t alive. Silent through the guilt, the nightmares, the loneliness.Until now.And what does he choose to say, after four years of silence?We need to mate.His voice cut through my skull again, rough and impatient:We need her.I pressed my palms over my eyes. Of all times you finally speak, this is the one you choose? Not when I begged for strength? Not when everything was falling apart? Now? Now, when I can barely think straight?We cannot reject her. She is ours.Mate. Now. Claim her. Mark her. Fill her.The words hit like a punch. My wolf—my silent, grieving wolf was back, and all he wanted was the one thing I couldn’t give him.Shut up, I snarled internally. Of all the times to wake up, you choose now?She’s ours. Take her. Knot her. Breed her.Safe to say the rut made him just as insane as I was.Shut up, I snarled back internally, the frustration boiling beneath my ribs. You stayed sile
The first mistake I made was agreeing to do this here. I sat in Kiyan’s room, surrounded by a fortress of yellowed scrolls and ancient tomes that smelled like dust and forgotten wars. Kiyan’s room always looks like it’s trying too hard to pretend it’s in order. Scrolls stacked in crisp piles. Everything aligned like soldiers waiting for inspection. Everything tidy, everything proper, except the scent in the air that completely ruins the illusion.Beneath the candle smoke and parchment, beneath whatever incense he burns, there’s still that lingering musk of rut and sex clinging to the walls like it knows it belongs here.The air was thick, heavy with the weight of secrets we’d been unearthing for hours, but my mind wasn’t on the parchment anymore. It was on her. Always her, these days. The rune on my chest pulsed faintly with every breath, a constant reminder that my body wasn’t my own anymore, not since the mate bond snapped into place like a trap I’d walked straight into.Kiyan







