LOGINKAIRAHe took the report from my hand and I sat down. The office was quieter than it had been in the afternoon, no Tracy, no extra presence filling up the corners of the room.Just the lamp on his desk and the sound of him settling back into his chair and the very loud fact that it was seven in the evening and I was the only person in this building who was not a professor.He read through the report without saying anything. I watched him read it because I honestly could not stop watching him. His eyes moved across the page patiencely that suggested he was actually reading it and not just pretending to.I sat with my hands in my lap and waited. He turned a page, turned it back and read something again. I kept my face arranged into an expression I hoped communicated that I was a normal, unbothered person who knew this is no different from any other evening.Then he put the paper down flat on the desk. "The both of you wrote almost the same thing," he said. He looked at the report and th
KAIRAI rushed into our room still carrying the report and my phone and whatever was left of my dignity after that whole situation. Jessica was sitting on her bed doing something with her hands, some new skill she had been trying to learn, her tongue slightly pressed to the corner of her mouth the way she always looked when she was concentrating.She looked up the moment I walked in and whatever expression was on my face must have been something because she dropped the thing in her hands immediately."What happened?" she asked.I couldn't even help it, the laugh came out before I could type a single word. I kicked the door shut behind me and started pulling off my uniform top because if I was going to tell this story, I was going to be comfortable while telling it."Give me one second," I typed and showed her the screen while walking to my side of the room to throw the top on my bed.She watched me and waited, which to her credit took visible effort. I settled at the edge of her bed,
KAIRAThe office was not empty, I stopped in the doorway and for a second my brain genuinely did not know what to do with what my eyes were showing it. There was a woman sitting on Professor Zane's desk like it was hers, her legs crossed at the ankle, very comfortable, very settled, the kind of comfortable that meant she had been comfortable there before.She looked up when I came in and her face arranged itself into something that was polite but not particularly warm."Hi," she said. "Are you looking for the professor?"She looked down at the papers I was holding, Draven's report in one hand and mine in the other, and I nodded."He said he would be back soon," she said, and then turned back to whatever she had been looking at on her phone.I stood there for a second. My options were to wait, which meant staying in the room with a stranger who was already making me feel like I was the one who had walked into the wrong space, or to leave and come back, which was the logical thing to do
KAIRAI tried to find my balance and the moment I did, I stepped back fast because I knew Madison well enough to know that the push was not going to be the only thing coming. She was already lifting her hand again when I moved and instead of landing on me, the momentum carried her forward and she went down hard. It happened so fast that for a second I just stood there staring at her on the ground, trying to process what I had just watched.And honestly? It was a little funny.She was down there doing this whole production of trying to get up with dignity and not quite managing it, and I pressed my lips together and looked at a neutral point in the distance and tried to be a mature person about it.Draven was already beside me. "Are you okay?" he said, his voice low and his eyes doing a quick check like he was running a damage assessment.I nodded.Madison had gotten herself off the floor by then and she was walking back in my direction with a look on her face that said she had moved p
KAIRAI could recognize the voice before I even turned around, and that was the problem. Knowing whose voice it was gave me exactly zero ideas about what to do with my face, so I turned slowly and found a point somewhere around his collar to focus on instead.Professor Zane was standing a few feet behind me and he was looking at the two of us with an expression I could not fully see in the dark, but if I was to go by the energy, it wasn’t warm.Draven's hands were still resting at my waist, I became very aware of this but I didn't move away."She wanted to fall," Draven said, pleasantly, like this was a perfectly ordinary thing to report. "I was lucky enough to catch her.""And you expect me to believe that?" Professor Zane said. He glanced at Draven, then back at me, and then up at the narrow space around us. "In a place like this?" he added.Draven removed his hands from my waist and laughed softly. From the laugh, I could tell that he was entirely unbothered, Draven was never the t
KAIRAI watched them the whole time and I could not stop myself. The new professor crossed the training ground at a comfortable pace, and Professor Zane was already standing in front of the gym by the time she got to him. Like he had been waiting, like he knew she was coming.She said something when she reached him. He listened, and then she pointed toward the gym door behind him, and he turned slightly to look at whatever she was gesturing to, and then the two of them walked through the doors together and disappeared inside.The doors closed and I stood on the training ground staring at the gym like it had personally done something to me."Oh my God." I screamed it entirely inside my head, which was the only place I was allowed to scream anything, and it was very loud in there.I was still staring when the window above the gym doors, the long rectangular one that sat near the top of the wall, Professor Zane appeared briefly on the other side of it, and his eyes came out through that
KAIRAThe moment his lips met mine, I felt every wave of regret wash over me but since I had already done it, I might as well do it right.I moved my lips against his, doubting at first. He didn't respond immediately and panic started to set in. What had I done? This was my professor, the head alph
ALPHA ZANEI was standing by the window in my office, staring out at the grounds of the estate without really seeing them. My mind was elsewhere, replaying last night over and over again. The way she had looked at me in that dark room. The way her body had felt when I pulled her close. The way she
KAIRA“Go meet him?? Oh my God," I typed quickly, showing the screen to Jessica.Jessica looked at me with an apologetic expression. "I can't go with you though," she said before I could even finish typing my next message.I frowned immediately, my heart sinking. The thought of facing Professor Zan
KAIRAAs she asked that question, my eyes widened and I didn't know how I could answer or where to start from.Jessica was staring at me now, waiting for an explanation, her fork suspended in mid-air. Her mother had stepped further into the room, curiosity written all across her face.I set down my







