SIX MONTHS LATER

Aurelia's POV 

Six months later~

The heavy iron gates of Blackridge Academy groaned as they swung open, letting in a freezing wind from the northern mountains.

I stepped out of the black transport car, the gravel crunching beneath the souls of my leather boots. I didn't look at the students who immediately froze on the walkways, or the smartphones instantly being aimed at my face. I simply tilted my chin up, my dark eyes sweeping over the stone towers with a completely detached, icy calm.

“Is that… no, it can't be,” a girl whispered, her phone slipping slightly in her grip.

“She died. We all saw the blood. What kind of dark magic brought her back?”

Talia warned me the news of my return had already spread across the academy. The whispers, cameras, and stares confirmed it. She claimed I once had a life here, but none of it meant anything to me. And whatever story these students believed about my death was clearly another mess she told me to ignore.

Fascination and primitive fear ignited across the courtyard. Several elite wolves bared their teeth, their instincts screaming at them but one look from me and they shut up.

Deep within the core of my soul, a massive, ancient presence shifted, stretching her powerful limbs in dominance.

Nyra, my wolf, existed beneath my skin like a dormant glacier. Whatever weakness had once lived in this body was gone.

The school stirred no emotion in me. I knew something important had happened there once, but it felt distant, like reading about another person’s life.

Behind the frost-rimed glass of the packhouse VIP window, A guy stood frozen at the sight of me. Someone whispered his name to be Zephyron behind me. He looked broken; his broad shoulders hunched, his grey eyes bloodshot and heavily sunken. He looked exhausted as if he hadn't rested well in months. His alpha aura seems sour, unstable, and obsessively tracking the courtyard. 

A lady of about my age, whom someone called Lyra earlier, sat on the leather couch behind him, her beautiful face twisted into a permanent line of irritation, completely ignored as the Zephyron guy slammed his glass down and bolted for the doors.

“Move!” a harsh voice barked near the training arena entrance, cutting through the rising panic of the crowd.

A group of senior hockey players stepped onto the snow, led by a towering figure who didn't wear the standard Blackridge colors.

It was Kai Arden.

The new transfer star from the brutal northern sectors of Frostmere. The guy Talia said would resume the same day with me. The one she seemed oddly determined to introduce me to. He walked with the lethal grace of an apex predator, his icy blue eyes scanning the chaotic courtyard with complete boredom, until his gaze locked onto me, and then he stopped dead in his tracks. 

His eyes narrowed, a dark, dangerous spark of intrigue lighting up his sharp features. 

“Intake assessments! All returning students to the combat ring immediately!” the Headmistress’s voice boomed over the courtyard speakers.

Everyone regained themselves instantly, lining the iron railings of the outdoor training grid to see us get tested. I was the last to take the test.

I walked into the center of the reinforced ring, shedding my coat. The training instructor, a scarred alpha sergeant, eyed my small frame with deep suspicion.

“Aura-reading test, Thorn,” the instructor grunted, slamming a heavy, silver-plated measuring pillar into the dirt. “Channel your wolf. Let’s see if you’re fit to remain in the high-status sector.”

Lyra and a girl I suspected to be her friend, Chloe leaned over the rails, their lips curved into ugly, expectant smirks. “She’s going to fail. A corpse can't channel an aura.”

I closed my eyes.

Nyra, I thought.

A sudden, deafening crack echoed through the arena as a brilliant, terrifying surge of golden-white aura blasted outward from my body. The suffocating density of the power slammed into the iron railings, bending the metal outward like paper. The silver pillar shattered instantly, shards of metal flying across the dirt.

The students shrieked, throwing their arms up as the pressure forced several weaker wolves straight to their knees in involuntary submission.

The instructor stumbled backward, his face completely pale with terror. “What the hell are you?”

The aura was swirling out of control, a freezing vortex that threatened to crack the concrete foundations of the arena. Nobody moved nor did they dare to step into the blast zone.

Except for one person.

Kai stepped over the ruined iron rail without a single hint of fear. His dark, massive Frostmere aura flared to life, a deep midnight blue that perfectly matched the chill of my own. He walked straight through the biting wind of my power, his large, scarred hand reaching out to firmly clasp my shoulder.

The moment his skin touched mine, Nyra suddenly went still.

“Control it, sweetheart,” Kai murmured, his voice a low, gravelly baritone that held a dark vein of amusement. “You’re going to break the idiots before the term even starts.”

The golden light slowly receded into my skin, Nyra settling back down into the dark corners of my mind with a satisfied purr. I looked up into Kai’s icy blue eyes, noting the dangerous smirk playing at the corner of his lips. 

“Thanks,” I said smoothly, stepping back from his grip.

“Anytime,” Kai replied, his eyes lingering on my face for a second longer before he turned and walked toward the locker rooms, completely unfazed by the chaos left in our wake.

I turned back toward the main gates to collect my things, the entire student body staring at me in absolute, dead silence.

Then, the crowd parted violently.

Zephyron Duskmere stumbled out into the open courtyard. He had run all the way from goddess knows where, his breathing heavy, ragged, and completely frantic. Zephyron stopped abruptly five feet away from me, his expression collapsing into visible shock, his grey eyes wide and trembling as he looked at my face, my straight posture, and the lack of warmth in my expression.

“Aurelia…” he whispered, his voice cracking completely as he reached a hand out toward me.

I looked hi

m straight in the eye, my dark gaze completely blank.

“Excuse me, do I know you?”