LOGINNOVADrax walked out to the centre of the ground, and the talking stopped.He didn't raise his voice. He never did. He just appeared, and the noise cut itself off."Yesterday's individual assessments told me what I needed to know," he said. He looked down the line once. "Today we're doing paired endurance training. Trust and synchronisation. You'll work in tandem through a timed obstacle course. Both partners finish or neither score counts." He stepped back. "Partner up. Two minutes."The line broke apart.
CADENSoren came in without knocking, which meant it was something he didn't want to say in a corridor.He closed the door. Stood in front of the desk where Caden was reviewing intake files he'd already reviewed twice. Soren had that look he got when the news was something he'd been sitting on for a few hours, turning over, deciding how to deliver."Just say it," Caden said."Zion Vael is coming back."Caden put the file down.Soren waited."When.""Tomorrow morning. Drax cleared the reinstatement yesterday. The southern territory dispute got resolved, and his father released him from pack obligations. "A pause. "He's been pushing for reinstatement for two months."Caden leaned back. Looked at the ceiling. Thought about the King's Pass last spring. The assessment that ran every two years across all active academy students. The one that determined Crown Pack standing and regional alpha rankings. Thought about how that had gone."He won't make trouble here," Caden said. Flat. Certain. "
CADENHe was good at it. Always had been.Avoiding someone at Vordrak should have been easy. Sixty students, multiple training blocks, staggered meal times, and enough physical space that two people could go days without crossing paths if they were deliberate about it.The problem was his wolf always knew exactly where Ash was.Didn't matter which side of the campus he was on. Didn't matter if there were forty other bodies between them in the meal hall or the training ground. His wolf tracked him the way a compass tracks north. Quietly. Constantly. Without being asked.So avoiding him took actual work.Monday he switched his morning run to the west grounds. Took his meals early, before the main intake. Stayed in Drax's office after sessions to review training records he didn't need to review. Soren watched all of this without saying anything, which meant he was saying everything.On Tuesday he moved his solo drills to the far conditioning strip. The one on the north side nobody used b
CADENForty minutes.That was it. He gave up after forty minutes.He'd been lying there staring at the ceiling, listening to Ash breathe across the room, and his wolf had been pushing the whole time, not aggressively, just steadily, that low insistent press of something that wants out and has decided to be patient about it. Patient was somehow worse than aggressive. Aggressive, he could fight.He got up. Pulled on pants. Went out the window because the door would wake him and he wasn't doing that.Hit the ground and shifted before he landed.The change rolled through fast because his wolf had been ready for hours, and the moment it got the go-ahead, it went. Four paws on cold ground and he ran. Flat out. The campus fell away behind him, and he hit the highland terrain beyond the east wall and just went, pushing until his lungs were the loudest thing happening and his legs started to burn properly.Six minutes. Maybe seven.Then it stopped working.Didn't matter how fast he went. The t
CADENHe got there and she was arguing with the nurse.Not loudly. She didn't do anything loudly. She sat on the edge of the treatment bed with her hands flat on either side of her and her jaw set, and the nurse stood in front of her with gauze and the look of someone who'd been losing the same argument for several minutes."She won't remove her upper layer," the nurse said. "I need access to the shoulder to disinfect and treat it properly.""I'll handle it."The nurse looked at him. Then at Nova. Then back at him."Bring the medication, antiseptic, and clean wrapping." He glanced at Nova when he said the next part. "And food. Whatever's in the kitchen." She didn't say anything. That was enough. "You can go prepare it."The nurse set the gauze on the counter and went through the back door.He pulled the stool over and sat in front of her.The cut on her cheek was worse up close. Deep enough to keep going, running toward her jaw in a thin red line she hadn't wiped. Her left arm sat too







