Chapter 1: New Student.

Sylvia Fenris' POV *************************************************************

"Ooh, I am telling you guys, I caught a glimpse of him outside the Headmaster's Blackwood's office. He is so hot! With long legs and dark hair, he looked like a mirage.

The entire school is buzzing!" Nina gushes, fanning her face dramatically with her hand. She is talking about the new student that just joined the Crescent moon Academy, two weeks into the session. It is almost midnight and Nina has been going on and on about this hot new student since dinner.

Thoros Myr. The alpha heir of the banished Bloodstone Clan. I wasn't born yet when the whole business went down. And it is such high political business that it wasn't exactly common knowledge amongst the other clans outside of the Crescent moon ruling clan.

Even within the Crescent moon Clan, the full information was restricted to the Apex pack. The actual pack that orchestrated the power takeover and are now currently ruling the entire Pacific Northwestern dynasty of werewolves containing hundreds of clans and hundreds and hundreds of packs.

But what I know about the Bloodstone Clan and the reason for their banishment was that they were betraying us to the humans in some way. I am unclear how or why or if there was actual proof, but their banishment seemed reasonable. They had been putting the lives and continued secrecy of the werewolves dynasty on this side of the Pacific northwest in jeopardy.

"Nina, what were you doing at Headmaster Blackwood's office?" Maria chips in, quietly from her bed, asking the important question. Maria doesn't talk much, in fact, she is such a direct opposite of Nina that they kind of balance each other out.

I am glad for the diversion because I am getting sick of this Thoros Myr talk. It was all everyone talked about at dinner. Everybody around me was so enamored with this stranger that no one noticed what was eating me up inside and it is making me develop a negative bias against him. He might be hot all he wants but I hate him already.

It is my birthday today and it started on a great note. My friends gave me gifts and made a little fanfare about it earlier on in the day. Edwina, my best friend who I have known since we were little girls baked me a cake and sewed me a gorgeous dress for the full moon bonfire party that is happening this Friday.

Maria wrote me a beautiful poem and Nina gave me a haircut she claimed would make me more beautiful for Rand, maybe it would aid in taking our relationship to the next level, she said with a lewd wink that made me blush. Rand Thor, the Alpha-Heir of the Crescent moon Clan and my fated mate.

Rand, who hasn't wished me a happy birthday all day. At lunch, I lied to my friends when they asked. I told them he had wished me but we couldn't meet since he was so busy with his classes. I lied and told them we were going to see each other at night when he was done for the day.

As Alpha-Heir, Rand has a more tasking training schedule. Asides the classes he takes with the rest of our year, he also gets extra lessons with his private tutors hired by his father, the Alpha of the dynasty. They can be grueling, accompanied by the added pressure to do well.

I hate myself for making excuses for him because if I am being honest, Rand has been distant since we got admitted to the academy. Something changed with him and there was no way to find out what it was if he wouldn't even talk about it with me.

I suspect it has to do with the increased pressure of proving himself to the dynasty as worthy of being the next Alpha after his powerful, widely respected father.

"What do you think I was doing there, Maria?" Nina bites back at her cousin. Edwina snorts her laughter but Nina is glaring at Maria from her bed.

Nina was always having to be called to the Headmaster's office. In just the two weeks we have been here, she has flounced so many rules and stretched the rigid limits of how much fun was allowed by the academy.

Mostly involving her association with boys and being caught out late at night. Nina claims to love the adrenaline rush of testing her limits with the academy's rules, but we know she is genuinely scared of getting expelled. Her family counts on her graduating the academy with great grades and upgrading their pack's hierarchy.

"What did you do this time, Nina?" Edwina asks, laughing. The room is dimly lit, large enough for two double beds with enough space so it doesn't feel cramped. Sparsely decorated since we would be moving out after our first year into the more permanent personal rooms in the other dormitories belonging to seniors.

"Nothing!" Nina snaps, though her tone suggests she was smiling down there in her bunk, nestled in by her stuffed animals.

"Yeah right." Edwina teases.

"Back to Thoros, do you guys have any idea why he is back? According to the talks across the school, his family remains exiled. But since it happened before he was born, there was a clause that made it okay for him to return to the territory.

And now he is here in the Crescent moon of all places. Isn't that peculiar?" Nina asks, her voice is conspiratorial and quieter, when nobody says anything, she calls my name sharply, I am pulled from my thoughts about Rand and all the ways he was breaking my heart.

"What is it?" I ask her, keeping the irritation out of my tone.

"Rand should have an idea. Have you asked him?" She asks, having no idea the turmoil ongoing in my chest at the mention of my fated mate's name.

"An idea about what?" I am so lost, I hadn't been paying much attention to the conversation. My heart feels like it is being weighted by something heavy at the mention of Rand.

Not bothering to wish me a happy birthday seems like a preview of what the rest of our lives would look like as Alpha and Luna. Him, prioritising his responsibilities over me. Me, heartbroken and always needing to prove my worth to him. That wasn't what I had in mind for my future as his Luna.

"Thoros Myr. Why is he here." Nina provides gently, I can sense her pricked curiosity from my opposite top bunk across the room. The other two are quiet, maybe they are also waiting for an answer or asleep already. The former is more likely.

"I don't know." I say, the defensiveness in my tone is unmistakable.

"Sylvia, are you okay?" Edwina calls up to me, we share the bunk bed with her on the bottom one. The room is quiet. I am glad for the dim light, because if my friends can see my face right now, it will betray my emotions.

"Yeah, why not?" I clear my throat but the slight tremble only makes itself more noticeable.

"You don't sound good. Is there something wrong? With Rand? You guys couldn't meet, right?" Edwina has the uncanny ability to read me correctly, but she has it slightly wrong this time around. She thinks I am sad because I couldn't see Rand when the truth is that he didn't care.

The clock strikes midnight and my heart sinks. I get up, my friends are quiet, waiting for me and I know I will only just lie to them again.

"I am fine. I am going to meet him right now." I lie as I climb down the bed. I can't sleep and I can't think, I feel stuffy and it feels like if I continue staying in one spot, my heart could stop beating.

Nina shoots up from her bed, her interest piqued at the mention of a clandestine midnight meeting, something that she was slowly becoming an expert on.

"Ooh! Go get it, Sylvia!" She croons.