The Hunt Begins

I woke up to seventeen missed calls.

My phone had been on silent all night, but when I picked it up Sunday morning, the notifications made my stomach drop. Three numbers I didn’t recognize. Two from the financial aid office. Twelve from a blocked number.

And one voicemail.

I pressed play with shaking hands.

“Ms. Hale, this is Director Calista from Financial Aid. We need to discuss your scholarship status. Please get in touch with our office first thing Monday morning. This is urgent.”

I dropped the phone on my bed as it had burned me.

This was really happening. They were going after my scholarship. Less than 12 hours after the gala, they were already moving.

Tessa was still asleep in her bed, one arm thrown over her face. I got up quietly and went to the bathroom. Splashed cold water on my face. I looked at myself in the mirror.

I looked terrible. Dark circles under my eyes. Skin pale. I’d barely slept, too busy running numbers in my head over and over. No matter how I calculated it, eight thousand dollars was impossible.

My shift at the library started at ten. Sunday mornings were usually quiet. Most students were sleeping off their weekend or studying for Monday's classes. I could use the time to figure out what to do.

But first, I needed coffee.

I got dressed in jeans and my library staff polo shirt. Grabbed my backpack. Left a note for Tessa that I’d gone to work.

The campus was weirdly quiet as I walked to the student center. Most people were still in bed. Good. I didn’t want to see anyone. Didn’t want to deal with stares or whispers about what happened last night.

The coffee shop in the student center was open. I ordered a large black coffee I couldn’t really afford and found a table in the corner. Pulled out my phone and stared at those missed calls.

Should I call back? Or wait until Monday?

If I called back now, on a Sunday, it would look desperate. But if I waited, would that make it worse?

I was still trying to decide when someone sat down across from me.

I looked up and my heart stopped.

Lycian Valor.

He wore jeans and a plain black shirt. Casual. But even in normal clothes, he looked like he didn’t belong here. Too put together. Too expensive. His dark hair was slightly messy, like he’d just woken up, but somehow it just made him look better.

“Hi,” he said.

I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t move. What was he doing here? Why was he sitting at my table?

“I’m Lycian,” he continued, like I didn’t know who he was. Like the entire campus didn’t know who he was.

“I know.” My voice came out barely above a whisper.

“Good.” He leaned back in his chair, studying me. Those silver eyes tracked across my face like he was memorizing it. “We need to talk.”

“About the suit.” I forced the words out. “I got the email. I’m working on it. I just need some time to figure out payment.”

“That’s not what I want to talk about.”

I blinked. “What?”

“The suit doesn’t matter.”

“Your legal team seems to think it matters. Eight thousand dollars matters.”

Something flickered across his face. Anger, maybe. Or surprise. “I didn’t send that email.”

“It came from Valor Legal Services.”

“I know. I’ll take care of it.” He waved his hand like eight thousand dollars was nothing. Which, for him, it probably was. “That’s not why I’m here.”

“Then why are you here?”

He leaned forward. “What’s your name?”

“You don’t know my name?” But his legal team knew it. The email had been addressed to me specifically.

“I want to hear you say it.”

This was bizarre. Why was Lycian Valor sitting at my table in the student center asking for my name?

“Elowen,” I said finally. “Elowen Hale.”

“Elowen.” He said it slowly, like he was tasting it. “That’s pretty.”

I didn’t know what to say to that.

We sat in silence for a moment. He kept staring at me with this intensity that made my skin prickle. The same way he’d looked at me last night before I ran.

“Why are you really here?” I asked.

“I told you. We need to talk.”

“About what?”

“About what happened last night.”

My face went hot. “I already apologized. Multiple times. It was an accident. I didn’t see you and I backed up and the tray just went everywhere and I’m really, really sorry.”

“I’m not talking about the champagne.”

“Then what?”

He reached across the table. Slowly. Giving me time to pull away. But I didn’t move. Couldn’t move.

His fingers brushed my wrist. Right where he’d grabbed me last night.

That same electric shock raced up my arm. Stronger than static. Stronger than anything I’d ever felt.

I gasped and jerked my hand back.

Lycian’s eyes flashed gold for just a second. Then back to silver.

“You feel it too,” he said. It wasn’t a question.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, you do.” He leaned closer. “What are you, Elowen?”

“What?”

“What are you?” he repeated. “Human? Wolf? Something else?”

My heart hammered against my ribs. This was dangerous territory. I’d spent two years hiding what I was. Or what I wasn’t.

“Human,” I lied.

His eyes narrowed. “You’re lying.”

“I’m not.”

“I can hear your heartbeat. It speeds up when you lie.”

Of course, he could. Wolf senses. I’d forgotten.

“Fine,” I said, keeping my voice low. “I’m wolfless. Happy? Is that what you wanted to hear? That I’m defective?”

Something in his expression shifted. “You’re not defective.”

“That’s what everyone else thinks.”

“I don’t care what everyone else thinks.”

“Then what do you want from me?”

He opened his mouth, closed it. Like he was trying to figure out how to say something.

Before he could answer, my phone buzzed on the table. Both of us looked at it.

Another call from a blocked number.

“You should answer that,” Lycian said.

“I’m not answering blocked calls.”

“It’s probably important.”

“How would you know?”

He didn’t answer. Just kept staring at my phone as it buzzed.

Finally, it stopped. A voicemail notification popped up immediately.

I picked up the phone and pressed play, holding it to my ear.

“Ms. Hale, this is Marcus Blackthorn. Madison’s father. I sit on the scholarship review board. I think we should have a conversation about your future at Mooncrest University. Call me back at this number.”

The blood drained from my face.

Marcus Blackthorn. Madison’s father. The man who could pull my scholarship with one signature.

I looked up at Lycian. He was watching me carefully.

“What did the voicemail say?” he asked.

“Nothing. It’s not important.”

“Elowen.”

“I have to go.” I stood up, grabbed my backpack. “I’m going to be late for work.”

“Wait.”

But I was already walking away. Moving fast toward the exit.

I heard him stand. Heard his footsteps behind me.

“Elowen, wait.”

I pushed through the doors into the cold morning air. I started walking toward the library.

He caught up to me easily. Fell into step beside me.

“Leave me alone,” I said without looking at him.

“I can help you.”

“I don’t need your help.”

“Yes, you do.”

I stopped walking and turned to face him. “Why do you even care? You don’t know me. Yesterday you didn’t even know my name.”

“I know.” His jaw tightened. “But things are different now.”

“Why? Because I dumped champagne on you?”

“No. Because…” He trailed off. Ran a hand through his hair. “It’s complicated.”

“Then uncomplicate it.”

“I can’t. Not yet.” He stepped closer. “But I can help with Marcus Blackthorn. With your scholarship. With all of it.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because I want to.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“It’s the only one I have right now.”

We stared at each other. His eyes were doing that thing again. Flickering between silver and gold.

My phone buzzed. Another call from the blocked number.

Lycian’s eyes dropped to my phone. “Answer it.”

“No.”

“Elowen.”

“I said no.” I turned and started walking again.

This time he didn’t follow.

But when I glanced back, he was still standing there. Watching me.

And something in his expression made my breath catch.

He looked like a wolf who’d just found prey.

And I was running straight into a trap.