Chapter 5

KAIA'S POV:

I stand frozen by the door of the classroom, stunned by what I’ve just seen, two boys staring at me like I’ve risen from the dead, then sharing a look that screams something I don’t understand. Then one word. One strange, spine-tingling word.

“Mate.”

I blink rapidly. Did they just say… mate?

Maybe I misheard them. Maybe this jet lag is finally messing with my ears.

I force my legs to move, slipping into an empty desk as the teacher starts roll call. I keep my head down, pretending to scribble something in my notebook, but my skin is buzzing like I brushed against an electric fence.

They’re still staring at me. The taller one, Kai, I think, is tense, jaw locked. The other one, Axel, looks more confused than angry now, his eyes flicking to me and then back to Kai like he’s trying to make sense of something.

“Kaia?” the teacher calls out.

I raise my hand halfway. “Here.”

A few more names are called. Then, the class moves on to some kind of ice-breaker activity where everyone introduces themselves.

Perfect. Just perfect.

My heart pounds louder than the teacher’s voice. I hate public speaking. Always have. But this? A new school, new country, after being told your whole life is a lie? It’s a different kind of terror.

I stand up when it’s my turn, my voice barely audible. “Hi. I’m Kaia… I just moved here from the States.”

A few students nod or smile politely. Some whisper behind their hands. I glance at Kai and Axel. Their posture changes completely.

Axel leans forward, eyes narrowing. “Kaia what?” he asks.

I blink. “Kaia Guen.”

Kai mutters something under his breath, too quiet to catch but he doesn’t look pleased.

I quickly sit back down, feeling like I’ve said something wrong without knowing why.

After class, I bolt for the hallway. My head is swimming with questions. What’s wrong with those two? What’s with the staring and that weird word?

“Kaia!” a voice calls behind me.

I turn just in time to see Axel jogging over, a lazy grin plastered on his face. “Hey, sorry if we freaked you out earlier. My brother’s not the best at… people.”

I raise a brow. “You mean Kai?”

He nods. “Yeah. He’s all broody and serious. I’m the fun one.”

“That’s comforting,” I mumble.

He chuckles. “You’re new, right? You settling in okay?”

“Define okay.”

He smirks but then pauses, his eyes flicking across my face. “You really don’t know, do you?”

I frown. “Know what?”

He hesitates, biting his lip. “Nothing. Forget it. I’ll see you around.”

Before I can ask anything else, he’s gone, disappearing into the crowd like he hadn’t just dropped a mental bomb.

By the time I get home, my brain is fried. I kick off my shoes by the front door and drag myself upstairs.

The house feels too quiet, too still. I pass by one of the long hallways leading to Lucien’s wing of the estate and stop when I hear something - a low murmur, voices.

Curious, I step closer, but the words are muffled. I inch toward the crack in the door.

“Are you sure it’s her?” Rowan’s voice.

Lucien responds, quieter, but sharp. “She introduced herself as Kaia Moore. That’s the name in the report. But what if the Nightowls get wind she’s here? We’ll have more problems than mates to worry about.”

Mates?

My breath catches.

“Ezra’s keeping an eye on the school,” Rowan replies. “No one’s made a move yet.”

I stumble back, nearly knocking over a small decorative vase on a table in the hallway. My heart is pounding again—but this time it’s not because of school nerves.

It’s because something’s seriously wrong here.

I don’t know what they’re talking about or what any of it means. But I know one thing for sure is that no one tells me the truth in this place. I doubt they will.

I turn to go back to my room, and something flashes at the end of the hallway.

A tall shadow. A figure. Standing at the far end of the corridor.

I freeze.

But when I blink, it’s gone.

The air is suddenly colder. The silence thicker.

I don’t know what I saw. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe my mind’s finally breaking from all the chaos.

But as I shut my bedroom door behind me and press my back against it, I know one thing.

Something is watching me.

And I’ve only scratched the surface of what this house and this family is hiding.

THIRD PERSON POV:

The Moonwolf Pack house is quieter than usual. Kai and Axel sit across from each other in the living room, a low hum of tension crackling between them. Kai’s jaw ticks as he flips a dagger in his hand, the point slicing through air with practiced ease.

“She smelled like…” Axel doesn’t finish. His voice trails off, haunted.

“Like us.” Kai’s voice is low, gravelly.

Their eyes meet, and for once, there is no banter. No smug grins or teasing remarks. Just the raw, undeniable truth sitting between them like a ticking bomb.

“She’s a Guen.”

Kai doesn’t respond immediately. His mind replays the moment in the hallway—her scent, her eyes, the invisible pull that hit him like a punch to the gut. Mating bonds are rare. Shared bonds? Even rarer.

“I saw the pendant around her neck,” Axel says, leaning forward. “The crest. It’s theirs. Guen.”

Kai leans back, brows furrowed. “She doesn’t know.”

Axel scoffs, running a hand through his dark hair. “She has no idea. It’s written all over her. The confusion. The way she looked at us.”

“She doesn’t even know what we are.”

For a moment, silence settles again, thick and suffocating.

Axel’s voice cuts through. “So what do we do?”

Kai doesn’t answer right away. He stands, moving to the window, eyes scanning the forest that borders their territory.

“She’s the Guen pack’s lost princess.”

Axel’s shoulders stiffen. “If our father finds out…”

“Then don’t let him.”

Axel looks up, startled. “You want to keep it from him?”

Kai turns, and his gaze is steel. “If he knows, he’ll use her. Like a pawn. Like he always does.”

“But she’s our mate,” Axel says, his voice quiet now, almost reverent.

“And we’re rivals to her family. You know what this means.”

Another long pause.

“She’s innocent,” Axel finally mutters. “She doesn’t even seem to know who she is.”

Kai clenches his fists. “Which is exactly why we have to be careful. We can’t let her get hurt.”

Axel stands too, voice harder now. “Or fall into their hands.”

Their eyes meet again. The understanding passes wordlessly between them. Mates. Enemy bloodlines. Hidden truths.

A storm is coming. And she, Kaia, is at the center of it.

****

Back at the Guen estate, Kaia sits on her bed, a textbook open on her lap but her eyes distant.

Monday looms. Her first week in a new school, a new country… a new life.

She has no idea that two wolves are already circling her heart.

And everything she thought she knew about herself is about to unravel.