Chapter 7

KAIA'S POV:

Another day, another silent battle not to scream.

The school feels off today. It’s not something I can explain. Just a low hum under my skin, like I walked through a static field and it hasn’t stopped buzzing. I tug my hoodie tighter around me even though the halls are warm. It’s not cold. I just feel exposed.

Axel’s leaning against my locker when I get there, grinning like the hallway is his runway. This guy is such an attention seeker. There are some students looking at the scene he is low-key creating. Oh Lord.

"Good morning, sunshine," he drawls.

He says it every day now, like he’s trying to brand the phrase into my brain. I roll my eyes and give him a stiff smile.

"I don’t shine."

"You glow, then," he corrects, and those dimples flash as he winks.

If that's his idea of flirting then he is failing woefully.

"Annoying," I mutter.

"Charming," he counters.

From behind me, I feel it before I see him. That shift in the air. Like the hallway just tensed.

Kai.

He doesn’t speak as he comes to stand on the other side of me. I don’t even know how he moves so silently in boots, but somehow, he always does. He’s a full head taller than me, broad shoulders and quiet thunder. While Axel flirts and jokes, Kai watches. Intense. Serious. Like he’s cataloging my soul.

"You’re late," he says quietly.

Okayyyy, time police.

"It’s five minutes before the bell," I say, raising a brow. "That’s not late."

He doesn’t respond. Just looks at me like he’s… listening? To something I can’t hear.

Sometimes I wonder if they talk about me when I’m not around. Then again, they act like they never stop watching me anyway.

"You didn’t eat breakfast," Kai says suddenly.

Wha-

I blink. "How do you-?" I open my mouth agape.

Axel cuts in, tossing a granola bar into my hands. "Because we notice things. Like how your eyes look a little duller today. And you yawned four times in homeroom yesterday."

But that's yesterday... Whatever at this point.

"That’s not weird at all," I say flatly, but I take the granola bar.

Kai shrugs. "You’re not taking care of yourself."

"I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time, thanks."

They both go still at that.

Something flickers across Axel’s face. Guilt? Anger? It disappears before I can name it.

"Come on," he says, slinging an arm over my shoulders. "We’ve got chem. You can sit between us like the chemistry experiment you are."

"Wow. Smooth."

"You love it."

I don't. But I let him drag me toward class anyway.

****

I start noticing things during second period.

The teacher writes formulas across the board, but half the class is staring at me. Not the subtle kind of stare, either. Full-on, wide-eyed, head-tilted staring.

I catch one girl whispering to another. When I glance at them, they flinch. Like I growled at them or something.

I try to ignore it. I really do. But when I get up to sharpen my pencil, I swear the girl behind me sniffs the air.

Sniffs. The. Air.

Who sniffs the air?

And she smiles like something smells… good?

What the actual hell?

During lunch, I sit at our usual table... well, their table. Axel and Kai have made it their mission to latch onto me, so I just gave up trying to escape it. The rest of the table clears when we arrive, and it’s always the same: students vanish when they sit beside me. No one says anything. They just get up and walk away.

"Do people here hate me or something?" I ask, peeling the lid off my yogurt.

Axel stabs a fry and shrugs. "No. They’re just scared of us."

"Comforting."

"Hey, fear is just respect with bad PR. Cheer up, darling." He says with a wink.

Kai, across from me, doesn’t even touch his food. His blue eyes are locked on a boy a few tables away. When the boy looks up and meets his gaze, he blanches and immediately stands, grabbing his tray and leaving.

"Okay, what is going on?" I whisper. "You two act like you own the school. People scatter when you look at them. You finish each other’s sentences sometimes when you do talk and every time I mention anything normal, you just give me this look like I’m missing something obvious."

Axel leans back, folding his arms behind his head. "We’re just cool like that."

Kai doesn’t even blink.

I shake my head and sigh.

Then, there’s this other thing. The teachers. Three different times today, I swear they’ve called me "Miss…" and then paused, like they don’t know my last name.

Only for them to say Guen in this weird hesitant way, like it tastes wrong in their mouths.

Once is a mistake. Three times?

"Why do people act weird when they say my name?" I ask quietly during free period.

Kai looks over from the window where he’s been staring out for the last ten minutes. "Because it’s not your name."

My heart skips.

"What?"

He opens his mouth, then closes it. "Nothing."

I narrow my eyes. "No. Say it."

But Axel shows up right then with two coffees and shoves one into my hands.

"Don’t look so serious, baby wolf," he says cheerfully. "It’ll give you wrinkles."

"Don’t call me that."

"You’re right. Little Red suits you better."

I glare at him.

He just grins wider.

****

By the time the final bell rings, I feel like I’ve been slowly unraveling all day. Like the threads of my reality are being pulled loose, one at a time. Every glance. Every whisper. Every time Kai seems to know something I haven’t even said yet.

Something is wrong but I don’t know what.

I trudge into the house and the silence greets me like a shroud. Ezra’s not in the kitchen. Rowan and Lucien aren’t arguing in the den like they usually do. For once, the house feels like a mansion again... empty and echoing.

My backpack drops to the floor with a soft thud. I head straight for the stairs.

All I want is a shower and a nap.

****

That night, I dream in red and black.

It starts with howls. Long and mournful, echoing through a forest I don’t remember ever stepping foot in. The moon hangs heavy above the trees - too large, like it’s pressing down on the world.

I’m barefoot in the woods. My skin is cold, but my blood burns.

Something is chasing me.

No.

Not something. Someone.

Amber eyes flash in the darkness. Jaws snap. Paws thunder against earth.

Wolves.

I try to run, but the ground keeps shifting beneath me. The grass turns to water, water to glass. I see my reflection, and it’s not me. Not only me.

There’s a wolf in my eyes.

Then I’m standing in the middle of the school hallway, except everything is bathed in moonlight and the lockers are bleeding. Axel is there. Kai too. But their eyes glow, and their teeth are sharp, and they look at me like they’re starving.

"Run," Kai says.

"No," Axel murmurs. "Shift."

"I can’t!" I scream.

But then I do.

Bones snap. Fire licks up my spine. My scream becomes a howl and I fall-

****

I jolt awake with a choked breath.

Sweat slicks my skin, and my heart’s racing like I just ran a marathon. The room is dark, but moonlight streams in through the window, silver and soft.

I press a hand to my chest.

It’s just a dream. Just a stupid dream.

But the echo of the howl still rings in my ears and when I go to the bathroom to splash water on my face, I pause.

Because for just one second-

Just one- My eyes don’t look like mine.

They look golden and wild.