Chapter 5

LESSIE

The moment my hand touched the cold brass of the door handle, the world betrayed me.

It didn’t happen slowly. It didn’t even give me a warning.

Pain exploded inside me with a bone-snapping violence that nearly tore my soul out of my body.

My knees buckled, my nails dug into the wood, and a guttural scream ripped from my throat before I even realized it was me screaming.

“Lessie!” Ethan’s voice cut through the haze, sharp and panicked. He was at my side in seconds, his hands hovering over me like he didn’t know where to touch first.

“Wh...what’s happening to me?!” I shrieked, my voice strangled as fire licked my veins.

My chest heaved like I was being drowned from the inside. Every bone cracked, every nerve burned.

My very skin betrayed me, crawling and tearing apart as if it wanted to escape me.

Ethan’s face had gone pale, his mouth opening and closing like a fish grasping for air.

“You’re...Lessie, y-you’re..” he stuttered, his eyes wide, filled with both awe and terror.

“You’re shifting. Y-you’re about to shift into your wolf form, don't try to fight it.”

The words struck harder than the pain.

“No!” I choked out, even as agony raked me open. “That’s not possible, Ethan! I’m not a…”

The sentence died in my throat. My body didn’t give me the mercy of finishing it.

With a violent crack, my spine bent, forcing me down onto the floor. My vision blurred with white-hot tears as convulsions wracked through me, leaving me helpless against my own skin.

I could hear bones shattering, reforming, grinding against each other like some cruel puzzle being rearranged.

My fingers curled and shortened, claws piercing through where my nails had been.

Fur tore its way across my arms, my legs, my chest, burning my humanity away piece by piece.

This wasn’t death. Death would have been kinder.

This was worse. Something impossible. Something I had denied my whole life.

I was a werewolf.

No. No, no, it wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be possible.

My chest heaved with sobs, with denial, as my mind spiraled into a thousand pieces.

“I’m not a damn werewolf.” My cries broke into a growl that rattled in my throat as my vision sharpened unnaturally.

My hands, no paws, scraped against the ground. My breath came out in sharp pants, fogging the air.

And then… silence.

A silence so deep, it didn’t belong to the world outside. It belonged to the one inside.

Hello, Lessie.

I froze. My new body trembled violently, my paws unsteady beneath me as the voice hummed inside my mind, feminine, fierce, warm, and yet it still felt like a part of me.

"Who?"

I am you, and you are me, the voice answered before I could form the question aloud.

I am Star. Your wolf. The part of you that has slept all these years, waiting for this moment.

Star. My wolf. My wolf that was never supposed to exist.

“This isn’t real,” I whispered in my head, my panic suffocating me. “I can’t hear this. I can’t be…”

My knees shook as I tried to find balance on all fours. My claws scraped against the marble, my tail whipping behind me with a mind of its own.

Every sensation was foreign, terrifying. My ears twitched at sounds I’d never heard before, my own ragged heartbeat, Ethan’s shallow breaths, the faint drip of water somewhere in the distance.

And then Star’s voice shifted, softer, almost reverent.

Mate.

The word sent a jolt straight through me, burning hotter than the shift itself.

My wolf eyes snapped up instinctively, and that’s when I saw Professor Dante Ravencrest.

Standing just a few feet away, his presence like gravity pulling me in against my will.

His eyes locked with mine, and my heart thundered so hard I thought my ribcage might split open.

Every instinct screamed his name inside me. Mate. My mate.

My body trembled violently, the wolf inside me clawing at my chest in desperate recognition. My lungs forgot how to work, my skin prickled with fire.

No. No, no, no. This wasn’t happening. He couldn’t be.

I staggered back, and the shift reversed itself as violently as it had come.

Bones cracked again, reforming, fur retreating, claws snapping back into fragile human nails. My throat tore open in a scream as my body forced me back into human flesh.

And then I was naked.

I lay sprawled on the cold floor, trembling, exposed, every inch of my skin burning with shame and confusion.

Ethan’s gasp cut through the silence. Professor Cross, who had been standing stiff and horrified, immediately spun on his heels, his hand covering his face like he’d been scorched.

“Turn around,” he muttered quickly to Ethan, his voice strained. Ethan obeyed instantly, his cheeks flaming red.

But not Dante.

No, Dante Ravencrest didn’t move. His eyes, those damn eyes remained locked on me, drinking me in like he couldn’t stop, like he wouldn’t stop even if the world fell apart.

It was intimate. It was strong. It was forbidden.

Every law, every oath, screamed at me: Stop looking at him. Stop feeling this. He’s your professor. This is forbidden.

But instinct roared louder.

My lips parted, trembling, as I clutched my arms around myself.

My breath hitched, my entire body trembling with the unbearable pull toward him. I couldn’t look away, even as shame scorched me from the inside.

“Dante,” Professor Cross snapped, clearing his throat, the sharp sound easing the tension.

Dante blinked, like waking from a trance, and finally tore his gaze from my bare skin.

His jaw clenched, his throat working as if swallowing down something hard. Without a word, he shrugged off his jacket and strode toward me.

“Here,” he said roughly, kneeling and draping the jacket over me. His voice was strained, like each word cost him.

His scent hit me instantly, cedar, smoke, danger. It wrapped around me, suffocating and intoxicating all at once.

My fingers clutched the fabric like a lifeline. I should have looked away, should have thanked him and curled into myself.

But instead, when he bent down, his arm slid under me, and he lifted me effortlessly into his arms.

I gasped, my heart thundering against his chest. His jacket slid around me, but it wasn’t enough.

His warmth, his scent, seeped straight through me, setting fire to nerves I didn’t even know existed. For the first time in my adult life, I lost control.

The world blurred, but all I could feel was him. His heartbeat steady, his jaw tight, his eyes flickering down at me with a hunger he tried and failed to hide.

“P-professor,” I stammered, my voice a broken whisper.

His jaw flexed. “Don’t.” Just that single word, hoarse, guttural, like a command to himself rather than me.

The scent of him drove me mad, clawing at my insides until my body trembled in his hold.

I bit my lip, trying to stay still, trying to bury the chaos inside me.

But then it came again.

The pain.

Not the snapping kind this time. No, this was deeper, crueler.

My chest caved inward, my lungs burned, my vision darkened. My body convulsed again, weaker this time, helpless in Dante’s arms.

“Lessie!” Ethan’s voice was faint, far away, though I knew he was shouting. “Lessie, stay with us!”

I wanted to answer but my tongue felt heavy, my throat raw. The world spun.

Dante’s grip on me tightened. “She’s burning up,” he growled, his voice sharp, panicked for the first time.

My head lolled against his chest, my eyelids fluttering.

I could hear voices, distant, muffled, but Dante’s heartbeat was the only rhythm anchoring me.

And then, through the haze, my eyes flickered open one last time.

My vision glowed, my reflection burning back at me in glass somewhere, eyes lit with a wolf-light I couldn’t deny.

“Lessie,” Ethan’s voice pleaded desperately.

My lips parted. My voice was barely a whisper, carried on the edge of a breath.

“Death… is coming.”

And then, darkness claimed me.