LOGINLESSIE I felt Ethan long before I ever heard him.It started as a pressure in my chest—soft at first, then growing, tightening, twisting like invisible fingers trying to pull something out of me. I didn’t tell anyone. Every time the pressure came, his name would flash through my mind like a warning I didn’t yet understand.And then the nights began. The first time, I thought it was a dream. The second time, I knew it wasn’t.I jolted awake with my hand clutching my throat, my breath caught halfway between a scream and a whisper. “Lessie…” His voice echoed inside my skull, as clear as though he stood right beside my bed.My heart slammed painfully against my ribs. I scanned the shadows of my room, eyes darting from corner to corner.“Ethan?” My voice cracked.No reply. But the cold remained. And the air smelled like him.I dragged my legs out of bed, pacing the room, fingers trembling as I pressed them into my scalp. I wasn’t losing my mind. I wasn’t imagining it. I knew Ethan’s voice
PROFESSOR DANTE The pack hall shook with every impact.Snarls echoed off the stone pillars as skeletal wolves lunged at me from all sides, their hollow eye sockets glowing with poisonous green fire. Their ribs clattered with every movement, bones scraping bones, claws dragging gouges across the wooden floor.My claws extended with a crack, my muscles tightening as another skeletal wolf sprang straight at my throat. I caught it midair, slamming it into the ground so hard its spine shattered. Bone fragments scattered across the floor like shards of glass.“Stay down,” I snarled.Another one lunged from behind. I whirled, grabbed its jaw, and ripped its skull clean off. The body collapsed into dust.But there were more.Six of them circled me now, moving in perfect, unnatural silence. The fog in the hall thickened, coiling around my ankles like cold fingers trying to drag me down.I roared and charged.Two wolves leapt first—one toward my legs, the other for my shoulder. I spun low, let
ETHAN The moment I stepped onto campus the next morning, I knew there was definitely going to be chaos.A cold pressure pressed against my skin, like something unseen was crawling over me. At first I thought it was just leftover exhaustion from last night, but then I saw black fog slithering out from the cracks of the main hall, spilling over the courtyard like a living thing.Students were screaming. Books hit the ground. People ran in every direction.And the fog had already found it's way into their system.I watched a boy in front of me inhale a lungful before he even realized it. His veins turned dark instantly, spiderwebbing beneath his skin. His eyes rolled back, his spine twisted at an unnatural angle, and when he looked at me again he had fanged shadows where pupils used to be.“What the hell…? No—NO! Stay back!” another student shouted, but it was too late. The twisted boy lunged with claws that hadn’t existed seconds ago.Everything collapsed into chaos.Students were atta
PROFESSOR KIERAN The moment Marcus lifted the torch above my head, I felt my wolf hurl itself against my chest, snarling for release. The silver net tightened as I struggled, the metal burning into my skin like molten wire. Every breath came heavier, slower, poisoned by the silver stench clogging my lungs.The students were shouting over each other, like a single roaring beast trying to swallow me whole.“He’s a monster!”“Kill him before he turns on us!”“Burn the wolf!”My vision blurred at the edges, but I refused to show any sign of weakness. If this was how I died, I would face it heads on.Marcus stepped forward, flames flickering greedily along the torch. Sweat rolled down the side of my face.“See?” Marcus sneered, turning to the crowd. “Proof. Do you see it now? Wolves live among us. They pretend to be your teachers, your friends, your protectors. But they’re nothing more than beasts.”I snarled, the words ripping out of me through clenched teeth.“You don’t know a damn thin
LESSIE The chains scraped against my wrists again.A slow, grating drag of metal over raw, torn skin. I sucked in a sharp breath as the movement sent another wave of pain spiraling up my arms, settling deep into my bones. I didn’t know how long I’d been hanging there. Time didn’t exist in the Shadow Realm. There was no sun to tell me morning had come. No moon to show that night was near.Just darkness and pain.I sagged forward, my head dipping as strands of hair clung to the sweat on my face. Everything in me felt drained—my strength, my courage, even the stubborn spark that had kept me alive this long. My legs trembled uselessly beneath me, unable to do more than drag against the cold ground.My chest ached with every breath I managed to pull in. My throat burned from earlier screams. My ribs felt bruised, maybe cracked. My lips were dry, split at the corners. I felt weak, so weak it scared me.Because weakness was exactly what he wanted.Every second I hung here, I felt pieces of
PROFESSOR KIERAN The moment I stepped into the quad, the air shifted immediately, as if nature itself was very well calling me a monster. I moved forward and looked right in the eyes of everyone in front. Students crowded the space, torches blazing in their hands, the glow painting their terrified faces. Even before anyone spoke, I felt their emotions crackling through the air, a chaotic mix of panic, anger, and something even more dangerous, ignorance.And it was ignorance that Marcus Vale fed on.He stood on the raised steps at the center of the quad, blade still glinting with the fading reflection of the torch he’d nearly used to execute my packmate. The boy was still on the ground, gasping, clutching his side. His human face was streaked with tears, blood, and fear. Students surrounded him like vultures hungry for a corpse.My wolf surged the moment I saw him.“Enough,” I growled, stepping forward.Every head snapped in my direction, as they started switching off their Torches an







