LOGINThe common room was bustling at this hour as students rushed around, getting ready for classes. I made my way to the kitchen and threw a bagel in the toaster, leaning against the counter as I waited.“Callum?”Bianca stepped into view, appearing out of seemingly nowhere. My jaw tightened, wolf insti
Callum’s POVI woke to the feeling of something warm in my chest.For a moment, I almost could have sworn that I had something small and delicate gathered up in my arms. A gentle heart beating against my own. A lock of soft hair fluttering against my cheek.Liora.A smile touched my lips. I tightene
It might have been laughable, had circumstances not been so… sad.“So your parents took it badly, I imagine,” I pointed out.Callum huffed and looked into his bottle. “My dad beat the shit out of me.”I pulled my head back. “He what?”Wordlessly, Callum turned, pulling his shirt up to reveal his bac
Liora’s POVI just barely made it into the parking space before the car let out one final groan, then sputtered to a stop, rocking back and forth on the wheels.“Sorry about that, girl,” I said, patting the steering wheel. “That was a lot more driving in one day than I anticipated.”Shirley almost s
“Twenty lashes,” he said. “We’ll see if you change your mind then.”I grit my teeth. “I don’t have to put up with this anymore.”“Would you rather take it, or would you prefer if that little wolfless whore of yours took it instead?”The moment he said those words, I felt all the blood drain from my
Callum’s POVMy father’s shadow darkened the room.There was a time in my life when my father’s presence seemed enormous and all-consuming, like a black hole filling any space he entered. When I was a child, I remembered thinking that he was big enough to reach the moon, or to blot out the sun.I’d
When I found an empty, dust-covered office, I brushed my fingers behind my ear. The mindlink buzzed in my head like a gnat circling my skull.I tapped my temple out of habit. “You couldn’t have texted?”“That tone is wasted on me, princess,” my father’s voice filled my head dry like old parchment. “
LioraThe castle doors groaned open with a final click, echoing through the quiet, gilded hall like a held breath released. I stared at Bianca from behind, puzzled. No, irritated.How had she opened it?Old magic coded into the stones of this place, so old I can’t imagine tampering with it. Still, I
ZaneLook, in my defense, I wasn’t spying.Not really.I was just... observing. From a tree. Slightly above eye level. With snacks.Okay, fine. Call it spying if it helps you sleep at night.But let’s be honest—when a wolfless girl gives a smack down to an alpha, makes Jessica recoil like she’s seen
“You don’t scare easily, do you?” Bianca asked me with a smirk.“No.” After everything she and Alder had put me through that semester, I would have expected her to at least know that much about me. But she probably did, and was just trying to get under my skin, which I wouldn’t let her do.Finally,







