LOGINScarlet exhaled shakily once the room was quiet again.The book was gone.Ash.Nothing left but a scorched memory and the faint smell of smoke clinging to the curtains.Her hands trembled as she smoothed the sheets, stripped the candles away, folded the silk ribbons she’d laid out like bait. Every trace of seduction was erased with surgical precision. If anyone walked in now, they’d see nothing but an ordinary dorm room...and a girl pretending her heart hadn’t just tried to claw its way out of her chest.She sat on the edge of the bed, spine straight, face calm.Footsteps approached.Her pulse jumped.The door opened, and Mira stepped in, arms full of envelopes.“Scar,” Mira said breathlessly, dumping the letters onto the table. “We have mail. Like...a lot of it.”Scarlet nodded too fast. “Yeah. Right. Mail.”Her eyes locked onto the pile instantly, scanning for one thing...thick paper, gold trim, the faint scent of ink and power.Mira moved to the mirror, brushing her hair. “Do you t
The paper curled the moment it kissed the flame.Scarlet didn’t hesitate.She pressed the notebook harder into the candlelight, watching as the edges blackened, the ink blistering and fading into nothing. The words she’d bled onto those pages...plans, filth, fear, secrets...warped and vanished in a hiss.Ronan was still struggling with his shirt, fabric caught over his head like a damn blindfold.She tossed the burning book into the fireplace.And screamed.Not a dainty sound. Not a scared little whimper.It tore out of her throat...raw, sharp, unhinged.Ronan froze.“What the fuck...”The shirt finally came off as he lunged toward her. The flames leapt, greedy, licking at the pages. Smoke filled the room, bitter and acrid.Scarlet staggered back, breath coming apart.Ronan grabbed her, yanking her into his chest so hard it knocked the air out of her. One arm wrapped around her shoulders, crushing, shielding, while his boot came down hard on the burning book.Once.Twice.The fire die
Scarlet’s pulse hammered against her ribs like it wanted out.“Does the presence outside pose a threat to you, Mrs. Lycan?”The attorney’s voice was calm. Too calm. The kind of calm that scraped at nerves instead of soothing them.Mrs. Lycan.Scarlet pointed weakly at her own chest, lips parting. “Me?”The word echoed in her skull, sticky and unreal. Mrs. Lycan. Not by bond but by proximity. By a deal signed in shaky ink and half-read desperation.Her wolf stirred, low and alert, not mocking this time...watchful. You signed it. Titles follow contracts. Whether you like them or not.She swallowed.Images flashed...Ronan’s eyes burning across the classroom, the notebook in his hand, the pages she should’ve burned instead of filling with thoughts too dangerous to exist on paper. Plans. Anger. Power. Vengeance whispered in ink. If Ronan had read everything...No. Don’t spiral.If she confessed now, the Lycan would carve into her again with disappointment, with that sharp disappointment th
“It’s nothing,” she lied, too fast.Grey studied her face...the way her eyes wouldn’t settle, the way her jaw trembled despite the calm mask she was forcing on. He stepped closer, lowering his voice.“And what’s this secret of yours?”The words sliced clean.Scarlet froze.Not metaphorically. Not dramatically. Her body actually locked, muscles seizing as cold panic poured straight down her spine. Her mouth opened, then closed. Her throat went dry, like someone had packed it with ash.Secret.Grey noticed. Of course he did. His eyes sharpened, the softness slipping into calculation.“Scarlet?” he pressed gently. “You’re scaring me.”She swallowed hard, the sound loud in the tiled silence. Too much. I said too much. Her pulse roared in her ears. She shook her head once, forcing a brittle smile that didn’t reach her eyes.“I...I just meant… everyone has secrets.”Before Grey could respond, the restroom door creaked open.A sharply dressed female stepped in, heels clicking like gunshots a
The Blackwood Academy classroom smelled of old parchment, chalk dust, and restrained violence.Rows of students sat stiff-backed beneath the high arched ceiling, wolves simmering just beneath their skin. Power pressed down like humidity before a storm. The kind that made weaker wolves itch, made stronger ones grin.Scarlet didn’t notice any of it.Her pen scratched relentlessly across the page, ink biting into paper as if she were carving herself open one sentence at a time. Her head was bent, hair falling like a curtain around her face. She didn’t look up when Alpha Ronan paused mid-lecture. Didn’t notice when the room fell silent.Liora noticed.She leaned back in her chair, manicured nails tapping once… twice… her eyes narrowing as she watched Scarlet continue writing like a possessed thing. No giggling. No whispering. No stolen glances.Too focused.Too calm.That alone pissed Liora off.Alpha Ronan’s boots echoed as he stepped away from the lectern. Heavy. Measured. Predator step
Ronan walked away from Liora and Beta Alaric with his hands buried deep in his pockets, boots crunching against gravel like he was grinding bones beneath them."Something’s off," his wolf muttered.Ronan’s jaw flexed. "You say that every time.""Not like this," the wolf insisted. "Every time Alaric stands too close to her, my hackles rise."Ronan exhaled hard through his nose. Paranoia. That’s what it was. He had bigger fucking problems than overthinking his beta’s proximity to a girl he barely gave a shit about.Alaric liked curves. Real curves. Women who filled his hands and didn’t squeak when they were grabbed. Liora was all sharp edges and arrogance...pretty, yes, but basic as hell. Ronan had chosen her as a responsibility, not a desire. A thing to manage. A leash to hold.Nothing more.He convinced himself of that as he crossed the courtyard.That was when he saw Scarlet.She stood near the stone fountain, moonlight brushing her hair like silver fire, her posture relaxed in a way







