LOGINGrantThe cafeteria doors slammed shut behind Rae.For a moment, the room seemed to forget how to breathe.The laughter lingered for another second before beginning to taper off, replaced by the uneasy shifting of students who suddenly found their lunches far more interesting than the girl who had just fled the room covered in food. A few conversations resumed in hesitant whispers, but the atmosphere had changed. Even the smell of hot food seemed heavier now.Three chairs scraped backward almost at the same time.Julien stood first. Linc followed a heartbeat later, while Brax carefully lowered the fork he had halfway to his mouth back onto his tray. The grin that normally seemed stitched permanently across his face had vanished, replaced by an expression I had only seen a handful of times over the years.None of them looked at each other.They didn’t have to.Whatever decision had just been made, all three of them had reached it independently.I pushed my own chair back.“Grant.”Quin
RaeBy the time the lunch bell rang, my stomach had tied itself into enough knots that I wasn’t entirely sure I was hungry anymore.Combat class had been exhausting in ways that had nothing to do with exercise. Between Mr. Calder trying to sideline me, Quinn’s comments, and somehow ending up training with Julien and Linc, I felt like I’d spent the entire morning standing in the middle of a spotlight I had never asked for.All I wanted now was twenty quiet minutes.The cafeteria was enormous, easily large enough to seat the entire academy at once. Long rows of wooden tables stretched across the room beneath high timbered ceilings, while the smell of fresh bread, roasted meat, and soup drifted from the serving line. Conversations echoed off the stone walls, blending into a constant hum that somehow managed to feel both lively and overwhelming.Chrissy nudged my shoulder as we collected our trays.“I’m going to grab something sweet before they run out,” she said, eyeing the dessert count
RaeA laugh almost slipped out of me, but I swallowed it quickly as Mr. Calder began demonstrating the first drill.The movement was simple enough in theory. One partner grabbed the wrist. The other rotated against the thumb, stepped back, and broke the hold before creating distance. Wolves relied too much on strength. Mr. Calder said that twice, though the only person in the room without supernatural strength was me.Julien demonstrated first with Linc, breaking the hold smoothly and explaining the mechanics under his breath.“Don’t pull backward,” he told me when it was my turn. “That turns it into a contest of strength, and you’ll lose.”“Thanks for the confidence.”“It isn’t personal. It’s physics.”Linc held out his hand. “Against the thumb.”I placed my wrist in his grip.His hold was firm, but careful
RaeCombat Training was the one class I had been dreading since the moment I saw it on my schedule.Not because I was afraid of getting hurt. I had been hurt before. Bruises faded. Split lips healed. Scraped palms stopped stinging eventually.What I dreaded was the reminder.Every other class at Ravenwood Academy could at least pretend I belonged there if everyone tried hard enough. History was history. Strategy could be studied. Pack Law could be memorized, even if most of it had clearly never been written with someone like me in mind.Combat was different. Combat belonged to wolves.The training arena sat behind the main academy building, half indoors and half open to the forest. The structure was built from dark stone and reinforced wood, with wide doors that opened onto the outdoor training fields. Rows of weapons lined the walls: practice staffs, padded batons, wooden daggers, training blades dulled at the
GrantI set the book on my desk, but I already knew I wasn’t going to read it.The room had settled into an uneasy quiet behind me. Brax had finally stopped talking long enough to finish his pizza. Julien sat with his elbows resting on his knees, watching me with the same patient expression he wore whenever he thought he understood something I didn’t. Linc hadn’t moved from the chair by the window.They were waiting.For me to say something.For me to explain myself.
GrantThe walk back to the command suite should have cleared my head.It didn’t.The academy had quieted since dinner, but not enough to hide the whispers that followed us across the courtyard. Students clustered near the dormitory steps and beneath the old stone arches of the leadership wing, pretending not to watch while doing a terrible job of it. Brax walked beside me with the remaining pizza box tucked beneath one arm, perfectly relaxed, as if leaving Rae’s room with contraband food after half the school had already started talking about her was a reasonable way to end the first day.I let the silence stretch as long as I could.“Where did you even get that?”Brax glanced down at the box. “The pizza?”“What else would I be talking about?”His expression brightened with immediate, suspicious pride. “Pizza connections.”“There are no pizza connections.”“That is exactly what someone without pizza connections would say.”“You smuggled food into a restricted dormitory.”“I delivered
RaeAnd when I finally looked up, it wasn’t who I expected.Not even close.Brax Weston stood in the doorway balancing two pizza boxes, four sodas, and enough confidence to make it seem like he’d been invited.Chrissy’s eyes widened.Brax grinned.“Good,” he announced. “You’re alive.”I blinked.“W
RaeBy the time I made it back to my dorm room, the box in my hands felt heavier than it had any right to.It wasn’t the weight of the things inside it. It was everything attached to them—the way Sonya had looked at me, the way Julien hadn’t backed down, the way Grant had stepped into the conversat
RaeBy the time classes ended, I understood something I hadn’t been prepared for when I walked into Ravenwood Academy that morning.Being ignored had been easier.At least when I was invisible, people didn’t look at me like I was something to be figured out.Now they did.The whispers had changed.
RaeJulien Bennett’s hand remained extended in front of me, steady and patient, as if the weight of the entire courtyard staring at him didn’t exist.For a moment, I didn’t move—not because I needed help getting up, but because of what that gesture meant. Wolves like Julien didn’t involve themselve







