LOGINRaeQuinn froze.Rebecca had climbed down beside her, but neither of them looked nearly as confident as they had before the support collapsed.“This was an accident,” Rebecca said.“No, it wasn’t,” Julien answered.His voice had settled back into its usual controlled register, but I could feel the anger beneath it now. The bond made it impossible to miss. What would once have looked like calm restraint from the outside now carried a sharp edge that pressed against my awareness.Rebecca folded her arms. “You don’t know what happened.”“I watched Quinn pull the emergency release.”“And I heard Rebecca tell her to do it,” I added.Rebecca’s face lost some of its color.Quinn looked at me. “I thought it would release the rope.”“It did release the rope.”“I didn&rsquo
RaeThe moonstone shattered into five pieces.For several seconds, I could only stare at them scattered across the stone path. The broken silver crescent lay twisted nearby, still faintly glowing from the heat that had torn through it, while pieces of the stone my mother had fastened around my neck rested in the dirt between Julien and me.Then something inside me changed.The pressure I had carried for days disappeared so completely that I sucked in a breath. My wolf surged into the space left behind, filling places inside me I had never realized were empty. Her presence was suddenly everywhere at once, warm and powerful and so intimately familiar that my eyes burned before I understood why.Rae.I froze.Her voice was clearer than it had ever been. There was no strain behind it and no need for anger or fear to force the word through. She simply spoke, and I heard her as naturally as I heard my own thoughts.“You’re here.”Relief rushed through me in answer, carrying years of lonelin
JulienBy the time we reached the first ridge, I had already learned two things.Rae’s hearing had become more useful than Calder’s map, and Jesse Vicker had apparently decided the best way to survive a command trial was to stay close enough to touch her whenever the opportunity presented itself.Neither realization improved my mood.Rae moved several steps ahead of us, following the faint metallic clicking she had heard from the training field. The trail narrowed as it climbed, forcing us into single file between slick stone on one side and dense pine on the other.She paused near a bend and tilted her head.For several seconds, she simply listened.Wind moved through the upper branches. Somewhere farther down the slope another team crashed through undergrowth with all the stealth of a herd of elk.Then Rae pointed northeast.“Higher now. Metal against stone every few seconds.”Jesse glanced toward the trees before smiling at her. “Whatever you say, sweetheart. Lead the way.”My wolf
RaeBy the time I reached the training grounds the next morning, I had almost convinced myself yesterday had been a strange detour rather than another sign that my life was unraveling.Almost.The wolf inside me had refused to let me leave Ravenwood, Grant had felt enough through the mate bond to know I never crossed the academy boundary, and I had spent half the afternoon staring at three damaged lines from an ancient translation as though they might rearrange themselves into something useful.They had not.Now several dozen students stood across the eastern field beneath a gray morning sky while Calder arranged sealed envelopes on a long table. Wooden markers divided the grounds into starting lanes, and beyond them the forest stretched toward the training ridge.Chrissy leaned closer. “Why does everything involving Calder look like it ends with someone needing medical attention?”“Because he enjoys themes.”Across the field, Grant stood with Julien, Brax, and Linc near the command g
Rae“Rae, open the door.”Grant’s voice pulled the last remnants of sleep from my head.I pushed myself upright and stared at the scattered papers covering my bed. My notebook had fallen to the floor, and one of Mansfield’s translations was crumpled beneath my elbow. Sunlight had shifted across the room while I slept, leaving the desk in shadow.Another knock struck the door.“Rae.”“I’m coming.”My voice sounded rough from sleep, but the pounding stopped immediately.I swung my legs over the side of the bed and rubbed both hands over my face. My heart was beating too fast for someone who had done nothing more alarming than wake from an accidental nap.A strange pressure squeezed beneath my ribs.Fear.The recognition came automatically now. Cold electricity seemed to move through my chest, except this was different from smelling Chrissy’s fear or catching a stranger’s anxiety in a crowded hallway.This was inside me.I frowned and pressed a hand against my sternum.I wasn’t afraid.C
GrantChrissy found me outside the strategy hall ten minutes before lunch.She moved through the students pouring into the corridor with none of her usual brightness. Her strawberry-blonde curls had begun escaping their half-bun, and she held her phone so tightly that the case bent beneath her fingers.The moment I saw her face, my wolf surged.“Where is Rae?”Chrissy stopped in front of me, slightly breathless. “That’s what I was going to ask you.”The pressure in my chest sharpened, but the bond remained steady beneath it. Rae was somewhere nearby. I could not have explained how I knew, only that the awareness of her had never disappeared beyond the faint edge of my senses.“She’s on campus.”Chrissy stared at me. “She left with Jesse this morning.”“No, she didn’t.”“I walked downstairs with her. He was waiting in the lobby, and I watched them go outside.”“That doesn’t mean they crossed the academy boundary.”Her concern turned colder. “How do you know they didn’t?”Students conti
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.
Rae The Ravenwood Pack had one human.That human was me.Most wolves didn’t bother remembering anything else about me. Not my name. Not how long I had lived on their territory. Just the simple, inconvenient truth that I didn’t belong in their world.Humans didn’t live inside wolf packs.Yet someho







