LOGINJulienBy 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
RaeI watched Jesse’s car disappear through the gate before turning back toward Dorm B.The pressure beneath the moonstone had vanished the moment he crossed the ward line. The silver crescent cooled against my skin, my breathing steadied, and the stubborn certainty that had locked every muscle in my body released as though it had never been there.Only the relief remained.That should have answered something.Instead, it left me with more questions than I had before Jesse arrived.My wolf had allowed him to walk me outside. She had stayed quiet when he handed me water and when he kissed my forehead. She had not objected to the archives themselves, at least not when Jesse first mentioned them. Her refusal had begun only when I approached his car and became violent when I tried to leave Ravenwood.Maybe Chrissy had been right. Maybe the warning had nothing to do with Jesse and everything to do with leaving the pack.The thought irritated me enough that I nearly turned around and marche
RaeThe silver crescent was still warm when I left the dining hall.It no longer burned, but the lingering heat reminded me that Quinn’s confrontation had done more than give Ravenwood fresh material for its rumor mill. The crack had reacted to the strain exactly as Mansfield warned it might, and every whisper following me into the corridor made the pressure beneath my ribs tighten again.Chrissy stayed beside me as we crossed the academic wing toward Dorm B. She waited until the dining hall doors closed behind us before asking the question she had clearly been holding back.“You’re still going?”“I need answers.”“That wasn’t what I asked.”I glanced at her. “You think I shouldn’t leave with Jesse.”“I think your wolf has warned you about him twice.”“She warned me when he kept pushing me to compare him to Grant. That doesn’t mean the archives are dangerous.”“It doesn’t mean they’re safe either.”Her concern carried the cold electric scent I had learned to recognize, but I refused t
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







