CHAPTER 5

**Chapter 5**

**The Third**

I barely made it back to my room.Cassian’s scent still clung to my clothes, Coffee and something colder underneath. My skin felt too tight, every place he had touched — my waist, my jaw — burned like a brand. My wolf wouldn’t settle, she paced and pushed and wanted more of whatever that had been in the dark between the buildings.

I hated her for it.

I hated myself more.

Sleep didn’t come easy. When it did, it was full of gold light and low voices and hands that didn’t belong to just one man.

Morning felt worse.

Elena was waiting for me in the common room like she had been there for hours with arms crossed and eyes that could kill.

“You’re hiding something,” she said the second she saw me.

“I’m not.”

“Don’t lie to me, Elara.

You’ve been different for days. Jumping at shadows, leaving the dorm at odd hours, looking like you haven’t slept.” She stepped closer “What did you do?”

“Nothing.”

“Bullshit.” Her voice dropped “If you’ve done something that embarrasses this family, Father will hear about it. You know how he gets when you make him look bad.”

I met her eyes and kept my face blank “I fell on the path, that’s all.”

She stared at me for a long second. Then she smiled, small and mean “We’ll see.”

I left before she could dig deeper. My wolf snarled under my skin the whole way to class.

The day dragged, whispers followed me through the halls again. Instructors watched too long. Every time someone walked too close my body tensed, half expecting Cassian to appear out of nowhere or Lorenzo to step into my path with that calm, claiming stare.

By the time the final bell rang my nerves were scraped raw. I wanted to go straight to my room, lock the door, and pretend none of them existed.

I didn’t get the chance.

The courtyard behind the west wing was the long way back to the dorms. I took it anyway, fewer people, less chance of Elena or her friends.

The sun was already low, long shadows stretched across the stones.

I was halfway across when the air changed.It wasn’t like Lorenzo’s heavy dominance or Cassian’s quiet, watching presence. This was different, Warmer, Sharper like the moment before lightning hits.

I stopped.

A voice came from behind me, smooth, almost lazy and somehow more dangerous because of it.

“You’re easier to catch alone than I expected.”

I turned.

And forgot how to breathe.

Valentino Moretti stood a few steps away like he had simply stepped out of the fading light.

He was beautiful in a way that felt unfair. Wavy dark-blond hair that caught the last of the sun and turned it gold, warm amber-brown eyes that looked almost molten, tall and athletic, with the kind of easy posture that made him look harmless until you noticed the stillness underneath. Everything about him was open and golden and rare, like something the world didn’t make very often.

He smiled and my jaw dropped.

It didn’t reach his eyes.

“Elara Bellamy,” he said, tasting my name. “I’ve been wanting to meet you.”

My wolf went completely still. Then she surged so hard I had to lock my knees.He is drop dead gorgeous.

Valentino’s smile widened just a little, like he had felt it.

“There she is,” he murmured. “Lorenzo said your wolf was interesting,Cassian said she was hungry. They didn’t tell me she would look at me like that.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes you do.” He took one slow step closer. The scent of him reached me — warm skin, something like sun-heated stone, and underneath it a wildness that made my pulse jump. “You’ve been intriguing the Apex Alphas, first Lorenzo, then Cassian last night, Now me. That’s either very brave or very stupid.”

I took a step back. “Stay away from me.”

“Can’t.”

Another step, he moved like he had all the time in the world. “My wolf won’t let me. Every time you’re in danger it starts screaming and Every time one of the others gets near you it gets worse. Do you know how annoying that is?”

“I didn’t ask for any of this.”

“I know.” His voice softened, but the intensity in his eyes didn’t “that’s what makes it worse.”

He closed the last of the distance in two easy strides. Not grabbing, not pinning just standing close enough that I had to tip my head back to hold his gaze. Up close he was even more unreal, the kind of face that belonged in stories, not standing in a half-dark courtyard looking at me like I was already his.

“Your secret is out, little wolf,” he said quietly. “Not just to us. Others are starting to notice. The note was only a message, someone knows something about you.

And my instincts keep showing me the same thing.”

“What?”

He leaned in until his mouth was near my ear, with his warm breath.

“You.

Standing in the middle of something big. The three of us around you and something coming that none of us are ready for.”

My heart slammed against my ribs.Valentino pulled back just enough to look at me again. The playful edge was gone, what was left was pure Apex.

“Running won’t help,” he said.

“Hiding won’t help.

Your wolf already knows who she belongs to, all three of us. The only question left is how long it’s going to take you to stop fighting it.”

He reached up and brushed one thumb slowly across my lower lip, the lightest touch, but it sent heat straight through me.

Then he stepped back into the shadows at the edge of the courtyard.

“Sleep well, Elara,” he called softly.

“Tomorrow’s going to be interesting.”

I stood there long after he was gone, lips tingling, wolf howling inside me, and the terrible certainty settling in my bones that nothing in my life would ever be simple again.