All Chapters of The Haven Of Shadows : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Alejandro’s POVZenith’s laughter usually sounds like sunlight. Warm and ffortless. But tonight, it’s missing. She is quiet. Too quiet. And not in the way I am.She is sitting cross-legged on the couch, knees drawn in, sketchpad open but untouched. Her pencil taps a rhythm against the edge of the page, but she has not made a single line. She keeps sighing.I sit by the window, watching the moon climb higher behind the trees. The wind rustles gently against the glass, but it cannot drown out the heaviness in her silence. Finally, she speaks. “Tomorrow’s the day.”I do not answer right away. I know what she means. School. Her first day back after summer. First time in a new district. No familiar faces. No parents dropping her off or hugging her goodbye. Just me. A stranger she let in. “It’s dumb, I know,” she says quickly, before I can respond. “I mean, I’m eighteen. I should be fine. I am fine. It’s just…” She does not finish.I rise from the window and walk over. She does not look up.

Zenith’s POVThere’s something blooming inside me. Something soft and sticky and persistent. It does not hurt, yet, but it’s… loud. It whispers when I see him fixing that ancient school printer like it’s a puzzle only he can solve. It pulses when the other girls giggle every time he passes by, acting like he is some Greek statue that decided to grace our gym class.And today? Today it screamed when Natalie from Chemistry “accidentally” dropped her water bottle and fluttered her lashes at him while he bent to pick it up. Mine. The word slammed into my chest like a rogue wave. It was loud, raw and territorial.I do not say anything, of course. I am still figuring this out. But later, as we walk home, side by side, not quite touching, I glance up at him, and it all presses heavier against my ribs. He is not just a guest anymore. Not just a mysterious boy I rescued under the observatory dome. He is everywhere.In my house. In my school. In my thoughts. And now, I think… He is under my skin

Alejandro’s POVIt’s ironic. Everyone here thinks I am just a temporary tech guy. A last minute solution to a problem the school could not fix fast enough. The janitor called me “kid.” The math teacher handed me a cracked tablet and asked if I knew how to turn it off. I did not correct them. Because the truth is that this is the perfect cover.No one looks twice at the quiet guy in the hoodie behind the rows of dusty monitors. But in reality, I have repurposed half of the school’s old storage server. It now runs the backend of my system, ArdentWolf OS, my own lightweight, artificial intelligence integrated platform. A clean slate. Encrypted, self-learning and adaptive.While students tap away at the now lightning-fast desktops, I am monitoring global user feedback, security pings, and analytics from businesses beta-testing my first software patch.A few security firms and startups have already reached out. Nothing flashy yet, just cautious investors who have noticed how ArdentWolf's p

Alejandro’s POVShe does not know it yet. But the bond is waking. Every hour I spend near her... it grows and strengthens. It weaves itself into her bones, her blood, her breath. I feel it happening quietly. In the little things.The way her eyes flick toward me when I walk into the room. The way her emotions sync with mine, when I am on edge, she fidgets. When I am at peace, she hums. When I ache, she suddenly becomes quiet. She feels me. Not through scent, or howl, or shared wolf instinct. But something deeper, instinctual and fated.She is human but she is mine. And my wolf, Inferno, knows it too. He paces inside me, restless but oddly patient. If she had been a wolf, we would have marked and mated the moment we touched at the observatory. The moment I buried my nose into her neck and inhaled home. But she is not. And so, we wait as predators in restraint.Because if I had left, if I had done the logical thing and kept running, she never would have felt the pull. Her human body wou

Zenith’s POVI have always been proud of my self-control. I do not lash out. I hardly ever shout. I create. When the world becomes too loud, I paint. When it becomes too cruel, I draw. When it becomes too confusing, I sketch it into stillness. But nothing, absolutely nothing, has prepared me for what I feel watching girls fawn over Alejandro.It all starts in gym class. It is a laid back Monday morning. I am in the sun-drenched basketball court. I’m tying my sneakers when I see it, again. That same pack of juniors fluttering around him like he is a celebrity. “Coach Jandro,” one of them says, dragging out his name with a giggle, “You should totally join our senior party Friday!” He does not answer.Another girl pulls out a gift bag, something glittery and pink. “For you,” she says, her eyes fluttering. I wait for him to snap, snarl or scowl. But of course, he just gives his quiet, polite nod and declines with a low, “Not necessary.” No irritation. No visible discomfort. Just that blan