Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 21 - Chapitre 30

NOVADrax called it 'partner training' and left the rest deliberately vague, which meant nobody knew what they were walking into, and that was probably the point.Nova stood in the morning line and watched the ground fill up and did the same scan she always did. Exits. Sightlines. Who was standing where?Zion found her before she found him.He came across from the left, unhurried, falling into step beside her like they'd agreed to meet here. "Partner training," he said. "Good timing.""You were looking for me.""I told you I would be." He stopped beside her on the line. Easy. No pressure in it. "Unless you'd rather find someone else."She looked at the ground. Looked at him.Her wolf said nothing. Still that same quiet neutrality it gave him every time – not hostile, just unbothered, the way you're unbothered by something that isn't relevant to you."Fine," she said.Zion smiled and faced forward.CADENHe got partnered with Tor again, which was fine. Tor was reliable and asked nothin

The training ground went quiet at exactly the wrong moment.Drax had that quality of stillness that made sound stop around him without him asking for it. He stood at the centre of the ground and looked at Nova and Rhen with the expression of someone who had already decided the outcome and was waiting for them to catch up."You two." Flat. Carrying across the whole ground. "Who said you could talk during a drill sequence?"Rhen opened his mouth."It was my fault," Nova said. She stepped forward before Rhen could get a word out. "I couldn't identify my partner. I broke formation to regroup. Rhen was responding to me. The fault is mine."Drax looked at her for a moment.Then at Rhen."Penalty training," Drax said. "Both of you. Extra conditioning sequence.""Tonight's freshman night," someone near the back of the line said, quiet enough that it barely carried. Drax's eyes moved in that direction, and whoever had spoken went still."Rescheduled," Drax said. "Tomorrow, five a.m. Don't be l

CADENSoren leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed and that particular expression he reserved for conversations Caden didn't want to have."You're really not going.""I have reports to review.""You reviewed them this afternoon.""I'm reviewing them again."Soren looked at the desk. At the stack of files Caden had not opened in forty minutes. He said nothing about that, which meant he was saying everything about it."I heard Ash will be there," Soren said.Caden's jaw tightened. He felt it happen and kept his eyes on the page in front of him. "I told you. Keep him away from me.""I'm your beta, not his keeper." Soren pushed off the doorframe and came further into the room, dropping into the chair across the desk with the ease of someone who had been doing this for years and had stopped asking permission. "You don't look like a man who wants him kept away.""Drop it.""I'm dropping it." A pause. "I've dropped it." Another pause. "Have you considered that avoiding the situat

CADENShe was not just drunk.She was gone. Completely. The specific groan of someone whose body had been chemically ambushed rather than gradually worn down by choice.He found her on the east steps with Rhen crouched beside her, looking rattled in a way he never looked rattled. Her back was against the stone wall, knees pulled up, head tipped back. Eyes open but not landing on anything properly."Two drinks," Rhen said before Caden could ask. "That's all she had. I counted.""Bren's drinks."Rhen's mouth went tight. "The first one. Before Zion intervened. She said she didn't touch it." He looked at the ground. "She must have taken one sip."Caden dropped to his knees at her feet.She looked at him, and her face did something it never did when she was sober. Something open and unmanaged and totally unguarded, as if every wall she had held up through every waking hour had simply shut off.He got up. Got her arm up over his shoulder. “I’m fine,” she said. Sluggish. The words are coming

NOVADrax called them in by block.East wing first, then the west, then the freshmen annex where she bunked. She stood in line and kept her breathing even and her face doing nothing she hadn't told it to do and watched Bren from the corner of her eye the whole time.He was not watching the officer.He was watching her.When the annex block was called, she moved with the line through the corridor and into the locker room. The space smelt like damp stone and old training gear. Single row of benches down the middle. The medical officer set up near the far wall with a clipboard and a sealed kit.Standard inspection. That was what Drax had said. Standard intake inspection following an incident.Standard meant everything.The first three went quickly. The officer checked documentation, logged names, and moved on. Clinical. Unhurried. Working through the line the way you worked through a list.Bren and his group had arranged themselves near the back wall with the specific casual positioning