A Bait

The wolves had noticed it first.Not a face. Not a name. A scent.It drifted through the halls of Alvarado University faint, unplaced, gone almost as soon as it arrived. Most students walked straight through it without noticing. But every wolf who caught it stopped mid-stride, some mid-sentence, the animal beneath their skin going still and alert.It wasn't Alpha. It wasn't Beta or Omega. It didn't fit anywhere they knew how to file a scent.By midday it had become the only thing anyone talked about, in low voices, between classes."You caught it too?""Yeah. Near the library steps.""It wasn't one of ours."Kai, a broad-shouldered junior who ran with the eastern patrol, put it best when he cornered his cousin outside the science building. "It's not wrong, exactly. It's just new. Like nothing I've got a memory to match it to."Nobody could say whose it was. Nobody could even say where it had come from. It simply appeared, lingered a few seconds too long, and vanished back into the noi

Last Updated : 2026-07-23

Family

Lucian got back from skating with Miguel just as the streetlights flickered on, the sky behind the packhouse fading from orange to a deep, bruised purple. The evening air had turned cool, carrying the smell of pine and wet earth after the afternoon's brief rain.Skating with Miguel wasn't really about the skating anymore. It was the one hour of his day nobody wanted anything from him, no training schedules, no going through border reports, nopack files or complaints to go through. Just pavement and momentum and Miguel complaining about his ankle.With a satisfied groan, Lucian took the stairs two at a time, legs pleasantly wrecked from the afternoon. He shoved his door open and slapped the light switch without looking.The room flooded with light, and he froze.Sitting by the window was his younger sister, Phoebe, chin propped on her palm, watching something outside that clearly wasn't there anymore. The curtains stirred around her in the breeze."Phebs?" He broke into a grin. "You sai

Last Updated : 2026-08-01

Attention

Founders' Week kicked off on Monday, and University A was buzzing with an unusual kind of excitement.With lectures suspended for the entire week, students seemed determined to make the most of every minute. The usually hectic walkways were filled with laughter, conversation, music, and the occasional shout as students called out to friends across the courtyard.Everywhere Elara looked, someone was taking pictures. Groups of friends posed beneath the university's huge Founders' Week banner, arms slung around one another. Others crowded around the flower arrangements set up along the walkways specifically for photographs. Some had already begun posting online, proudly documenting the start of the university's biggest celebration of the year.The school information board had announced the dress code for the opening ceremony days earlier: corporate wear. As a result, the campus looked unusually sophisticated. Students who normally showed up to lectures in jeans, sneakers, and oversized T-

Last Updated : 2026-08-16

Almost Seen

The announcement came just as Lucian was still trying to figure out what was happening then the speakers crackled overhead."Will all award recipients from this morning's recognition ceremony please make their way to the front stage for photographs and certificate collection. We'll begin in five minutes."Lucian's head turned toward the stage before he'd even finished processing the words. Elara watched something pass over his face too fast to name,relief, maybe, or just the ordinary scramble of realizing you're wanted somewhere. He was on his feet almost before she could react."That's me," he said, already stepping back from the table."Go, go." She waved him off, laughing. "Don't keep your adoring public waiting."He huffed something that might have been a laugh, but it came out thinner than it should have. "I'll find you after.""I'm not going anywhere."He hesitated just a beat too long for someone who was only walking to a stage a hundred feet away and then he was gone, weaving

Last Updated : 2026-09-11

Cheering

The walk home was the best part of Elara's day, most days. The streets emptied out slowly this time of evening, streetlights flickering on one by one, and there was something about the quiet that let her brain finally stop running through client notes and colour palettes long enough to just breathe.Tonight, though, the meeting had gone better than expected. The couple had loved her mockups, barely asked for any changes, and she'd walked out with a signed deposit and the kind of buzz that came from actually being good at something people were willing to pay for. She had her earbuds in, humming along to whatever was playing, when a voice cut through it."Elara?"She pulled an earbud out, turning toward the voice, and found Miguel jogging the last few steps to catch up to her, hands shoved in his hoodie pocket, grinning like he'd just won something."Miguel. Hey." She smiled, falling into step beside him without thinking about it."Fancy seeing you here," he said, glancing around the qu