Chapter 1 #2
My wrist burned—a flash of heat so sudden and specific that I almost looked down to check for a mark. And something else, something heavier, settled onto my chest like a stone I'd been waiting my whole life to carry.
No.
No, no, no.
I knew what this was. I'd grown up around fated mates, watched the bonds form, heard the stories. The instant recognition. The pull that defied logic.
I did not have time for this.
Neither of us moved. Neither of us spoke. His hands were still on my shoulders and mine had landed somewhere on his chest and we were just standing there, breathing the same air, caught in something neither of us had asked for.
His mouth opened. Nothing came out.
"Name." His voice cracked on the single syllable, rough and wrecked.
I should have answered. Should have said something. But my voice had apparently decided to abandon ship along with my common sense, and all I could do was stare at his face like I was memorizing it for a test I hadn't known I'd be taking.
Footsteps echoed from below.
We both heard them at the same time—someone climbing the stairs, about to round the corner and find us frozen in whatever the hell this was.
The sound broke the spell.
I stepped back. His hands fell away. The loss of contact felt like stepping out of a warm room into a blizzard.
A girl appeared on the landing below us, slightly out of breath, her bright eyes going wide as she took in the scene. Me, flushed and disheveled. Him, still staring like I'd hit him with a brick instead of my shoulder.
The space between us that practically crackled with whatever had just happened.
"Oh," she said, a grin spreading across her face. "Don't mind me."
The interruption gave me what I needed. I pulled the armor back on—the wit, the deflection, the part of me that knew how to handle situations I couldn't control.
"Cat got your tongue, cowboy?" My voice came out steadier than I expected.
He blinked. Shook his head like he was trying to clear water from his ears.
"What?"
"Your name." I reached up—slowly, deliberately—and adjusted his hat where the collision had knocked it askew. "You asked for mine. It's polite to offer yours first."
His jaw worked. Up close, I could see a small scar on his chin, a faint spray of freckles across his nose. Details I did not need to be noticing.
"James," he managed. "I'm James."
"Lumi." I patted his chest once—firm, dismissive, absolutely nothing like the way my hand wanted to linger—and stepped around him. "Nice running into you, James. Try not to loiter in stairwells. Safety hazard."
I turned and booked it away from him without looking back. The girl from the landing fell into step beside me, mercifully waiting until we'd pushed through the third floor door before she spoke.
"Okay." She let out a breath. "What the hell was that?"
"Nothing."
"That wasn't nothing. That was—" She waved her hand vaguely. "I don't even know what that was, but the air in that stairwell got very weird very fast."
"Static electricity."
"Sure. Static electricity that made you both forget how to blink." She stuck out her hand. "Ivy Button. And yes, I do grow on you." She snorted at her own joke. "You get used to me."
I shook it briefly. "Lumi."
"Just Lumi?"
"Lumi Orlav."
"Nice to meet you, Lumi Orlav." We walked down the hall together, and I could feel her glancing at me sideways, trying to figure out how much to push. "So. Cowboy hat guy. Friend of yours?"
"Never seen him before in my life."
"Huh." She was quiet for a second. "Could've fooled me."
I didn't have an answer for that.
"I'm in 312," she offered. "Down the hall. If you need anything."
I stopped walking.
String lights. Bright quilt. Snacks everywhere.
"You're my roommate."
Her eyes went wide. "Wait, seriously?" The grin that spread across her face was almost alarming. "Oh, this is going to be fun."
"That's one word for it."
She laughed and looped her arm through mine like we'd known each other for years instead of minutes.
The room was exactly as I'd left it—her explosion of color on one side, my single bag on the other. Ivy flopped onto her bed while I continued unpacking, pulling clothes from my bag and hanging them in the closet with more focus than the task required.
"So," she said, watching me from her nest of quilts. "You going to tell me about cowboy hat guy, or do I have to guess?"
"There's nothing to tell."
"Liar." But she said it cheerfully, without malice. "Fine. Keep your secrets. I'll figure it out eventually."
She probably would. That was the annoying thing about people like Ivy—they paid attention.
I finished with the clothes. Started on the books. The motions were familiar. Grounding.
Everything else felt like standing on ice that was starting to crack.
"Hey." Ivy's voice was softer now. "You okay?"
"Just tired. Long trip."
She was quiet for a moment. “K, I’m going to read, holler if you need something."
"Thanks."
I heard her settle back against her pillows, heard the rustle of a snack bag opening, the soft crunch of her chewing. Normal sounds. Roommate sounds.
I walked to the window. Looked out.
No Denali. Just the next building over, its windows glowing warm in the fading light. The mountain was out there somewhere, hidden by Frosthaven's careful geography, but I couldn't see it.
I could still feel it, though. That pull in my chest, constant as a heartbeat.
And now there was something else. Someone else.
James.
I pressed my palm flat against the cold glass and made myself think clearly.
The mate bond didn't have to mean anything. It wasn't destiny. It was just biology. Chemistry. The universe's way of saying this person is compatible with you without asking if you actually wanted that information.
I didn't want it.
For seven years, my dreams had returned to the same pale wolf—same eyes, same broken rhythm in his stride, the same stretch of snow beneath a sky I could chart by heart.
I wanted Denali.I wanted the wolf in the snow, the one who'd been waiting for someone to find them.I wanted to prove that the longest-lost could still be found, that everyone who said it was impossible was wrong.
I didn't have room for complications. For distractions. For a boy in a cowboy hat who looked at me like I had all of the answers.
This changes nothing, I told myself.
Outside, the last light faded from the sky.
Behind me, Ivy hummed something off-key and kept eating her snacks, unbothered by my silence. She didn't push. Didn't pry. Just let me stand there, staring at nothing, working through whatever I needed to work through.
Maybe having a roommate wouldn't be so bad after all.
I stayed at the window until the glass fogged with my breath.