Chapter 3
Adea
Present Day
I slowed to a stop before the towering obsidian gates of Lycan Academy.
A sea of charcoal blazers and mini skirts that screamed prestige walked through them. I pulled out my phone and tapped Mavy’s name.
Me: Made it. Where are you?
Mavy: In the quad with Trent. Come over!
I sighed. Even at the edge of the world, she was tethered to him.
I stepped onto the grounds, passing the Founder’s Monument—a massive, silver-tipped Lycan carved from black marble.
The statue watched me the way it always did, its bi-pedal form and stone cloak frozen mid-wind.
I’d always found it unsettling, but it wasn’t until this year that I understood why.
He was too lifelike to be a symbol. You half-expected to hear him growl.
Everyone knew the story of the founder. Our great Academy had once been his home and the land his territory.
Hundreds of years ago, he’d taken over the nearby territories, adding to his numbers and strength, but his jealousy was his downfall.
He refused to let anyone look upon his Luna.
She never left the castle. There were no paintings or drawings left of her, but the pity echoed over the centuries.
I kept my eyes forward as I crossed the grounds.
This was the part I’d never gotten used to and probably never would—the way the air changed when I walked through it.
I faintly registered a conversation near the fountain.
Two girls from the Eastern border didn’t move, but the space between us widened without either of them appearing to try.
People refused to look at me. They didn’t have to.
They could smell what I was—or rather, what I wasn’t.
No wolf meant no rank. No rank meant I existed in the negative space of every room I entered—like a ghost.
I spotted Mavy standing on a low stone ledge, her black hair a dark halo in the morning mist. She waved with her fingers, her silver eyes bright with a cheerfulness that read as sacrilege in a place this dead.
I nodded to Trent as I approached. He looked every bit the Beta-heir—too polished, too watchful, too judgmental with the way his lip curled. “Morning,” I muttered.
“You look like you didn’t sleep,” Trent noted. Before I could snap back, the heavy iron bells of the cathedral tower rang out. As if this place needed help with the Gothic vibe.
“Torture o’clock,” Mavy chirped, hooking her arm through mine.
The air grew thin as we walked past the oak doors of the Sciences wing.
Shane came into view, leaning against the stone walls.
He was flanked by his usual shadows: Liam at his left, blond and deceptively calm.
He nodded. To his right was Devin, a wall of muscle and barely contained violence, already the enforcer he was born to be.
Shane didn’t look at his friends. Obsidian tracked me.
He handed Mavy her bag, his focus darting to her with a rare flash of softness.
“Thank you, brother,” she said, kissing his cheek.
I felt a familiar shudder crawl down my spine.
Their closeness was a beautiful, twisted thing I couldn’t understand.
Even when my sister lived, we never got along.
He’d changed into his uniform—shirt untucked and tie missing—with black silk beneath his charcoal blazer to set him apart as a Prince.
Mavy disappeared into the first door, but as I tried to follow, Shane’s hand shot out, slamming against the doorframe.
He didn’t move. He just stood there, blocking the way, his head tilting as he caught my scent.
He leaned down until his face was inches away from mine.
My lashes fluttered as I pretended his cedar and sandalwood scent didn’t just beckon, but repelled me.
“What were you doing in the woods, Ady?” His voice was low, meant only for me. His friends watched in silence that felt heavy with expectation.
He leaned in closer, his nose brushing the shell of my ear. “You should be more careful, Princess. Not everyone would just watch from the shadows while you stood there naked. Did you think the trees would hide you as you changed into your uniform? Or were you hoping someone would see?”
My blood ran cold. He had seen me. He had watched me strip off my clothes and stand vulnerable in the creek.
“I was running,” I whispered, refusing to look at him. It was eerie how he knew where I’d been. He got his answer, but didn’t remove his hand.
“I didn’t…”
“Run faster next time.” He finally pulled his hand back.
I sputtered a response, but he’d already decided he was done with me. I was left glaring at his back as he disappeared into the lecture hall.
Right, I’d do that just so he could have more time to torment me.
I scoffed as I followed him into the lecture hall.
The atmosphere in here was even worse. Elites were from ranked families.
Put them into a room and there was a hierarchy even here with Shane at the top.
Assigned seats meant there was nowhere for me to run, trapped between the window to my left and Shane to my right.
I put my bag on the table before taking my seat and staring outside.
The biting chill of the morning seeped through the glass—a welcoming distraction from the suffocating heat radiating from the seat beside me.
The desk was the same unforgiving obsidian as the gates and cold enough to make my bones ache.
“Are you avoiding me, Ady?” he whispered the nickname, his voice was hypnotic.
“I didn’t know you were someone who owned my attention, Shane.”
He chuckled, a low sound that made me the punchline of a joke I hadn’t heard yet.
“And stop calling me that. Only friends can call me Ady.”
“Are you excited to be leaving Half Moon?” He ignored me and didn’t wait for an answer.
I flinched as his fingers brushed a stray lock from my face, his touch lingering on the sensitive skin behind my ear.
No matter how many times he touched me, I couldn’t get used to it.
My eyes darted to the first row of seats where Mavy sat.
The Mating Festival. The words hung in the air, a death sentence I wasn’t ready to serve.
The one thing I begged the Goddess for was freedom.
I’d do anything to leave Half Moon Kingdom.
Permanently. Not for some forced archaic mating ritual.
“When it comes to your sister, I don’t have a choice,” I murmured. My shoulders tensed—at the audacity and the possibility someone might see.
His chest rumbled with a low, predatory chuckle. I went rigid as his finger traced a slow, possessive line down the column of my neck. I shuddered as goosebumps broke out along my skin from the weight of his attention.
He leaned in, his breath tickling my skin. “You smell like the forest. Like something that needs to be hunted.”
I pulled away, catching Beka’s lethal glare from across the aisle as my temple pressed against the cool glass of the window.
If looks could kill, I’d be a splash of blood and bone on the Academy floor.
Her cloying floral scent reaching out to stab me.
It didn’t belong in the woods, but in a glass bottle on a vanity.
My ears warmed at the hushed whispers behind me.
“Let’s talk after the last bell,” he murmured.
“I’m going home with Mavy.”
“I only need a few minutes, Princess. Don’t make me come looking for you.”
Only after I gave a stiff nod did he finally retreat, leaning back with a look of smug satisfaction. He stretched his legs out beneath the table as the professor came in.
***
Later in the Great Hall, I walked away from the salad bar with my free plate. Everything down to the food I ate was a gift.
“We might get to see the Mad King.”
Someone laughed. “I don’t want to just see him.”
Something moved through my chest—a word at the tip of my tongue, in a language I’d never learned.
Mavy sat at the table in the center, and I quickened my pace.
“Adea!” she sang out, waving me over. Nikki was already there on Mavy’s right, her features unimpressed as she watched Shane’s friends gaze on me.
I sat down, a sacrificial lamb at a feast of wolves.
“Hey, Chica!” Nikki greeted.
“We’re talking about the Ball,” Mavy said, her eyes dancing. “Nikki is doing your makeup, and Daddy is paying for the dresses. No excuses.”
Nikki glanced at me and we both rolled our eyes. Once Mavy got started, there was no stopping her.
“Let’s go shopping tomorrow,” Nikki said, leaning forward with a glint in her eye. Nikki was an enforcer’s daughter, and her attitude and demeanor reflected that. Mavy was the heart of our group, but Nikki was its teeth—even if those teeth were currently covered in a coat of designer lip gloss.
“Okay.” There was no point in fighting the inevitable anymore. The weight of her father’s charity was another link in my chain. “Just promise me you won’t make me wear something too flashy.”
“No promises!” Mavy beamed, scrunching her nose. “But seriously, Nikki and I were thinking simple yet elegant. Highlight the curves to make the men beg for your attention.”
My eyes locked with Shane. He was tracking the conversation, a cruel smirk playing on his lips as he watched my discomfort. The ass would enjoy it.
“You can put makeup on a pig, but will it ever be pretty?” he joked. Behind him, Devin and the others let out a rough howl of laughter.
Mavy’s smile dropped. “Har har. You’re sooo funny, Shane. Not—that wasn’t nice.”
Nikki clapped back without hesitation.
“Let’s not pretend you don’t have a huge crush on Adea, Prince. But come on, bullying the woman you like is so elementary.”
“It’s fine, Nik. He’s just kidding,” I whispered, trying to keep the peace before the Alpha’s son decided to make a real scene.
Nikki paused, looking at me in a way that said she knew I was lying and she was letting me.
“No, he’s not. Why are you such an asshole, Shane?” Nikki snapped. Her glare could have stripped paint off the walls. A thrill ran down my spine. In one second she’d done what I’d wanted to do for years.
He blinked three times. His expression shifted before a smirk pulled at one corner of his lips. “My apologies, Nik. You’re right. I took it too far. I’m sorry, Ady.”
His eyes said otherwise. He didn’t look like a man who was sorry; he looked like he was counting down the minutes until he had me alone.
“See, girls? Just a joke,” Mavy said. Nikki folded her arms, but said nothing to Shane. I picked at my salad.
The rest of the day was a blurred haze of how to keep a handle on your beast’s instincts—lessons that were a cruel joke to a woman whose soul was still silent.
My mind drifted back to the hidden pool in the pines.
I closed my eyes and imagined a version of myself that didn’t exist yet: a massive wolf with russet fur, her paws hitting the moss with a weight I’d never felt.
In my head, I watched her dive into the water, free.
But reality snapped me back. Every day that passed after my eighteenth birthday made that wolf less like a promise and more like a ghost. I wasn’t waiting for a shift anymore; I was mourning a woman who might never be free.
My phone vibrated in my pocket as the final bell rang. One message.
Gym. Now.