The Fifth Howl

Chapter 3 The Tower

No one had ever touched me like they were afraid I would disappear.

Kade's hand was iron around my wrist. Not tight enough to bruise, but tight enough that I couldn't pull away even if I tried. His shadows were back, but they weren't clinging to him anymore. They were clinging to me, wrapping around my ankles like nervous cats.

"Move," he ordered the crowd.

They moved. Alpha command isn't a suggestion. Even Alphas from other Packs feel it when a stronger Alpha speaks. And Kade Nocturne, even before whatever just happened, was the strongest student in Aeternum.

No one stopped us. Seraphina was screaming something behind us - my name, or maybe a curse - but Rhys flicked a hand without looking back and her mouth kept moving with no sound coming out.

Jaxon walked on my other side, too close, his shoulder bumping mine every other step. His fire was out, but I could feel heat rolling off him in waves. He kept staring at my hands. At the claws that were still out, black and sharp, not retracting.

"Dude, she's still shifted," he muttered to Silas. "Her eyes are still violet."

"She's not shifted," Silas said quietly from behind me. His voice was hoarse. "She's manifesting. There's a difference."

"What the hell is the difference?"

"Shifted is when the wolf takes the body. Manifesting is when the wolf is too big for the body and leaks out."

That didn't sound good.

I tried to pull my hand from Kade's. "I can walk by myself."

"No, you can't," Kade said without slowing. "You're leaking power and you have no control. You will bring down the entire East Wing if you trip again."

"I'm not going to-"

The lantern above us exploded. Just... popped, glass raining down, but the shards turned to ash before they could touch me.

Silas caught my other elbow. His touch didn't shock me this time. It was warm. "He's right. You're in surge. First manifestation always surges."

My head was pounding. That outline of the giant white wolf was gone, but I could still feel her, pacing under my skin, huge and restless. Mine. Mine. Mine. She kept repeating it, looking at the four backs around me.

They are ours.

They are NOT ours, we don't even know them!

We were born with them. We died with them. Now we live again.

I stumbled. My knees buckled.

Jaxon caught me before I hit the ground. One arm around my waist, hauling me up like I weighed nothing.

"Whoa. Hey, blank - not blank, whatever you are - stay with me."

His scent hit me full force this time, smoke and cinnamon and something wild, and my claws dug into his uniform sleeve on reflex. The fabric hissed. The violet fire that had exploded the lantern was crawling up my fingers.

"s**t!" He laughed, delighted, not scared. "You're burning me! You're actually burning me!"

"I'm sorry! I don't know how to stop!"

"Don't stop," Silas said, and his silver eyes met mine over Jaxon's shoulder. "Let it burn out. If you cage it again, it will hurt you."

So I let it. I stood in the middle of the path, held up by two Alphas who two hours ago didn't know my name, and let violet flames lick up my arms. They didn't hurt me. They felt like stretching after being cramped for years.

By the time we reached the north end of campus, the flames died down to embers under my skin. My claws retracted with a painful click. My eyes stopped burning.

We were in front of the Observatory Tower.

Everyone at Aeternum knew the Tower. It was off-limits. It had been built for the Quads when they arrived because no dorm could hold their powers. Four floors, black stone, windows that looked out over the whole valley, warded with so many runes even professors needed permission.

Kade pushed the massive doors open with his shoulder, still not letting go of me.

Inside was... not what I expected.

I expected cold. Military. Alpha male lair with weapons on the walls.

It was warm. Messy. Lived-in. The first floor was a giant circular library with a fireplace that was currently roaring - Jaxon's doing, probably. There were blankets on the couches. A half-finished chess game. Books stacked everywhere. On the kitchen counter, a tower of instant noodle cups.

Four staircases spiraled up.

"Second floor is Kade's, don't go there, he will literally murder you," Jaxon said, dragging me to the couch. "Third is Rhys's, don't touch his books, he will murder you politely. Fourth is Silas's observatory, don't go there unless you want an existential crisis. First floor is common. And my room is-"

"She is not staying here," Kade cut in.

We all looked at him.

He finally let go of my wrist. My skin was red where he'd held me.

"She just manifested a spectral Origin Wolf in front of three hundred students," Kade said, his voice ice. "The Council will have felt that pulse from the capital. Darius will be on a train here by midnight. You want to keep her in a tower with four unmated, surging Alphas who are biologically compelled to-"

"We're not going to touch her!" Jaxon protested.

Kade gave him a look. "You were hard when she was burning."

Jaxon choked. "I WAS NOT-"

"You were," Rhys said calmly, sitting down opposite us. He had already recovered his perfect mask, but his eyes never left me. "We all were. It's the tether reaction. Her surge triggers our rut instincts. Which is why Kade is right to be concerned."

My face went up in flames. "I am right here! I have ears! And I am not staying here! I have a dorm!"

"Your dorm is compromised," Silas said softly. He was standing by the fireplace, but not close enough to be warm. "Seraphina told three girls to hold you down and shave your head tonight. Before... before you manifested. She is telling them now to use silver scissors."

My stomach dropped.

Rhys tilted his head, listening to something I couldn't hear. "She is also telling Alpha Darius that you attacked her with dark magic. He is... displeased."

Of course she was.

Kade swore under his breath, shadows flaring.

"So we have until midnight," he said. "Until Darius or the Council gets here. We need to know what you are."

He turned to me. Really looked at me for the first time, not as a bleeding blank, but as a problem he needed to solve.

"What is your wolf's name?"

I swallowed. The voice in my head, who had been pacing and growling mine mine, went still.

Tell them. Tell my pieces.

"Lyra," I whispered. "She says her name is Lyra."

The four of them went completely still.

Rhys stood up so fast his chair fell over.

"That's impossible," he said. And for the first time, the perfect heir sounded scared. "Lyra died five hundred years ago. Lyra was the first wolf. The one the Moon Goddess made with her own hands."

Silas finally stepped into the light of the fire. His silver eyes were full of tears that didn't fall.

"Not died," he said. "Shattered. And now..."

He looked at me.

"...she's back."

From outside, the Academy bells began to toll. Not the normal class bells. The deep, ancient emergency bells that hadn't rung in fifty years.

Someone had told the Council.