Chapter 13 Jane's Pov
1030 Words
I should’ve stayed in my room.
I knew it the moment I walked into the dorm suite and got hit in the face with loud music, flashing lights, and at least twenty wolf-born girls dancing like they’d been waiting their whole lives for this night.
Geneva squeezed my arm. “Don’t glare. They’ll think you bite.”
“I do bite,” I said, pinching my nose bridge. I was frustrated.
“Yes, but not socially.”
I rolled my eyes, but she was already dragging me deeper inside before I could escape.
The place was chaotic. There were snacks on every flat surface, girls shrieking over some phone screen, someone trying to braid two other people’s hair at the same time. I stood there like an abandoned mannequin.
“This is fun,” Geneva said.
“For who?” I asked.
She ignored me, because she had an agenda. She always had an agenda. Tonight’s was “Jane needs fun.”
I didn’t, but she refused to accept that.
One girl waved a makeup brush in my direction, “Jane! Come here, let me fix your lashes!”
“No,” I said immediately.
“You’d look so cute.”
“No.”
Geneva laughed, “She’s not the mascara type.”
Another girl shouted from the kitchenette, “Spin the bottle in ten minutes!”
Someone else yelled back, “Truth or dare after that!”
Great.
Trapped in a wolf-girl carnival.
I sat on the edge of the couch, scrolling through my phone like it was a lifeline. Geneva floated around the room like a butterfly while I stayed rooted like a stubborn tree.
One girl plopped beside me. “You’re Jane, right? Damian Ross’s—”
“No,” I cut in instantly.
She blinked. “Oh. Sorry.”
“It’s fine,” I lied.
She got up to join the dance crowd, leaving me blessedly alone.
Geneva reappeared with a plastic cup. “At least drink something.”
“No thanks.”
“It’s juice.”
“I don’t want juice.”
“Water?”
“No.”
“Air?”
I gave her a look. She grinned and said, “At least pretend you’re alive. You look like a ghost haunting the couch.”
“I’m supervising,” I said.
“Supervising what?”
I shrugged. “Everything.”
She tried to drag me toward the group setting up for some wolf-sense challenge involving blindfolds and tracking scents, but I stepped back.
“I’m good here.”
“Jane, come on—”
“Geneva.”
She exhaled dramatically. “Fine. Be boring.”
“Thank you.”
But she smiled anyway. She got it. She always did.
The girls were having fun, which was good. I just… wasn’t in the mood. Between Damian, that Alpha creep, the challenge, school, and other annoying things Damian hadn’t told me about yet—but I knew something was off the last time I saw him—my head felt full.
Noise around me grew louder. Laughter. Music. Screaming. Someone dropped a tray of chips. Someone else yelled about it being “the universe’s fault.”
I closed my eyes.
Too much.
I stood quietly, slipped toward the door, and stepped into the hallway before anyone noticed.
Silence.
Finally.
I inhaled slowly, letting the cool air calm me down. My wolf stretched inside me, relieved at the quiet.
I walked down the hallway, running my fingers over the railing. My mind drifted.
I kept thinking about Damian.
How his expression looked yesterday.
That weird tug between us.
The way his wolf reacted to the challenge.
The way mine did.
Annoying. Confusing. Too intense.
I rubbed my forehead. “Get it together,” I muttered.
My wolf didn’t listen. She was restless, pacing under my skin, but at least she wasn’t clawing at me for once.
I reached the end of the hallway and leaned against the wall, breathing deeply.
For the first time tonight, my chest felt a little less tight.
Then—
a sound.
A heavy thud.
Not from inside the building.
Outside.
I straightened immediately.
The hairs on my arms rose.
Another thud. Louder this time. Something hitting the ground with force.
My wolf snapped her head up inside me.
I rushed toward the nearest window, palms flat against the cold glass as I leaned in.
At first, I saw nothing.
Just the empty grass field behind the dorms, shadows stretching across it from the streetlamps. Wind pressed against the trees. Everything looked normal.
Then something moved.
A blur. Something rolling, or sliding.
My breath caught.
I leaned closer.
And then it came into view.
A body.
Not moving.
Not breathing.
Broken in a way that made my stomach flip and my pulse jump.
A wolf shifter.
Shifted halfway back into human form.
Limbs twisted.
Neck at an angle no one survived.
Dead.
I didn’t think. I didn’t breathe.
The scream ripped out of me before my brain even caught up.
It tore through the hallway, sharp enough to bounce off every wall and slice through the quiet night outside.
Doors flew open instantly.
Geneva was the first one to reach me, eyes wide. “Jane? What—”
She didn’t get to finish.
The other girls spilled into the hallway, confused and startled, their voices overlapping in a chaotic cluster.
“What happened?”
“Did someone get hurt?”
“Is there a fire?”
“What did you see?!”
I pointed at the window, unable to speak for a moment.
They rushed forward.
Then the screams doubled.
Tripled.
A chorus of shock and horror echoed through the building, loud enough to shake the floor.
We all knew what we were looking at.
A wolf.
Dead.
Thrown from somewhere high—or attacked with severe force.
Either way, unnatural.
I felt cold. Too cold.
My wolf stood perfectly still, silent, staring through my eyes.
Geneva grabbed my arm with a trembling hand. “Jane… what is happening?”
I couldn’t answer.
Because deep down, my instincts whispered something none of us wanted to hear:
This wasn’t an accident.
This was a warning.
- Writer
