THE ICE WOLF

Chapter 7 Don't Trust the School

Marinette

For three full seconds, Alya and I just stared at my phone.

Neither of us spoke.

The messages sat on the screen like something alive, making my chest tighter every second I looked at them.

DON’T SEND THE FOOTAGE.

PLEASE.

THEY’RE ALREADY COMING FOR IT.

Alya grabbed my arm first. “Okay, no. Absolutely not. This just became serial killer behavior.”

“He’s not a serial killer.”

“You know that’s somehow worse, right? Because now the werewolf part is actually believable.”

I swallowed hard and looked back toward the laptop screen where the frozen image of Adrien’s gold eyes still stared back at me. My room suddenly felt too warm, too small, too loud that even the sound of the bakery downstairs seemed distant now.

My phone started ringing again.

Adrien.

Alya pointed at it aggressively. “Speaker phone.”

“What if my parents hear?”

“Then your parents discover hockey werewolves tonight.”

The phone kept vibrating against the desk.

Part of me wanted to ignore it completely. That would’ve been the smart thing to do. Normal people did not answer late-night calls from possible supernatural creatures.

Unfortunately, nothing about tonight had been normal.

I accepted the call carefully and lowered my voice immediately. “Hello?”

“Did you watch it?”

Adrien sounded out of breath.

I glanced at Alya before answering carefully. “Maybe.”

“Marinette, listen to me very carefully. Do not send that footage to anyone.”

My irritation flared instantly despite everything else happening. “You don’t get to give mysterious orders after hiding the fact that you’re apparently a whole werewolf.”

A short silence followed.

Then he sighed tiredly. “Fair point.”

Alya mouthed, Oh my God, he admitted it.

I ignored her.

“You could’ve told me the truth earlier,” I snapped quietly.

“And you would’ve reacted well?”

“No, but at least I wouldn’t feel insane right now!”

Another pause.

I heard movement on his side of the call, followed by what sounded like a car door slamming shut.

“Marinette,” he said carefully, “there are rules between wolves and humans. Exposure creates problems.”

“That sounds threatening.”

“It’s supposed to sound dangerous, Marinette.”

Alya mouthed, I hate him a little.

Honestly, same.

I paced away from the desk while trying to keep my voice steady. “So what exactly happens if someone sees this footage?”

Adrien hesitated too long which made my heart drop.

“Adrien.”

“Worst case?” he said quietly. “The packs think you’re a risk.”

The sentence settled heavily into the room.

Alya stood immediately. “Okay! Fantastic! We’re done here. Burn the laptop.”

I pointed at the phone accusingly. “Your wolf mafia is insane.”

“We are not a mafia.”

“You literally have packs and Alphas!”

“That’s not helping your argument,” Alya added.

I heard Adrien exhale sharply through the phone like he was losing patience with both of us. “Listen carefully. River Pack knows you recorded the hallway conversation.”

Damian.

The memory of his smile made my stomach twist again.

“How?” I asked.

“Because Damian saw the camera and I don’t think the call you received from Ramirez came from the school.”

Everything inside me went cold.

“What?”

“The timing’s wrong,” Adrien said immediately. “Ramirez shouldn’t even know what happened yet unless someone pushed her to contact you.”

Alya looked genuinely alarmed now. “You think somebody’s pretending to be the school?”

“No,” Adrien replied. “Someone inside the school is already involved.”

I sat down heavily on the edge of my bed. Nothing about this situation stayed simple for longer than five minutes.

“So what am I supposed to do?” I asked quietly.

“Keep the footage hidden.”

“And then what?”

“I’ll figure something out.”

Despite everything, that answer irritated me again.

“You keep acting like this is only your problem.”

“It became your problem the second Damian saw you.”

“That’s not fair!”

“I know!”

The sudden sharpness in Adrien’s voice made both Alya and me freeze and for a second, neither of us spoke.

Then he continued more quietly, “You were never supposed to get involved in any of this.”

Something about the way he said it made my anger weaken slightly.

Alya crossed her arms tightly beside me. “Can I ask him something?”

“No.”

“Too late.”

She leaned closer to the phone anyway. “Are you gonna kill her?”

I stared at her in horror.

Adrien sounded equally horrified. “What? No!”

“She just needed clarification.”

“I’m not killing anybody!”

“That sounded offended,” Alya whispered to me. “Good sign.”

“I can still hear you,” Adrien muttered.

A loud sound suddenly echoed through Adrien’s side of the call and it was definitely not human.

A low growl rumbled through the speaker deeply enough to make my entire body tense. Alya immediately grabbed my arm while I stood frozen beside the bed.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Nothing,” Adrien answered too quickly.

“That was definitely not nothing.”

More noise crackled through the line, followed by hurried footsteps and distant voices. Adrien sounded distracted suddenly, like he was watching something happening around him.

Then another voice spoke nearby.

“Adrien,” a guy said sharply, “your father’s asking where you are.”

My stomach tightened immediately.

Adrien cursed quietly under his breath. “I’m busy.”

“He already knows about the footage.”

The room around me went still.

I tightened my grip on the phone. “What do you mean he knows?”

Nobody answered me immediately.

Then the unknown voice spoke again, lower this time.

“The Alpha wants her brought in before River Pack gets to her first.”

Alya’s face lost all color beside me and my pulse started pounding painfully in my throat.

Adrien spoke fast after that. “They won’t touch her.”

“You know how this works.”

“I said they won't touch her.”

The silence that followed felt dangerous somehow. Then Adrien spoke directly into the phone again, his voice tighter than before.

“Marinette, if they caught your scent tonight, don’t make it easy for them to follow. Use something strong to cover up your scent… please. If you must go out, crowded places help. Wolves hate sorting through too many scents.”

Cold fear spread slowly through my chest.

“What?”

“Just do it.”

“Adrien—”

Before I could finish speaking, another non-human voice suddenly shouted something in the background.

I heard a faint ‘I'm sorry for putting you through this’ and the call was cut off completely.