KAEL.
The bell rang for classes the next morning, but no one went.
The academy wasn’t a school anymore—it was a battlefield. Wolves split into groups in the courtyards, whispers tearing through the air, arguments breaking into snarls and fists. Professors tried to scatter them, but even they looked afraid.
And at the center of every whisper was her name.
Lena.
Some said she’d cursed me. Some said she carried my pup. Some said the goddess herself had chosen her.
I didn’t care what they said.
I cared about the bruises still painted across her ribs, the bandages covering her wounds, the way her hand clung weakly to mine when I slipped back into the infirmary at dawn.
She whispered my name in her sleep again. And every time, it tore me apart.
I found Elias in the courtyard by midday,
