Marked By Four

Four.

Isla's POV:

The campus stayed noisy and full of talk long after the assembly ended. No matter where I went, students were whispering about House Obsidian. Not because it had four future alpha heirs living there — that part was normal. The strange thing was me.

I had become the one problem in a system everyone thought worked perfectly. By the time I got to the administration building, the line for keys stretched all the way down the hallway. Every student was there to pick up the key to their new place.

The receptionist gave me a polite smile at first. But the moment she looked up and realized who I was, the smile vanished completely.

“Name?” she asked.

“Isla Ashbourne,” I said quietly.

Her fingers froze right above the keyboard. She glanced over at another staff member, then cleared her throat. “One moment, please.”

She disappeared into a back office. The students behind me started giving each other curious looks.

One minute passed. Then two. Finally she came back carrying a plain black envelope instead of the nice golden ones everyone else got.

“House Obsidian,” she said, sliding it across the desk without looking me in the eyes.

“Thank you,” I replied.

She didn’t say anything back.

I slipped the key into my pocket and left quickly before the awkward silence got any worse.

Outside, the afternoon sun was starting to go down behind the mountains, painting everything in soft orange light.

According to the campus map, House Obsidian was way out on the edge of Blackridge, overlooking the forest. It felt far away from all the other student houses, almost cut off from everything.

The walk took almost fifteen minutes. Every step felt heavier. The same question kept going around in my head.

Had the dean made a real mistake? Surely after everything that happened this morning, she would fix the assignments.

She had to.

No normal university would force five people who clearly couldn’t stand each other to live in the same house.

Right?

The answer hit me the second I reached the house. House Obsidian didn’t look like a regular dorm at all. It looked like a fancy modern mountain lodge made of dark stone and big glass windows. Four motorcycles were already parked out front.

Ryker.

Kael.

Jace.

Damon.

They were already here. I stood at the bottom of the steps for longer than I should have, just staring.

The smart thing would have been to turn around, go straight back to the administration building, and ask for a different house.

But I didn’t. I climbed the stairs. The front door wasn’t locked. Inside, the house was completely quiet. A big living room opened into a nice kitchen, and a wide staircase curved up to the second floor.

There were five bedroom doors. Exactly like the dean had said.

“I was wondering how long it would take you to show up,” Kael’s voice suddenly broke the silence. He was leaning against the kitchen counter with his arms folded across his chest.

Ryker stood by one of the big windows, staring out at the forest.

Jace sat on the arm of the sofa, spinning a set of motorcycle keys around his finger without looking up.

Damon stood near the fireplace, quiet as always.

None of them looked happy to see me. I held my backpack tighter.

“I came to get my room,” I said.

Kael laughed. “Your room? You’re joking, right?”

“I was assigned here, same as you,” I replied.

“You were assigned here,” he agreed, his voice sharp. “That doesn’t mean you’re actually staying. You can turn around and leave right now.”

I looked him in the eyes. “The dean said we all have to live together. No exceptions.”

“I don’t care what the dean said,” Kael snapped. “You don’t belong here. You never did.”

Silence filled the whole room.

I turned to Ryker. If anyone could listen to reason, it would be him.

He turned away from the window. For the first time since the courtyard, it was just us. I stepped forward in his direction, about saying something —

"You know this won't solve anything." His face stayed completely blank. “You should go back and request a different house.”

“I already tried. I can’t.”

“Then withdraw from the program,” he said.

I stared at him. “I’ve worked too hard to get here. I can’t just leave.”

“So did we,” he answered right away. “You don’t get to disappear for ten years and then walk back into our lives like nothing happened. You don’t get to expect everything to be the same.”

“I never expected that,” I said softly.

“No?” His eyes finally met mine. “Then why are you really here, Isla? Tell me the truth.”

The question caught me off guard. I couldn’t tell him the real reason — not about my father’s journal, not about why I had come to Blackridge in the first place.

“I wanted… answers,” I said, my voice getting quieter. “I just wanted to understand what happened back then.”

Kael scoffed loudly from the kitchen. “Of course you did. You think this is some kind of game? You think it’s funny?”

“No, I don’t think it’s funny at all,” I said.

He pushed away from the counter and walked right up to me. “I think it’s pathetic. You show up here smiling like you didn’t destroy everything.”

“I don’t know what your problem is with me,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady.

“Our problem?” Kael laughed once, low and angry. “You really don’t remember anything, do you?”

“I remember everything from back then,” I told him.

“No,” he said, his voice dropping. “You only remember what suits you. That’s always been your problem.”

The room went quiet again.

Jace finally stood up. “Enough. This is getting us nowhere.”

Kael turned to him. “You’re defending her now? After everything?”

“I’m defending my own headache,” Jace said, rubbing the back of his neck. “We’re all wasting time arguing. The rooms are upstairs. The one at the end of the hall is empty. You can take that one.”

Before I could even thank him, Kael’s head snapped toward Jace. “Seriously? You’re just letting her stay?”

“What do you want me to do?” Jace asked. “We don’t have a choice here.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Ryker said firmly. “The dean made that very clear this afternoon. We have to make it work, whether we like it or not.”

Kael swore under his breath and stormed off toward the garage. He slammed the connecting door so hard the walls shook.

The silence after he left felt even heavier.

Jace sighed. “I’d unpack your stuff pretty quickly if I were you, before he comes back inside.”

I frowned. “Why? What’s going to happen?”

He gave me a tired smile. “Right now he’s only angry. Later he’ll have time to really think about it.”

He headed upstairs without saying anything else. Only Damon was still there. He hadn’t spoken a single word the whole time — not in the courtyard, not at the assembly, and not now.

He walked across the room toward the stairs. For one silly second, I hoped he might finally say something to me. Instead, he stopped beside the hallway table just long enough to place a folded piece of paper there. Then he continued upstairs without even looking at me.

Confused, I picked it up and unfolded it. It was a simple map of the house. Someone had carefully circled the broken step on the staircase, the loose railing on the back deck, and the kitchen cabinet that wouldn’t close properly.

Nothing else. No note. No signature. Just practical warnings so no one would get hurt.

I looked up toward the second floor where Damon had disappeared.

Why would someone who couldn’t even stand to look at me still take the time to make sure I didn’t trip on a broken stair?

That question stayed with me the whole time I carried my bags upstairs. By the time night came, I noticed something even stranger.

There were five bedrooms in House Obsidian.

Mine was the only one without a lock on the door.