Claimed by the Alpha Who Raised Me

Chapter 8&9

Elowen's POV

Kael didn't announce that he'd moved into the cabin with me, but he was there most evenings. The rules he'd laid out in the first week were still firmly in place. No going into his room without a reason. No bars. No staying out past the time he set. He'd probably never broken a rule in his life.

And soon, I would be starting at the pack school as well, continuing the studies that had been interrupted before.

School started the following week, a year ahead of the usual intake because final-year students returned early. Kael's position made it complicated for him to show up anywhere without drawing attention, so Ronan drove me in on the first day and waited in the car while I registered.

They ran placement exams the same afternoon. I came out thinking I'd done reasonably well.

When I got home I found Kael at his desk and slid my results across to him, half expecting a nod.

He looked at the score, set the paper down, and said without any particular feeling, "You have Catherine’s looks. Certainly not her brain."

“What do you mean by that?” I frowned, feeling offended, I may not have scored so high but it was well above average.

“I mean you need to study harder and make sure your final grades come out better than— this,” his voice sounded serious, almost like he was warning me.

From then on, whenever I hit a question I couldn't work through on my own, I'd lean around his study door with my workbook and ask if he had a minute. He always said he didn't but he'd answer the question anyway, and the minute would stretch into an hour, and I'd wake up at his desk with my face on my notes and his documents stacked neatly beside me as if he'd been working around me the entire time.

He kept his folders for pack briefings and I kept mine for school notes, and somewhere in the blurring of late nights and shared desk space they started getting mixed up.

On the morning of the school assembly, I stood up at the front of the courtyard, opened my folder in front of the entire student body, and found myself looking at a summary of Thornveil's eastern border agreements.

I improvised for four minutes, which felt like forty, and sat down to polite, confused applause.

That afternoon, Kael's car was already at the curb when the school gates opened. He was on his second cigarette, which meant he'd been waiting a while, which meant he'd chosen to come.

"How did your report end up in my folder?" I leaned against the car window, slightly out of breath. "I made a complete fool of myself this morning."

He looked at me for a moment. "And whose fault is that?"

"Mine," I said immediately. I climbed into the passenger seat and reached for my seatbelt, and it was only when I clicked it into place that I registered what he was wearing. A deep navy blue shirt, fitted at the shoulders and rolled to the elbows, and the afternoon light hit the fabric at an angle that deepened the colour until it was nearly black.

My eyes had reached his forearms and my throat had bubbled before my brain caught up with what I was doing.

"Elowen."

I snapped my eyes up. "Yes," I replied, slightly too quickly.

He glanced toward the back seat. A few containers were stacked there, the kind that came from the pack hall canteen. "I have a meeting tonight. Eat when you get home."

"It's Founder's Day weekend. Can I go out with my friends?"

I didn’t have any friends really, just a few classmates I talk to every now and then but with him having a late night meeting, I didn’t want to be home alone.

There’d be nothing to do but miss his sharp tongue and overwhelming presence.

“You know which places are off the list." He replied with a voice carrying a tone of warning. "And whatever you do. Be home by ten."