8
993 Words
Sasha’s POV
The walls of the Academy felt closer by morning. Thicker. Hungrier.
I walked the hallways like they were lined with blades, each step a silent wager. My hoodie clung damp to my skin, sweat slicking the small of my back despite the cold that seeped through the stone corridors.
Sleep had become a rumor, something I chased but never caught.
The second note was still burned into my memory, even if the parchment itself had long since become ash in the sink. But the way Alex had looked at me… the way his eyes had held more calculation than concern…
I didn’t trust him. Not fully.
But maybe I trusted him more than anyone else in this place. And that was what scared me most.
Drills came and went like punishment. The instructors barked, and the others obeyed, but I moved through the day with my senses flaring and my guard higher than ever.
Because someone had seen me.
Someone knew.
And I have a list of suspects now.
The first was obvious.
Cael Thorn.
He hadn’t so much as glanced at me since Alex pinned him in that hallway. But I caught the stiffness in his jaw during laps. The cold flicker in his eyes when my name was called. He’d been watching me before the ambush, targeting me in class, in combat, in the dark.
Maybe he hadn’t just wanted to scare me. Maybe he wanted to ruin me.
And then there was the second.
Healer Marwen.
Her words echoed like a curse: Secrets rot the flesh, boy.
That hadn’t been a warning. It had been a knowing.
She’d seen the bruises on my neck, brushed her cold fingers against my jaw like she was peeling back layers. And her eyes, sharp and grey, hadn’t looked curious. They’d looked creepy. Was she interested in me? That was weird.
If she suspected the truth, what would she do about it? Inform the Headmasters? The Eldrod family?
Would she hide it?
Or would she threaten me into silence with ink and blurred photographs?
I don’t know. Not yet.
But I would find out.
I skipped dinner. The cafeteria was a war zone of egos and elbows, and I couldn’t stomach the noise, the bodies, the scent of testosterone-soaked wolves straining at invisible leashes.
Instead, I went where I always did when I needed to disappear.
The library.
But not the main floors. I slid between shelves thick with dust and silence, where forgotten histories slept. Past the student archives, past the history of bloodlines, into the sub-wing that held House records, sealed files meant only for high-ranking eyes.
I wasn’t supposed to be here.
But then again, I wasn’t supposed to be a lot of things. Most importantly, not to be disguised as a boy in an all-alpha academy.
My fingers hovered over spines worn thin with time. House Eldrod. House Thorn. House Vire. Pages inked with generations of violence and war among packs.
I wasn’t looking for a legacy.
I was looking for rot.
And I found it.
A ledger, half-torn, with Marwen’s initials scrawled on the inner flap. Medical records and incident reports dating back two decades. My fingers trembled as I flipped through them, my heartbeat pounding in my throat.
There it was.
A sealed record.
Cael Thorn. Age: 16. Incident: Classified. Attending Healer: Marwen Elric.
No details. Just a stamp and a signature.
But it was enough.
She’d covered for him before. Or at the very least, she’d seen what he was capable of, and stayed quiet.
So why hadn’t he been expelled?
Why did men like Cael always survive the fall?
I stared down at the page until the letters blurred.
“Careful.”
The voice nearly stopped my heart.
I whirled, half-ready to strike.
But it wasn’t Cael.
It was Alex.
He stepped out from behind a shadow-thick shelf, arms folded, gaze sharp as a blade.
“You really need to work on your stealth,” I snapped, breath-catching.
“You really need to stop digging graves you don’t plan to crawl out of,” he said evenly.
I closed the book with a snap. “Were you following me?”
“No. You just leave a trail like blood in the snow.”
His eyes dropped to the ledger in my hands. “What did you find?”
“Nothing,” I lied, stuffing it back on the shelf.
His jaw ticked, but he didn’t push.
Instead, he leaned closer, dropping his voice to a whisper. “You think it’s Cael.”
I said nothing.
“Or Marwen.”
Still nothing. He was finding this whole thing amusing, but he didn't know how big of a deal it was for me because I'm a girl. And if anyone found out, they might kill me for breaking the laws of all-Alpha academy.
He nodded once, slowly. “You’re not wrong to be suspicious.”
That made me look up. “What do you know?”
Alex tilted his head. The candlelight caught in his eyes, turning silver to frost. “I know Cael’s family bought their silence more than once. And I know Marwen works under House Eldrod’s protection. Nothing happens here without them knowing.”
“And you?” I asked. “Where do you fit into that?”
His silence was its own kind of answer.
I turned to go, suddenly needing distance. From the room. From him. From the storm curling in my chest.
But before I reached the archway, his voice followed.
“You’re right to be afraid,” Alex said quietly. “But don’t mistake fear for weakness. It’s not weakness to look over your shoulder.”
I didn’t respond. Couldn’t.
Because fear wasn’t what haunted me.
It was the knowing that if someone like Cael, or someone worse, truly wanted to unmask me, they already had the tools.
And now, they were just... waiting.
Waiting for me to break.
- Writer
