Frost Bitten Hearts: The Packless Girl and the Alpha's Secret

WREN The hallway smelled like sweat, cheap body spray, and entitlement. I kept my head down and walked fast. Not because I was scared. Okay, maybe a little scared. But mostly because I was late to Coach Brigg's mandatory study hall, and if I missed it again, he would use it as another excuse to cut my scholarship review short. My sneakers squeaked against the freshly waxed floor as I rounded the corner near the athletics wing. The trophy cases lined both walls here, filled with golden statues and team photos going back decades. Rivercrest Academy loved its athletes. Loved them more than anything else, including basic human decency toward the students who weren't born with trust funds and canine bloodlines. Yeah. Bloodlines. That's not a metaphor. Rivercrest Academy sat on three hundred acres of old growth forest in the hills outside of Ashford, a wealthy mountain town most people had never heard of unless they ran in very specific circles. On the surface, it looked like any elite private school. Uniforms, ivy covered brick buildings, a dining hall with actual cloth napkins. But underneath all of that, Rivercrest was a wolf school. Specifically, it catered to the sons and daughters of the most powerful packs on the eastern seaboard. Alphas, Betas, and every rank in between sent their kids here to train, compete, and eventually lead. The hockey program was the crown jewel. Not football, not lacrosse. Hockey. The Rivercrest Frost Fangs were nationally ranked and had produced more future Alpha leaders than any other program in the country. The ice was where they proved themselves. Where dominance was earned with speed and blood and broken boards. And me? I was the scholarship kid. The packless girl who got in on grades and financial need and some administrative quota nobody talked about out loud. I had no wolf. No pack. No status. No family money. Just a 4.0 GPA and the survival instincts of someone who had been on her own since she was sixteen. I was nobody here, and most days I preferred it that way. Being invisible meant being safe. "CALLOWAY!" So much for invisible. I froze three steps from the study hall door. My fingers tightened around the strap of my backpack, and I took one slow breath before I turned around. Marcus Vane leaned against the wall with two of his football buddies flanking him. He was the wide receiver and self appointed king of making my life miserable whenever he got bored between classes. He had been holding a grudge since sophomore year when I accidentally spilled coffee on his girlfriend's white fur coat during a campus fundraiser. It had been an accident, a genuine one, but he didn't care. I was an easy target, and easy targets don't get to have innocent mistakes. "You going somewhere important?" He grinned. It wasn't friendly. "Or just running away like always?" "Study hall." I said it flat, no emotion. I learned early that giving them a reaction was like throwing raw meat to a hungry dog. They'd just want more. "Study hall." He mimicked my voice in a high pitched whine that sounded nothing like me. His buddies laughed on cue. "Must be nice having nothing else going on. No games, no practice, no life." I turned back toward the door. Almost there. Three more steps. "Hey, I'm talking to you, runt." His hand shot out and grabbed the back of my backpack, yanking me backward. I stumbled but caught myself before I hit the ground. My elbow cracked against the trophy case, and the glass rattled. Pain shot up my arm, sharp and hot. "Marcus, leave it." A deep voice cut through the hallway like a blade through water. Calm. Controlled. Completely unbothered. Everything went still. I didn't need to look to know who it was. The air itself changed when he was nearby. Heavier. Charged. Like the pressure drop before a storm rolls through the mountains. Kael Ashford. Senior captain of the Frost Fangs. Starting center. Future Alpha of the Ashford Pack, which happened to own half the town this school was named after. He was six foot four with dark hair that fell across his forehead in a way that looked effortless but probably wasn't. His jaw could have been carved from the same stone as the old pack houses that dotted the hills around campus. Silver gray eyes that never seemed to miss anything, even when he looked like he wasn't paying attention. Every girl at Rivercrest had a thing for Kael Ashford. The wolf girls wanted to be his mate. The human girls just wanted him to look at them. He did neither. He moved through campus like he existed on a different frequency than the rest of us. Cold, quiet, and completely untouchable. Right now, those silver eyes were fixed on Marcus with the kind of calm that promised violence if the wrong answer came back. Marcus released my backpack immediately. "We were just talking, Ashford." "Didn't look like talking." "It was. Right, Calloway?" Marcus glanced at me, and I saw the flicker of nervousness in his expression. He wasn't afraid of me. He was afraid of the guy standing ten feet behind me. Everyone was. I said nothing. I just stood there with my elbow throbbing and my pride in worse shape. Kael's gaze shifted to me for exactly two seconds. Those two seconds felt like being held underwater. Not drowning. Just suspended. Like he was looking at something he couldn't quite figure out and didn't particularly want to spend time on. "Go to class." He said it to Marcus, but his eyes stayed on me for one beat longer than necessary before he looked away. Marcus and his boys disappeared around the corner fast. The hallway emptied out like someone had pulled a drain plug. That was the Ashford effect. He didn't need to raise his voice. He didn't need to threaten anyone. His presence was the threat. I should have said thank you. That would have been the normal, socially appropriate response. But I had been at Rivercrest long enough to know that owing a wolf, especially an Alpha heir, was worse than whatever Marcus Vane could dish out. "I didn't need help." The words came out before I could stop them. Kael stopped walking. He was already past me, heading toward the athletics wing with his hockey bag slung over one shoulder. He turned his head just enough for me to see the edge of his jaw and the faintest hint of something that might have been amusement. "Didn't say you did." Then he kept walking. I stood there for a few seconds, watching him disappear around the corner. My heart was doing something stupid in my chest, and I told it to knock it off immediately. I pushed into the study hall and dropped into the first empty seat. My hands were shaking, which made me angry because they had no reason to be. Marcus was a jerk, but he was a predictable jerk. And Kael Ashford stepping in meant nothing. Wolves like him didn't protect girls like me out of kindness. They did it because they didn't like other people touching their things, and at Rivercrest, everything and everyone fell under the Ashford umbrella whether we liked it or not. I opened my textbook and stared at the page without reading a single word. My phone buzzed in my jacket pocket. A text from my best friend, Maren. 'Maren: Heard Marcus messed with you again. You okay?' 'Wren: Fine. Ashford showed up and scared him off.' 'Maren: KAEL Ashford??? The Kael Ashford??' 'Wren: Is there another one?' 'Maren: Girl. GIRL.' 'Wren: Stop. It meant nothing. He probably just didn't want blood on the trophy case glass.' 'Maren: Sure. Whatever helps you sleep tonight. Also check your email. Mrs. Langford posted the new work study assignments.' I pulled up my email and scrolled through the usual campus junk until I found it. My work study placement for the winter term. I needed this. My scholarship covered tuition and housing, but it didn't cover books, food beyond the basic meal plan, or the phone bill I couldn't afford to lose. The work study money was the difference between surviving the semester and not. I tapped the email open and read it twice because the first time didn't make sense. 'Work Study Assignment: Winter Term' 'Student: Wren Calloway' 'Placement: Rivercrest Athletics Department, Hockey Division' 'Role: Administrative Assistant and Equipment Room Organization' 'Supervisor: Coach Reid Briggs' 'Schedule: Monday through Friday, 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM. Occasional weekend hours during tournament season.' I stared at the screen. The hockey division. The Frost Fangs. Kael Ashford's team. Three hours a day, five days a week, in the same building, the same rink, the same world as the most dangerous wolf on campus and every player who had ever looked at me like I was something stuck to the bottom of their skate. My phone buzzed again. 'Maren: Did you see it?' 'Wren: I'm going to be sick.' 'Maren: It gets worse. Scroll down.' I scrolled. 'Note: Due to staffing shortages, this placement includes occasional travel with the team for away games. Housing and meals will be provided during travel. Student is expected to maintain full confidentiality regarding team operations, player information, and program strategies.' I closed my eyes and leaned back in the chair. One hundred and forty seven days until graduation. That was all I had to survive. I opened my eyes and looked at the door to the hallway where Kael Ashford had just stood. Where those silver eyes had looked at me like I was a puzzle he hadn't decided to solve yet. One hundred and forty seven days. If I could just stay invisible for one hundred and forty seven more days. But something in the pit of my stomach, something I couldn't name and didn't want to examine, told me that invisible was no longer an option.