Kaelen didn’t laugh this time. He just unplugged his phone from the wall and slid it into his pocket. "Come on. I’ll escort you to the House One dorms. Curfew for Tethered is strict, and you don’t want to be caught out late."
Standing up, Lena held his uniform jacket tightly around her shoulders. She had no choice. Her suitcase was ruined, and she had absolutely nothing else to wear.
As they stepped back out into the administrative corridor, Lena noticed something she hadn’t realized before. The students they passed didn’t look at her with the same predatory hunger as before.
Instead, they quickly averted their eyes, shuffling out of the way to clear a path.
They weren’t afraid of her. They were terrified of Kaelen.
Even though he was a tier two Ascendant, Kaelen Cross seemed to carry a dark reputation.
Or maybe it was just because he was a senior?
He was a Lycan-vampire hybrid—a rare, dangerous bloodline that made him one of the strongest fighters in the entire academy. Standing next to him, his cold, dominant scent completely masked her own, wrapping her in a temporary shield of absolute protection.
"Don’t get used to the quiet," Kaelen muttered, his eyes scanning the corners as they approached the grand archway of House One. "My scent will only keep them away for tonight. Tomorrow is Saturday."
Right. The Saturday...
"Wait, what happens on Saturday again?" Lena asked, her boots clicking against the stone floor.
"Self-learning under the Quad," Kaelen said, stopping before a massive set of reinforced iron doors. "Which means Alpha Christopher will be running the training field. And as a member of his house, your attendance is mandatory."
Lena swallowed the dry lump in her throat as the iron doors slowly began to grind open.
When they got inside, Kaelen stopped in front of room 104. He swiped his master key against the digital lock, and the heavy door clicked open. "This is you. Try to get some sleep."
"Thanks," Lena muttered, tightening his uniform jacket around herself.
She stepped inside, and the door locked shut behind her.
The dorm was compact but surprisingly decent, featuring two sets of sturdy wooden bunk beds.
But the moment Lena’s boots hit the rug, the casual chatter inside the room completely died. Two pairs of eyes snapped directly to her.
Lena froze.
Sitting on the lower left bunk was a boy wearing a shower cap, a silk sleep mask pushed up on his forehead.
But it was the girl sitting on the opposite bed that made
Lena’s blood ran cold.
The she-wolf from the principal’s office. Her uniform collar was still slightly askew, like she didn’t care, and her eyes instantly narrowed into a glare the second she recognized Lena.
"Oh my god... They put the peeping tom in our room." The male by the corner muttered and laughed more to himself. His gaze shifted from his roommate to Lena.
"Hold up, you’re the Gemma lookalike...?"
Lena’s jaw tightened. Again with that name.
"My name is Lena," she said flatly, her voice dropping into that defensive frequency.
"Oh honey, I don’t care if your name is Cinderella, but who is your stylist?" He leaned forward with a dramatic gasp as his eyes locked onto the oversized fabric covering her. "Because that is Kaelen Cross’s signature jacket. Are you trying to get assassinated on your first night?"
"What do you mean?" Lena asked, confused.
"You better not let Kaelen’s girlfriend find you. She always goes for the hair. You’ll be bald before you know it,"
Lena subconsciously touched her hair, bothered.
The shewolf from the principal’s office, instead of snapping, didn’t say a single word. She just stared at Lena with a cold, blank expression, completely acting as if she had never seen her before in her life.
Lena was more than happy to ignore her back. She just wanted a bed.
"Did you use my rare strawberry shampoo, Julian?" A voice demanded.
Lena’s gaze lazily shifted to the blonde beauty who just stepped out of the bathroom, holding up a half empty bottle of shampoo.
"I didn’t intend to use it," Julian defended dramatically, crossing his arms and throwing his chin up. "But the bottle practically seduced me with its scent! And now look at me!"
He pulled his shower cap, revealing a bright fuchsia hair colour that didn’t compliment his face at all.
"It completely dyed my highlights a violent, unnatural fuchsia! I am the victim here, Khloe. I am absolutely furious."
"Are you fucking kidding me? Do you have any idea how—"
She trailed off, the bottle slipping from her hand as her eyes finally landed on Lena...
Her eyes instantly welled with huge, heavy tears. Without warning, she lunged forward, throwing her arms around Lena’s neck and sobbing into her shoulder.
Lena stiffened, her hands frozen at her sides in absolute shock. Her ribs throbbed from the sudden impact, but the desperation in the girl’s grip kept her from pushing her away.
"You’re back," the girl wept, squeezing Lena tighter. "Oh my god, I knew you weren’t dead. I knew it."
"Excuse me," Lena gasped out, her hands coming up to firmly but gently push the crying girl back. Her bruised ribs flared with sharp pain. "You’ve got the wrong person."
The girl stumbled back a step, wiping her eyes frantically, her gaze scanning Lena’s face with total confusion. "What? What do you mean? It’s me."
"Lena," she said flatly. "Just got here tonight."
Over on the top bunk, the shewolf completely ignored the entire dramatic scene, smoothly sliding a pair of wireless earphones into her ears.
She leaned back against the wall of the bunk, her face illuminated by the glow of her phone screen as she checked out of the conversation entirely.
"Lena?" The pretty girl repeated, her voice cracking. She looked at Julian on the other bed, as if waiting for him to tell her this was a cruel prank.
Julian, however, was staring at Lena with wide, unblinking eyes. The judgmental, messy look on his face had completely vanished, replaced by an unsettling gravity.
"Khloe... look at her clothes. That’s a fresher’s uniform bag in her hand. And she smells like..." He sniffed the air, frowning. "Well, she smells like Kaelen Cross, but under that, she’s a Beta... yikes, we haven’t had that in a long time–"
"I don’t care about the scent!" Khloe cried dramatically, her hands shaking as she grabbed her dark, academy-standardized phone from the mattress. "Look at your face! How can you say you’re not her?"