Elora’s POV
I paced back and forth outside the classroom, my heart slamming against my ribs.
My first trial day on the Elite Team.
It was supposed to be exciting.
All I could think about was Varek.
My palms were damp where they strangled the strap of my bag.
I stole another peek through the window.
Students were already seated inside—a mix of sophomores, juniors, seniors.
Seven or so.
My gaze snagged on my brother.
Garrett, parked with his friends, and—strangely—wearing a smile.
So he did own an expression other than that cold, distant stare.
It just wasn’t one he ever wasted on me.
It still floored me that he hadn’t acknowledged me.
Not once.
Varek wasn’t there yet.
Neither was Declan, who was usually welded to his hip.
I had no idea how I’d survive my first day after everything that had detonated between us.
Through the window, I caught a man striding my way, a book tucked in one hand.
Handsome—thick dark curls, dark eyes, training gear that fit him like it had been poured on.
His smile was easy, friendly.
Heat bloomed in my cheeks as he lifted a hand in a small wave and tipped his head toward the door, beckoning me in.
I hesitated a beat too long, then pushed through.
“Elora.” He greeted me the second I crossed the threshold.
“Welcome.”
His voice was deep, but warm.
“I’m Cael.
Commander of the Elite Team.” He held my hand a few seconds longer than necessary.
“Nice to meet you,” I managed, fighting to hold eye contact.
He really was that good-looking.
Maybe he should’ve been my mate instead.
“Grab a seat,” Cael said, still smiling.
“Sixteen in total.
We’re just waiting on a few—some of the veterans and three more recruits.”
One last pat to my shoulder, and he crossed back to his desk.
Awkwardly, I scanned the room for somewhere to land.
My eyes flickered to Garrett—and this time he was already looking straight at me.
The smile was gone, swept clean and replaced by that cold, familiar look.
“Nope,” I muttered under my breath, and dropped into a seat at the very front, as far from my brother as the room allowed.
First I’d had to pick my seat around Sabrina.
Now my own brother.
It genuinely could not get more absurd.
The room filled by the minute.
Five to go, and Varek still hadn’t shown.
I felt awful for the thought, but I’d honestly half-hoped he’d taken a tumble down a staircase and caught the fast route back to his little kingdom.
With every passing minute, my grip on the edge of the desk tightened.
Why did it have to be him?
Out of everyone in the universe, why him?
I would’ve taken a human, if that was what the Moon Goddess wanted.
But for the first time in my life, I doubted her.
She’d gotten this one wrong.
My heart stalled at the sound of Declan’s warm laugh—and then the door swung open.
Varek walked in, Declan trailing at his back.
So.
He hadn’t fallen down the stairs after all.
He passed me without so much as a glance, erasing me from the air, while Declan ruffled my hair on his way by and kept walking.
The second Varek stepped inside, the whole current of the room shifted.
People turned to him for acknowledgment, and he doled it out—handshakes for most of them.
He treated total strangers better than he’d ever once treated me.
I tracked him with my eyes and watched him claim the table all the way at the back.
“Now that everyone’s here,” Cael called.
I dragged my gaze to the front as the voices guttered out and every head turned toward him.
Cael stood before the class.
“Welcome to the Elite Team,” he said.
“Today, you prove yourselves.
Over the next twenty-four hours, old recruits and new alike will be tested.”
Tested?
“You’ll be split into teams,” Cael went on, “and tasked with delivering a package beyond the gates tonight.
No matter what happens, you do not open that package—or you’re disqualified.”
“Why do we veterans have to get tested again?” someone asked.
“You know why.
We do it every year, because you still have to prove you belong on this team,” Cael said.
“As for the recruits—your team leader decides whether you’ve earned a spot.”
My mind was somewhere else entirely, still snagged on one detail.
Outside the gates.
At night.
“You’re not really sending us out in the middle of the night, right?” A female voice voiced the exact thing circling my head.
Someone else groaned.
“Better than last year, when they locked us in a shoebox for hours!”
The class laughed.
I didn’t.
All I could do was run through the thousand scenarios where this went catastrophically wrong—not just beyond the gates, but on this team in general.
Was I even ready to protect this school?
And I hated group work.
Back in my pack I’d always been the last one picked, and to this day I still lived braced to be nothing more than the leftover.
I could only pray Cael would be the one assigning teams.
“All you have to do,” Cael said, clapping his hands together, “is deliver the package within twenty-four hours.
That’s it.
The winning team earns extra credits—and their leader is named the new captain of the Elite Team.”
Whispers rippled out at that last part.
I knew there’d be several leaders for the smaller groups, but there was always one captain over the whole squad.
I’d known the last captain, Wren—one of Garrett’s close friends.
Whenever he’d visited over break, he’d flash me a friendly smile.
Three years in the role, and now he’d graduated and gone home to his pack to serve as general.
I didn’t care about winning, or handing my leader the captain’s title.
I just didn’t want to fail.
Didn’t want to be the dead weight that dragged a team down.
“The first person I’ll name as team leader for Group One, in the running for captain, is…” Cael swept the room.
“Varek!”
My eyes flew wide as my head snapped around.
Of course.
Of course it was him.
Their golden boy, incapable of wrong.
If only they knew what they were actually dealing with.
They cheered him on as he rose from his chair, expression carved from stone, like he’d expected nothing less.
Now I was praying Cael would let them pick their own teams after all—because I was dead certain he’d never choose me.