Elora’s POV
I blinked, trying to catch up to the words.
Am I her?
No.
And I was no ex of any Lycan Prince.
I’d sooner take a swim in my own vomit than tangle myself up with someone like that.
“Leave her alone, Chloe.” The girl with the braids—Hazel—stepped in.
Her smile was softer, her eyes kinder than Chloe’s sharp, hungry stare.
“Sabrina has red hair.
Remember?”
I touched my blonde hair, suddenly self-conscious.
The pink-haired girl’s face fell a little.
I shut the door behind me.
“I’m Elora.
Nice to meet you.”
“Hi, Elora.” Hazel came forward and grabbed a suitcase before I could stop her.
“Sabrina’s a Lycan.
Noble blood.
Her dad’s the Beta to the Lycan King of Aethelgard.
She’s our fourth.
I’m here, Sabrina’s there, Chloe’s in there—and this one’s yours.” She pointed, leading the way.
Noble blood.
The biggest of the three Lycan kingdoms.
No big deal at all.
Another neat little brick in the wall of my own inadequacy.
Hazel set my bag by the bed.
“Here you go.
And you’re welcome.”
“Thanks.”
The room was mid-sized and bare: a double bed, an empty window, a small walk-in closet.
“We share a bathroom.
First floor,” Hazel said.
Chloe leaned in the doorframe.
“Don’t you think that’s gross, though?
Like—what if someone gives me green toes?”
Hazel choked on a laugh.
“You mean athlete’s foot?” I offered.
The two of them traded a look and turned back to me, blank.
“Tinea pedis?
Fungal infection?”
Blanker.
“Never mind,” I said quickly.
“Anyway.
Nice to meet you both.
I hope we get along.”
Stop, I told myself.
Stop being the nerd.
Garrett’s voice slithered up from memory—stop being such a smart-ass, it makes you ten times more unlikeable.
Coming from the biggest nerd alive, it should’ve meant nothing.
Somehow it always meant something.
“Quick question,” Hazel said, waggling her brows.
“Are we all going to the Astral Festival tonight?”
Nope.
I turned to my suitcase and pretended not to hear.
The festival happened in the woods past the school gates, always on a full moon, always to welcome new students.
Which meant it was really just a hunting ground for unmated wolves desperate to find their other half.
The thought of being tied to someone—only to lose them—turned my blood to ice.
I’d felt that particular loss once already.
I would not survive it twice.
“We should go,” Chloe said.
“Everyone’s going.
And I heard tons of people find their mate there.”
My stomach knotted.
I didn’t want to go.
I also didn’t want to be the girl who only came here to study—even if that was exactly what I was.
I wanted to fit in.
I wanted to stay myself.
Mostly I wanted to be anyone but the Elora I’d left back home.
“Have you two found your mates yet?” Chloe asked.
“No—Elora?” Hazel looked at me.
I shook my head slowly.
“So you’re coming with us, then?”
“I’ll sit this one out.
Besides, I don’t have a dress.” I aimed for finality.
“So?
I’ll lend you one,” Hazel fired back before I finished the sentence.
She meant no harm.
She’d been kind from the second I walked in.
She just couldn’t take a hint to save her life.
And I felt the trap close.
Say no now, and I’d set the tone for four whole years of living with these girls.
Besides.
One night.
What was the worst that could happen?
“That’s sweet of you.
Thanks,” I said, forcing the smile.
Hazel clapped and knocked her shoulder into Chloe’s.
Chloe chuckled, arms folded.
A beat of quiet—then Hazel cracked open the next topic.
“So what do your parents do?”
I blinked.
Same question Declan had almost asked.
Same moment I usually said the words my parents are dead.
I didn’t.
Again.
“My dad’s an Alpha, Chloe’s is a Beta—”
“Mine’s an Alpha too,” I cut in, fast, before she could dig.
Question answered.
Please move on.
Chloe rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, yeah.
Same old.
Everyone here’s got status.” She turned.
“Anyway—where’s Sabrina?”
Since the moment I’d met her, Chloe had circled that name like a moth around a flame.
Sabrina this, Sabrina that.
“She’s probably with Varek and Declan,” Hazel said.
“Declan?
From the student council?” I asked before I could stop myself.
Chloe lit up.
“You’ve met him?
He’s Sabrina’s twin.
And Varek’s future Beta.”
I remembered the honey eyes, the easy smile.
So he was a Lycan.
A future Beta of noble blood.
And my roommate’s brother.
“Can you imagine?” Chloe practically sang.
“Beta to the future Lycan King.
Maybe he’s my mate.” The two of them giggled.
“I’m not holding out for the Prince, but I’ll happily take second best.”
The blood drained from my face as the pieces clicked.
The boy who’d knocked me flat and called me four-eyes wasn’t just some entitled brat.
He was royalty.
He was the Lycan Prince they were all drooling over.
That was why Declan had called him the prince.
Right there, I made a decision: stay away from him.
If he’d bully a stranger on sight, with witnesses, I didn’t want to learn what he’d do somewhere no one could see.
He was a Lycan.
Ten times stronger.
Ten times faster.
“We should go,” Hazel said, checking her phone.
“RD wants us in ten.”
“For what?”
“Tour,” Chloe said.
“Then let’s move.”
The main hall of the healer’s building was already packed with freshmen when we arrived, everyone talking over everyone.
Helena stood on a raised platform.
The instant I stepped inside, her eyes found mine.
She gave me a nod.
I returned it—and waited for her to look away.
She didn’t.
Helena just kept looking, and I squinted back, turning it over, trying to work out what she saw when she looked at me.
“Look—that’s Sabrina!”
Chloe elbowed me.
I followed her gaze to a tall, tan girl with a curtain of straight red hair, planted in the center of her own little court.
Short pink tennis skirt, pink top, both screaming money.
One look told the whole story.
She hadn’t come to the dorm to meet us because she’d already decided we weren’t worth meeting.
Nothing like her brother.
Declan was open doors.
Sabrina was a locked gate.
“I’m gonna go say hi,” Chloe chirped, and darted off toward her.
Hazel watched her tap Sabrina’s shoulder and get ignored.
“And then there were two.”
“You don’t want to meet her?” I asked.
Hazel pulled a face.
“She’s noble blood.
That doesn’t mean she gets to treat us like trash.
If she wanted to know us, she’d have come to the dorm.”
I smiled, something loosening in my chest.
“You’re right.
It’s nice to meet someone who sees it the same way.”
“Attention!” Helena’s voice cut clean across the room.
The chatter died.
“Welcome to Astral Academy.
I’m Helena, your Resident Director and one of the Grand Masters of healing.
I hope these will be the best four years of your lives.”
Everyone clapped.
I clapped too, a half-beat late.
“Astral is where you’ll learn, grow, and build friendships that last a lifetime.
I know many of you are nervous—” her eyes landed on me again; I looked away, “—but my door is always open.
No matter what.”
“They all say that,” Hazel whispered.
“Never mean it.”
I giggled, because she was right.
They had your back—right up until your family stopped paying.
“Now, follow me.”
Helena walked us through the whole campus, laying down the rules as she went.
No overnight stays in the male dorms.
Curfew at ten.
No unauthorized shifting, no using our power off the training grounds, and absolutely no fighting unless a teacher was present.
Three strikes and you’re out.
“Might as well have applied to prison,” Hazel muttered, and I laughed.
The tour ended in the academic hall.
“Explore, enjoy your week.
I’ll leave you to it.”
Everyone thanked her at once.
And once again, her eyes came to rest on me.
I still couldn’t crack it—why she watched me like she was reading a book only she could see.
Once she was gone, I tried to fold into the girls’ conversation, but they were already three fathoms deep.
“He literally just walked past.
Sophomore, LCS major, apparently.”
“CS-what?” I said.
“Combat, Strategy and Leadership,” Hazel translated.
“They’re on about the Lycan Prince again.”
“Ah.”
Of course.
It was always the Lycan Prince.
The talk washed over me, so dull my bladder decided it was the more interesting event.
“Where’s the restroom?”
Hazel pointed.
“That way, I think.
Want me to come?”
“No, I’ll manage.
Thanks.”
Her directions dumped me in front of two doors marked with symbols too faded to read.
One looked vaguely like a dress.
I picked that one.
Inside, empty.
I used a stall, then washed my hands, working the soap between my palms.
I shut the tap off—
—and heard something.
Around the corner.
A sound that did not belong in a women’s restroom.
My heart stopped.
How had I missed a whole other section?
Dread pooling in my gut, I peeked around the corner.
Urinals.
And a boy, back to me, zipping up his jeans.
Out.
I needed to get out, quietly, before he—
My heel struck the bin.
It went over with a clatter that echoed like a gunshot.
Shit.
He spun, jaw locked, shoulders coiled.
My stomach dropped through the floor.
I’d never seen his face—but I knew that build.
The Lycan Prince.
Varek.
And he was crossing the tile toward me, one slow step at a time, his eyes so cold they could stop a heart mid-beat.
Closer.
Closer.
Until only inches of air stood between us.
I bit down on my bottom lip and braced for whatever was coming.
My own heartbeat roared in my ears.
His gaze bored into me, and he looked ready to kill.
I froze.
Mind blank.
No idea what came next.