Ronan didn't tell anyone what happened in the woods.
Not that anyone would've listened.
He woke up in his bed the next morning with a pounding headache, dirt in his hoodie, and a very opinionated wolf spirit stuck in his head.
"Next time you wanna play forest bait, give me a heads up. I'd like a seatbelt."
He ignored it. Mostly.
Got dressed.
Stared at himself in the mirror too long.
Same kid. Same haunted eyes. Same hoodie from sophomore year.
Only now, apparently, with bonus wolf.
Campus in daylight looked less like a nightmare and more like a magazine cover.
Sleek buildings. Ivy on everything. People who looked like they belonged in commercials — sharp jawlines, shiny hair, that slow-walk confidence like they were on some runway called Destiny.
Ronan moved differently.
Backpack slung low, hoodie up, steps too fast like he didn't want to be seen or late.
First class of the day: Modern Lit.
He slipped into the back of the room, sat by the window, and tried not to look like a broken pencil in a box of fountain pens.
The girl in front of him had a name-brand coat and a designer laptop skin that probably cost more than his entire outfit. The guy next to her smelled like vanilla tobacco and old money.
No one said hi.
That was fine.
He wasn't here to make friends.
He just needed to survive the semester without getting his face kicked in.
"Or eaten. You know. Priorities."
Please stop talking.
"Can't. You're literally the only person I'm allowed to haunt. Might as well bond, right?"
Ronan pinched the bridge of his nose.
Later, in the cafeteria, he sat at the far corner table. The one near the window where nobody else liked to sit because the air vent overhead made a weird rattling sound.
He liked it.
It made it harder to overhear what people were whispering about him.
Still. He caught pieces.
"That's the stray, right?"
"Yeah. Came in on scholarship. No House. No marks."
"Why'd they even let him in?"
"Maybe they're feeling charitable this year."
He stabbed his macaroni.
Didn't eat it.
Just sat there with his tray cooling and the wolf in his head making commentary like it was a podcast.
"This place reeks of hierarchy. You're like the one snail in a terrarium full of snakes."
Thanks for the visual.
"Anytime. I'm a helper."
His only real classmate who looked him in the eye was someone he hadn't expected.
A girl.
Sharp features. Hoodie tied around her waist. Beat-up sneakers. Her hair in a messy bun that said she had somewhere better to be.
She dropped into the seat across from him in Art History like she'd done it a thousand times.
"You're Ronan, right?"
He blinked. "Uh. Yeah?"
"I'm Calla. Don't worry, I'm not here to bite you. Just figured I'd say hi before they convince you I'm a drug dealer or something."
Ronan stared for a second.
"…Are you?"
She grinned. "Not officially."
He laughed before he could stop himself. First time in days.
Calla leaned back in her chair like this was all routine.
"You're from the Northside?"
Ronan nodded.
She whistled. "Damn. Ballsy move, applying here. You must like getting stepped on."
"Not particularly."
Calla shrugged. "You'll get used to it. Or you won't. Either way, sit next to me in class. Makes people nervous when I'm too friendly."
"I like her," the wolf whispered. "She's weird. In a good way. Like a knife in a candy wrapper."
That night, Ronan sat under the bleachers outside the gym.
The sky was bruised purple. The air smelled like rain.
He could hear students laughing somewhere in the distance. Real laughter. Not the kind that stung like barbed wire.
He tugged his hoodie tighter and leaned back, staring up.
"I don't belong here," he muttered under his breath.
"No one does. They just fake it better."
"…Who even are you?"
"Once upon a time? I had a name. A pack. A territory. The works."
"Then I died. Got sealed. Slept for a couple decades. Woke up inside you. Still figuring that part out."
"Why me?"
"No clue. Fate? Bad aim? Cosmic prank?"
"Great."
"Could be worse. You could've been possessed by a squirrel spirit. Those guys are nuts."
Ronan groaned into his sleeve. "Please stop."
"Too late. We're bonded now. Welcome to the weird zone, roomie."