I felt my breath choke in my throat as the huge guy holding me up finally dropped me on the cold tiled floor. My knees buckled under me, but I forced myself to sit upright. Looking weak in a den of wolves was basically begging for a death sentence.
The gold-haired guy leaned forward slightly, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips like he enjoyed watching me struggle.
"Where did you come from, rogue?"
I swallowed hard. My throat burned, probably raw from earlier screams.
"I do not know how I got here," I whispered.
The room fell silent, the kind of silence that made my skin itch. They were waiting. Expecting more. Wolves always wanted more.
"My pack was killed," I added faintly.
"By who?" Lucas asked, leaning closer like a predator sniffing out a lie.
"Vampires," I said. The word scraped out of me.
"They killed everyone."
The big one, Dereck, snorted. "Convenient story."
"It is the truth," I said, louder this time. My voice cracked but I held their eyes, even if every instinct told me to curl up and disappear.
"What else?" Lucas asked.
"That is all."
It was all I would ever say.
Even if they skinned me alive.
Even if they beat me again.
Every time they asked during the long, miserable questioning me, it was all I repeated.
"They were killed by vampires."
I did not add details.
I did not explain corpses burned into ashes.
I did not mention the fangs at my throat or the village screaming before midnight swallowed us whole.
I did not say anything about the deal they forced on me.
I did not say I was the only one left.
I said nothing.
A figure stepped out of the shadows. I had not even sensed him, and that terrified me more than the wolves glaring holes into my skull. He was tall, thin, wearing the long coat only the Academy teachers used. His eyes glinted like matching ink pools as he scribbled things into a notebook with sharp, aggressive movements.
He stared at me like I was something dissected on a table.
Then he snapped the book shut.
The next thing I knew, Dereck yanked me up again and shoved me forward. The teacher turned and began walking without saying a single word. Wolves followed. I stumbled after them, dragged like cargo.
We went deeper into the Academy. The halls grew wider. Cleaner. Decorated with banners and crests of high-ranking bloodlines. The air smelled fresher too. Like a place nobles breathed and the rest of us polluted.
Before I could blink, I was shoved through a large carved door.
The temperature in the room dropped ten degrees.
And I understood why.
This was no normal office.
This was a place of judgment.
A room where fates were rewritten.
The Student Council Room.
Important personnel stood around like statues, and it made me shrink instantly. Council members, elite heirs, the strongest Lycans in the Academy. Their gazes were sharp and heavy, pressing down on my bones.
And then I saw him.
Aldric.
My breath hitched so violently I nearly choked on it.
He sat in the center seat, the highest one. Like a throne.
His hair, charcoal black and cut in that messy wolf style, fell to his shoulders. His never eyes were sharp as honed steel, glowing faintly even in the bright room. His jawline was carved like the gods were showing off. And his aura. His aura felt like it was slicing my skin open. Sharp. Cold. Dominant.
He was handsome.
Too handsome.
The kind of handsome that hurt to look at.
My heart thundered traitorously.
Damn it. Why was I reacting to someone who looked like he would crush me for breathing too loudly?
The teacher dropped his hand from my collar.
"This is the rogue you insisted on saving," he said dryly.
Aldric did not blink. He just stared down at me with the most condescending expression I had ever seen. Like I was mud on his boots. Like I did not deserve to be alive.
"If you want him alive so badly," the teacher continued, loud enough for everyone, "then you will take accountability for him. Completely. For the rest of his life."
I felt the floor tilt.
The rest of his life.
People in the room murmured. Some were shocked. Others delighted, probably waiting to see how Aldric would react.
Aldric did not answer. He just kept staring. Looking down at me like I was supposed to kneel or faint or drop dead.
For a second, I swear I could not breathe.
His presence was too much.
His aura wrapped around my throat and squeezed.
Not physically, but in that way powerful wolves could do, a dominance that sank directly into the bones.
My gaze met his for one foolish moment.
Bad idea. Horrible idea.
His eyes pierced straight into me, cold and heavy, scraping at every secret I tried to bury.
My chest tightened.
My lungs stalled.
I broke my gaze away, looking at the ground instantly. My heart hammered so loudly I was sure everyone heard it. Shame exploded inside me. Fear. Something else I refused to name.
But that single act of breaking his gaze…
seemed to piss Aldric off.
His aura spiked, razor sharp. The room seemed to hold its breath. Wolves shifted uneasily. Someone coughed. The teacher raised a brow.
Aldric finally spoke.
"Very well."
His voice was deeper than I expected. Smooth but carrying a command that made my spine straighten involuntarily.
"He stays."
That was all he said.
He stood up. Tall. Intimidating. His coat fell behind him like a dark wave. Without another glance at me, he walked past, and the entire council room moved with him like he was the sun and they were planets forced to orbit.
One by one, everyone left.
They talked among themselves, laughing, shifting, whispering.
Not one spared me a look.
Not one cared.
I stood there alone.
Small.
Bruised.
Unwanted.
And my heart clenched so tightly it felt like it cracked open.
Bit by bit.
Painfully.
Even after everything, even after surviving death, loneliness still found a way to cut deeper than claws.
Aldric did not look back at me once.
Not once.
The door shut behind them, and silence swallowed me whole.
…"Aldric would not have taken kindly to a bloodied, smelly pup."
…"You better pray you make a good first impression. The Alpha heir hates weaklings."
He definitely hates me now.