"In a rush?" Rook’s gravelly voice grated against my ear.

His thick wrist, wrapped in black leather, blocked the classroom exit completely.

"Move," I demanded, staring straight at his chest.

"You dropped this." He held up my snapped pencil.

"Keep it."

I ducked under his massive arm and sprinted down the hall.

"Coward," Lyra muttered in my mind.

"Survival instinct," I shot back.

From that moment on, my daily routine shifted into an extreme game of evasion.

"Turn around," Lyra ordered during third period.

"Why?"

"He is at the end of the corridor. Next to the water fountain."

I spun on my heel, shoving past a group of freshmen.

"Hey, watch it!" a boy yelled.

"Sorry," I tossed over my shoulder, ducking into the nearest stairwell.

See a black leather jacket? Run. Catch the freezing scent of winter and raw raven feathers? Take the long way to class. I refused to create a single opportunity for our paths to cross.

"Why are we walking through the science wing?" Maya complained on Tuesday, dragging her sneakers across the linoleum.

"It is faster," I lied.

"No, it is not. The cafeteria is the opposite direction."

"I need to check the biology bulletin board."

"You are hiding from the transfer student."

"I am not."

"Every time Rook Vera walks into the east hall, you sprint to the west hall."

"Pure coincidence."

"You are a terrible liar, Seren."

I ignored her, keeping my eyes glued to the floor tiles. The daytime avoidance was exhausting, but the nights were infinitely worse.

Reality offered cold distance. The midnight hours offered brutal, inescapable intimacy.

Every time my eyes closed, the dreamscape pulled me under.

"Open your legs, Seren."

The gray mist swirled around his jaw, obscuring his eyes, but his heavy body pinned me flush against the mattress.

"Rook," I gasped, clutching his broad shoulders.

"Tell me what you want me to do to your pussy."

"Fuck me."

"Use your words. Be specific."

"Stretch me out. Fuck me hard."

His cold fingers parted my wet folds. "You are soaking for me again."

"Because you take too long."

"I want to hear you beg for my cock."

"I want your fucking cock, Rook. Please."

He positioned himself at my entrance. "Take it."

He drove inside me, thick and relentless. The brutal friction sent a shockwave of heat straight to my core.

"Fuck!" I arched my spine, my nails digging into his skin.

"You feel so fucking good," he growled, his hips snapping against mine. "Grind back on me."

"Deeper. Hit the back."

"I am going to wreck your cunt. I am going to fuck you until you forget your own name."

He pounded into me, skin slapping skin.

"Rook! Right there!"

"Say my name again."

"Rook!"

I woke up screaming his name into my pillow.

My bedroom was pitch black. My sheets clung to my thighs, drenched in sweat and slick.

"This is torture," I whispered, clutching my chest. My heart hammered a frantic rhythm against my ribs.

"He is breaking our mind," Lyra whimpered. "We cannot keep living two different lives."

"He does not even look at me in the daylight. Why does he fuck me every night?"

"Because the mate bond is real. Even if he ignores it."

"I cannot take much more of this."

"Then shift. Let me out. Show him who we are."

"No. You know what happens if the pack finds out I have a wolf."

I dragged myself out of bed, exhausted and terrified. The secret of the dreamscape gnawed at my sanity. If anyone found out—if Rook found out—my life would be over.

***

By Wednesday morning, the lack of sleep left me shaking.

I stood at my locker, fumbling with the metal dial.

A hand slammed flat against the door next to mine.

"Still walking on two legs, Seren?" Chloe Mercer sneered.

I kept my eyes on my combination lock. "Leave me alone, Chloe."

"Pack run is on Friday. Are you going to sit in the dirt and watch us shift again?"

"It is none of your business."

"You are eighteen. If you do not have a wolf by now, you are a dud. A wolfless freak."

"Rip her throat out," Lyra snarled in my mind.

"I cannot," I replied silently. "They do not know you exist. If I shift, the Alpha will force me into the elite guard."

"Better than being treated like garbage by these weaklings."

Chloe shoved my shoulder hard. "Did you hear me, freak?"

"I heard you." I slammed my locker shut. "Now back off."

"Or what? You will cry to the human teachers?"

Laughter echoed from Chloe's friends down the hall.

"She does not even have a scent," one of the girls mocked. "Just smells like plain old human."

"A waste of pack resources," Chloe agreed.

I gripped the straps of my backpack and walked away. My fingernails bit deeply into my palms.

"She is pathetic," Lyra grumbled.

"I just need to survive until graduation. Then we leave this territory forever."

"You cannot run from him. He is everywhere."

I turned the corner toward the library, desperate for a quiet corner to hide.

The scent hit me first. Freezing winter wind. Raw feathers.

I stopped dead in my tracks.

Rook leaned against the brick wall, arms crossed, staring directly at the intersection.

"Turn around," I told my legs.

They refused to move.

He pushed off the wall and walked straight toward me.

"Seren," Lyra panicked. "He is coming."

"I see him."

I spun around to flee, but a hard chest collided with my back.

"Where are you going?" Rook's voice grated against my ear.

"Class."

"It is lunch period."

"I need to study."

He grabbed my elbow. His grip burned like dry ice against my bare skin.

"You have been avoiding me."

"I do not even know you."

"Then why do you run every time I enter a room?"

"I do not run."

He yanked me backward, pinning me against the row of lockers. His massive frame trapped me completely.

"Let me go," I demanded, shoving at his leather jacket.

He did not budge an inch.

He leaned closer. His nose brushed the shell of my ear.

"You smell like fear."

"I am late," I lied, yanking my arm away.

"And you smell like something else, too."

My stomach dropped to the floor.

"What are you talking about?"

"Vanilla." He dragged his nose down my jawline. "And sex."

I froze. The noisy hallway around us seemed to vanish into a vacuum.

"You are crazy," I choked out.

"Am I?" Rook tilted his head, his dark eyes locking onto mine with terrifying clarity. "Then why did you scream my name at three in the morning?"