And I’ve always liked getting burned.
I didn’t need food – I needed clarity. Proof.
Something to make this maddening obsession make sense.
So while the rest of the pack was stampeding to the cafeteria like livestock, I turned back toward our dorm. One hallway. Fifteen steps. One door.
Our room.
Mine.
Kai’s.
Unfortunately, Derrick’s too.
The key turned in the lock with a soft click. No guilt. No pause. It was my room too, and I didn’t need permission to exist where I fu.cking belonged.
But my jaw clenched as I stepped inside, the scent of Kai immediately wrapping around my senses like barbed wire wrapped in silk. And laced through it?
Derrick.
His clothes still reeked of Kai. His pillow even more.
Shoulder-checking him at practice like it was a game, like it was allowed.
Like he didn’t see the warning in my eyes when I looked at him from across the gym.
And Reyes don’t get me started. Hovering. Always touching Kai’s back when he passed.
Leaning in too close, whispering in his ear like he wasn’t mine.
I was going to end up in more than one kind of trouble for those golden eyes.
But fu.ck, I already knew that.
I craved that.
I dropped my bag and crossed to the shared bathroom. Kai’s towel was still hanging up – navy blue, faint sweet scent maddening me. The damn thing was like a noose around my control.
I shut the door behind me.
Time to focus.
I pulled out my gear from beneath the loose floorboard under my bed: two micro-cams, waterproof, low-light, motion-triggered. No sound. No glow. And most importantly, no trace.
One would go above the mirror. The second near the vent above the shower-pointed straight down, wide angle. I’d tested these on myself already. No lag. No noise. Nothing to set off suspicion.
And before you go assuming I’m a pervert – don’t bother. This wasn’t about jacking off to a body.
This was about truth.
Because I knew what I smelled, even if nobody else seemed to pick it up. My nose never lied.
Kai wasn’t what they said they were. Not just a late-shifting alpha. Not just an angry, quiet mystery with a short fuse and longer legs.
They were something else.
Something locked in.
Something hidden.
Something twisted.
And I was going to rip the truth out – just like I’d tear a lie from someone’s throat.
I worked in silence. Fast, precise.
The vent popped loose with a twist of the wrist. The shower cam slotted in with just enough angle to catch the full stall. The mirror was trickier – glass always was – but I’d practiced the maneuver already. One suction cup, one cut behind the upper corner, and a sliver-thin lens embedded inside.
I sealed it back up with a scratch-remover gel that would dry invisible by the time anyone noticed.
Not that Kai ever looked in the mirror long enough anyway. Always so careful not to stare. Like the reflection might tell a story he wasn’t ready to hear.
Coward.
But she wouldn’t be able to hide forever.
Especially not from me.
When I was done, I sat on the edge of the sink and looked around.
Nothing looked different.
Perfect.
I flicked open the tablet in my jacket pocket and checked the live feed. A smooth grayscale stream – perfect clarity. The mirror, the stall, the angle. It was all there.
Not for pleasure.
For proof.
I locked the tablet again, shoved it deep into my drawer beneath the extra socks.
Nobody touched my sh.it. Not even Derrick, and that bast.ard loved to snoop.
I eyed Derrick’s bed with venom.
His hoodie was slung carelessly over Kai’s chair again.
And it was driving me insane, the fucker was always leaving things in Kai’s space. Chair, desk, he was just skipping bed at this point.
He was playing with fire though. ‘Cause I did not mark territory with trash.
I was used to doing something permanent.
The kind of mark that leaves bruises.
Scars.
Teeth.
I was going to sink my canines into Kai’s neck the moment that birthday bell hit. The moment the moon gave me the green light.
And Goddess help anyone who stood between me and that moment.
Especially Derrick.
I shut the drawer, pressed the edges flush, and stood.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Lighter.
Cleaner.
My skin wasn’t itching anymore.
The craving – that buzzing ache behind my ribs – had quieted.
Watching. Knowing. Controlling.
It was like scratching a wound you didn’t know you had until the blood started running.
I opened the door and stepped into the hallway.
Quiet. Not dead quiet – there was always some rustle, some laugh or snort from the common room – but the kind of silence that made your ears stretch for noise. A draft rolled down the corridor. A faint scent I knew too well.
My lips curled.
Kai must’ve passed through here not long ago.
I swallowed it in, rolled it over my tongue like wine.
Then I moved. Left, toward the stairwell, maybe a walk, maybe a fight, maybe nothing at all just needed to burn off whatever storm was still circling under my skin.
And then I heard it.
Low voices.
A mutter. A click. A laugh. Stifled.
Door slightly open, just a crack. Like an invitation or a mistake.
Next to mine.
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