“They are going against the rules. Are they not afraid of being kicked out of the academy?” After seeing what happened to Jordan, how could they dare to do something like this?.
“Rules?” Ronan chuckled,
“There are no such things as rules in this
Academy. Rules are something that are only used when Alpha instructors are watching. Here in this cursed forest where not everyone will get out alive, no one is watching. No one cares. Everyone is just…” he paused and looked at me up and down,…hunting,”
My body reacted in a strange way to the way he looked at me.I cursed under my breath.
Until Ronan moved towards me without warning.
I grew alert, ready to fight. So it was finally coming. But suddenly he turned his direction slightly, intercepting a wolf that had been creeping toward my blindside. I turned in surprise. How had Phina not sensed this wolf? Ronan’s claws tore through the wolf like paper, dropping him before the welf even had a chance to yelp. 1
I’watched Ronan’s actions while holding my breath.
For a fraction of a second, our eyes met.
Not the look of an ally.
Not quite the look of a killer either.
Something darker.
Possession.
Then he started walking towards me. The look in his eyes was not murderous but more dangerous than this. His intentions towards me screamed danger, not death. From the corner of my eye I saw a wolf leap out of the darkness. Ronan reacted towards his wolf, that was my chance.
I bolted deeper into the woods, letting him take care of that wolf. I did not have time for his intentions or fights. I had to cross the finish line.
My pulse pounding in my ears, branches whipping at my face. I didn’t care. Didn’t dare look back.
But I could feel Ronan.
Not chasing.
But there.
His presence was sharp in my veins, like a second heartbeat.
And I knew my escape had pissed him off.
Did he expect that I would stand around and wait for him to finish that wolf so that he could attack me next?
I kept running, dodging shapes in the mist, the sounds of snarls and howls closing in. The ache in my legs burned, lungs raw, but I forced myself to keep moving.
This wasn’t survival anymore. It was endurance.
A ruthless race to see who would outlast the others.
But then what came into view was not the finish line like I had been expecting. It was a structure rising out of the mist like a ghost.
Ruins.
“Shit! What is this place?” I stopped dead in my tracks.
There were ancient stone walls half-collapsed, vines curling over broken archways, the bones of some long-forgotten place. My stomach twisted. “I followed the map, so how did I get lost and ended up here?”
I stumbled toward it, slipping inside the shattered remnants of what had once been a temple, or a shrine. Symbols I didn’t recognize were carved into the walls, but the air was thick with some mysterious power that felt a little scary.
That’s when I sensed someone’s presence other than mine.
“We are not alone,” Phina whispered in my mind.
A shadow shifted to my left.
I spun, heart pounding.
What was it?
SERAPHINA
What was that shadow?
I half-shifted in an instant, pressing my back hard against the damp, crumbling stone, the coldness of it seeping into my skin. I didn’t dare make a recktess move, not when the unknown lurked so close. A crawling prickle of unease worked its way up the back of my neck, my instincts speaking in an ancient, silent language: something was terribly wrong here.
The air was dense, unnaturally heavy, carrying the thick scent of decayed moss and stale earth, with a sharper, metallic tang lurking beneath it. A scent I knew too well.
Blood.
I held my position, every muscle locked tight, straining to hear past the thundering of my own pulse. But there was nothing; no footsteps, no breath, no rustle of movement in the darkness.
“Did I mishear?” I asked my wolf.
Phina’s voice was low and certain in my mind. “No, I definitely sensed something.”
I waited another beat, pulse pounding in my ears, before easing away from the stone wall. Moonlight filtered through the fractured ceiling, illuminating slivers of the ruin in a pale, ghostly glow. I took a cautious step forward – and felt my shoe dip into something slick.
I glanced down, sharpening my wolf vision to pierce the gloom. It wasn’t mud, nor water. It was blood. Dark, congealed, and pooling in shallow hollows.
My gaze followed the blood to where scattered bones lay half-buriedbeneath moss and dirt. Not old enough to be forgotten, not fresh enough to still reek. The sight settled a cold knot in my gut.
My muscles tensed. This wasn’t just another decaying part of the ruin.
“We’ve stepped into someone’s territory,” I murmured under my breath.
A forbidden, dangerous place. I could feel it deep in my bones, in the way the very air seemed to press against my skin, thick and oppressive like an invisible hand.
I needed to get out. Now.
Carefully, I began to edge sideways, sliding one foot after the other without letting the soles scrape against the dirt. Each breath I took was shallow, my entire body coiled tight, ready to bolt at the slightest sound
“Don’t look back. Don’t make a sound,” Phina whispered.
And I followed that instinct, until something made me stop cold.
There, in the ruined chamber ahead, crouched a figure.
Naked, coated in a layer of dried mud and streaked with old blood, the moonlight pooled over him, catching the jagged ridges of his spine and the rope-like cords of muscle along his back. His body was a grotesque canvas of grime, old wounds, and twisted scars. And the way he sat – motionless, silent – sent shards of ice through my veins.
His posture wasn’t fully human. Nor fully wolf. It was something in-between, as though he’d been left behind by time itself, an ancient piece of the ruin. His head hung low, hair matted and tangled, and though I couldn’t see his face, something about the shape of him was… wrong. Fundamentally wrong.
Was this his place? Was he alone? Or were others hiding in the shadows, watching?I didn’t want to find out.
I took a cautious step back, then another. Each inch of distance felt like a smalt salvation. I was nearly clear of the space when my heel snapped a dry branch beneath it.
The sound cracked like a gunshot through the oppressive silence.
And the man moved
Shit, I inwardly cursed. The sharp crack of the branch beneath my heel
– was deafening in the brittle, unnatural silence.
The man’s head jerked up a low, animalistic growl tearing from his throat. Crimson eyes snapped toward the sound, burning from beneath the tangle of hair and filth. But I had already ducked behind a gnarled tree.
Only…he wasn’t fooled.
The way he moved, jolting to his feet in a single, feral motion…was wrong. Too fast. Too silent.
My heart lurched into my throat.
As the man surged toward the gnarled tree where I had been hiding, the air rippled with the sound of his snarl. My chest heaved as ! pressed myself against the rough bark, already half shifted.
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