Serenya's pov
The week after midterms felt like one long blur of lectures, caffeine, and late nights spent buried under project drafts.
By Thursday morning, I was running on three hours of sleep and too much coffee, my brain buzzing like an overworked laptop.
Mira was sprawled across her bed when I came back from class, her earbuds in and her laptop balanced precariously on her knees. She didn't look up until I dropped my backpack with a thud.
"Please tell me the library printer didn't jam again," she groaned.
"It did," I muttered, kicking off my shoes. "And I almost cried in front of two freshmen and a janitor."
She snorted. "Classic Serenya meltdown. You should start a club."
"Funny." I tossed a pillow at her, then collapsed onto my own bed, staring up at the ceiling. "I swear, if this project doesn't kill me, Kaelen's silence will."
Mira perked up instantly. "Oh? Trouble in the academic marriage?"
"Not trouble," I said quickly, then sighed. "He's just… hard to read. We've been working together for weeks, and I still don't know anything about him. He barely talks unless it's about the project, and even then, it's like every word costs him something."
Mira rolled onto her side, smirking. "Mysterious, broody, emotionally unavailable Serenya, you're doomed."
I shot her a look. "He's my partner, not my crush."
"Sure," she said, unconvinced.
I ignored her and reached for my notes. But even as I flipped through the pages, my mind wasn't on the research. It was on Kaelen his quiet focus, the way his eyes sometimes seemed… distant.
He'd told me once that he liked the night that it was "simpler." I hadn't thought much of it then, but lately, I'd started noticing things. How he flinched at bright lights. How his gaze lingered on the moon during our late study sessions. How sometimes, when he thought I wasn't looking, his hands would tremble like something inside him was fighting to stay contained.
And still, I couldn't stay away.
"Earth to Serenya," Mira said, waving a hand in front of my face.
I blinked. "What?"
"You've been staring into space for like two minutes."
"Just tired," I said quickly, closing my notebook. "I'll go to the library for a bit. I think better there."
Mira gave me that knowing grin again. "Uh-huh. Sure. Totally not because your partner is there."
I grabbed my jacket and headed for the door before she could say anything else.
Outside, the sky was heavy with clouds, the kind that hinted at rain. The air had that sharp, charged feeling right before a storm strangely alive.
Kaelen's pov
The library had become my refuge.
Quiet. Predictable. Human.
No scent of blood, no moon overhead just paper, ink, and the steady hum of fluorescent lights.
It was the only place where the beast inside me stayed silent.
At least, it used to.
I'd been at the same table for hours, my notes spread out in careful rows, pretending to focus on cell division while my thoughts fractured into darker places.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the river.
The rain.
Ronan's eyes as the wolfsbane hit my veins.
I clenched my pen tighter until it cracked between my fingers. The sound was small, but it pulled me back.
Breathe.
Control it.
No one can know.
Then her scent hit me before I even heard her steps.
Serenya.
It drifted through the air like warmth cutting through winter something clean, human, alive. It disarmed me faster than any blade. I didn't need to look up to know she'd just walked in; the shift inside me said enough. The pulse. The hum under my skin. The curse that always stirred when she was near.
She spotted me almost instantly.
Of course she did. She always did.
"Hey," she said, setting her books down across from me. Her smile was tired but soft, the kind that made something inside me twist.
"Hey," I managed, keeping my tone even.
We worked in silence for a while. She scribbled notes; I pretended to read. Every time her sleeve brushed the table, I caught her pulse steady, alive, fragile.
"You've been more quiet than usual lately," she said suddenly, looking up. "Everything okay?"
My heart stuttered. Humans shouldn't be able to read me that easily.
"Yeah," I lied. "Just tired."
She studied me a second longer than comfortable, then nodded and went back to her notes. But I could feel her curiosity lingering, tugging at the air between us.
The longer we sat there, the worse it got. My control wasn't slipping not yet but the edges of it frayed. Her heartbeat was too close. The moon outside the window was half-full, its pull faint but steady, whispering reminders of what I really was.
I shouldn't have come today.
I shouldn't have let this happen.
Because the more time I spent near her, the harder it became to pretend I was just another guy doing a project.
And the truth terrified me.
Not because I might hurt her.
But because, for the first time in years, I didn't want to run.
When she smiled again just a small, distracted curve of her lips I realized something worse than the curse itself.
I was starting to feel human again.
And that… was dangerous.
Kaelen's POV — Later That Night
By the time I left the library, campus was half-asleep.
The lamps along the path flickered in the fog, spilling pale halos of light over the wet pavement. A storm had passed earlier, and the air still smelled of rain and earth clean, sharp, alive.
I shoved my hands into my pockets and kept my head down. The beast was restless tonight. I could feel it pacing beneath my skin, claws scraping against bone, like it could sense something I couldn't.
"Just a walk," I muttered under my breath. "You're fine."
But the words didn't convince either of us.
The night was too still. No chatter from students, no distant music from dorms. Even the crickets had gone quiet. The silence was wrong.
I slowed near the edge of the quad, my boots scuffing against gravel, and that's when I felt it
A scent.
Faint, but familiar in the worst way.
Ash. Blood. Pine.
Not human.
I turned, eyes scanning the shadows between the buildings. Nothing moved but the hair on the back of my neck rose. I didn't need to see them to know.
They were close.
A soft growl threatened to slip out of me before I caught it. The sound stayed low in my chest, vibrating like thunder waiting to break.
"Show yourself," I whispered.
Nothing. Only the wind shifting through the trees.
But then a voice low, mocking, almost amused drifted from the dark.
"Still pretending to be one of them, Kaelen?"
My pulse spiked.
That voice — I hadn't heard it since the night by the river.
A shape stepped from the shadows tall, lean, eyes burning faintly amber under the streetlight. The scar along his jaw caught the glow.
Klaus.
Ronan's son.
He smiled, cruel and too calm. "Didn't think the river could wash away a curse like yours."
"Leave," I said quietly. My claws itched under my skin, teeth aching to shift. "You shouldn't have come here."
"Funny," Klaus said, circling me slowly, the predator he'd always been. "That's exactly what my father said before he threw you away."
The beast inside me surged, snarling, hungry for blood. But I held my ground. Not here. Not on campus.
If I lost control now, there'd be no hiding what I was.
"You don't belong here either, Kaelen," he hissed, stepping closer. "You never did."
His words hit like an echo of that night the rain, the river, the betrayal.
I clenched my fists. "Neither did you."
For a moment, silence stretched between us, heavy and dangerous. Then Klaus laughed softly and stepped back into the shadows.
"Enjoy your little human disguise while you can," he said. "The pack knows you're alive. And they're coming."
The air shifted, his scent fading, leaving only the cold.
I stood there for a long time, heart pounding, every instinct screaming to run but I didn't.
Because if the pack was coming…
then no one on this campus especially Serenya was safe anymore.