The antique mirror loomed tall in her dorm room. Aeris studied her reflection, unease prickling beneath her skin.
The thrifted red mini dress hugged her figure snugly, a last-minute pick from a flash sale at her old school. She hadn't thought she'd ever get the chance to wear it, but tonight—tonight was the House Selection.
Moonlight poured in through the open window, falling over her exposed shoulders and the tangled mahogany waves of her hair. It fell wild tonight, unbound, unruly—just like the thoughts clawing at the corners of her mind.
No makeup. No heels. Just her, the girl with a past full of scars and school expulsions. The girl the world refused to understand.
Then—low and guttural—it came. A sound that didn't belong to anything remotely human. It slithered across the bones of the academy.
A howl. Or something worse. It rippled through the night, too primal, too raw.
Aeris stiffened.
Her head snapped to the window, heart stuttering in her chest. The moonlight no longer felt comforting, it felt like a snare.
She wasn't imagining it. Something was out there.
Drawn by a force Aeris couldn't name, she crept to the balcony doors. Her hand hovered above the curtain, trembling slightly.
For a moment, fear rooted her in place. Then, she pushed the curtain aside..just enough to see.
Her pulse slammed into her throat. There, standing death-still on the balcony just outside her room, was a creature that didn't belong in any sane world.
A wolf.
But not just any wolf.
This one was colossal, monstrous in scale, its silhouette almost too large to be real. Midnight-black fur rippled over a frame corded with muscle.
And its eyes. Gods, its eyes.
They glowed an unnatural amber-gold, burning into her. It was looking at her, claiming her with that stare alone.
The barrier of glass between them suddenly felt paper-thin, useless.
"What the fuck…"
The words rasped out of her in a strangled breath. Aeris stumbled back, eyes wide, lungs burning with a rising scream that never quite made it out.
Panic detonated in her chest.
The wolf moved. With a deafening snarl and a blur of black muscle, the beast launched itself at the door.
CRASH.
The balcony door exploded inward in a storm of splintered wood. Claws screeched against the stone floor as the creature landed inside—massive, monstrous, and far too fast.
The wolf… was inside.
Towering, hulking, it's fur bristled, nostrils flaring with her scent.
Aeris spun on instinct, bolting for the main door. Her fingers fumbled over the knob, slippery with fear, but it wouldn't turn..
She backed into the door, heart slamming against her ribs like it wanted to escape. She slid down the door.
And then the impossible happened. Before her disbelieving eyes, the beast began to shift.
CRACK.
A brutal, bone-deep sound, the kind of sound that told you nothing was safe anymore.
Bones cracked. The beast shuddered, twisted—its form collapsing and reforming all at once. A snarl turned into something almost like a groan.
Fur gave way to skin, claws retracting, limbs elongating with grotesque grace.
Before her, where a monster had stood only seconds ago…
A man was rising from the ruins of the shift.
No, a goddamn vision of sin.
Sculpted muscles, his arms were thick, corded with veins that pulsed like they carried lightning instead of blood. His broad chest rising with slow breaths, steam curled off his damp skin.
Scars marred his body like war paint. The warm chestnut brown hair fell over his shoulders in soft waves. Wet from the shift, it clung to his sharp cheekbones.
That same burning molten gold eyes, pinned her like a predator finally cornering its prey. Still glowing. Still wild. Still wolf.
He was devastatingly beautiful. Beautiful in the way wildfires were—terrifying, all-consuming, and impossible to look away from. Beautiful like ruin, like a sin you'd commit twice.
He was Kael Wrenhart, the untamed heir of the werewolves.
And he was naked, completely, unashamedly, dangerously naked.
?????
Aeris snapped her eyes shut and whipped around. "Are you insane?!" she hissed.
A low laugh. Dark. Rich. Like velvet soaked in sin. "I came for you," Kael said.
The words landed like a curse. "You're finally here."
Aeris peeled her eyes open, daring a glance back over her shoulder—high, only high, refusing to dip lower than his chest. "You're naked," she snapped, pulse fluttering like trapped wings. "You lunatic!"
The man—no, the wolf cocked his head, golden eyes never leaving her. "There's no shame between bonded souls."
Her stomach dropped, "Excuse me, what?!"
Kael was staring at her like she belonged to him, as if this whole confrontation was some sort of game to him. There was no shame in his nakedness, only ownership.
Aeris could feel it in her bones, the sheer wrongness of it and yet…
Kael stepped toward her, his gaze dragged over her like a touch, darkly possessive.
Aeris jolted back immediately, stumbling to her feet. "Nope. No. Get away from me," she snapped, one hand extended as if it could stop him. "What even are you? You broke into my room like some psycho nudist.."
The corner of his mouth curled. "Still sharp-tongued. Just like before."
Before? What the hell was he talking about?
"You've got the wrong girl," she breathed, inching back.
"No," Kael refused, "I never forget what's mine."
He lunged on her, moving like lightning. One blink, he was across the room. The next, he was on her. Predator fast.
Aeris barely had time to gasp before her back slammed the door. Her breath hitched, lungs burning as his body closed in, heat and danger rolling off him in waves.
His arms caged her in, one hand braced beside her head, fingers splayed against the wood like claws ready to pierce. "I smelled you," he rumbled, a growl wrapped in velvet. "All those years ago." The sound slithered over her skin, hot and threatening.
Aeria froze, her blood ran cold. She stared up at him, wide-eyed. "What… what did you just say?"
"Seven years ago," Kael said, like it was sacred. "I was roaming the mortal forests in my wolf form. His golden eyes burned into hers. "You were laughing," he went on, voice almost dreamlike. "Sitting around a fire, mortals all around you. But your scent..gods, your scent.."
He dipped his head to her neck. "This scent…" Kael growled.
Aeris flinched violently as his nose brushed her skin. Being so close to him, he smelled like forest after rain, bonfire smoke, of something unearthly and ancient.
Kael inhaled, deeply, reverently. The sound made her skin crawl.
"Fertile," he rasped against her skin. "Untouched. Wild." His breath curled against her throat, warm, intimate and wrong. "Mine."
Her hands pushed at his chest, but it was like trying to move a mountain. "Back off.." Aeris hissed through her clenched teeth.
Kael didn't. In fact, his one hand curled around her wrist, the other pressed against the wall beside her head. His body closed in, pressing her into the door like he could fuse her to it.
A feral, guttural groan tore from his throat. "Do you even know what you're doing to me?" he snarled. "You're driving me mad, little fox. This scent..your scent.. it's been crawling inside my head, tormenting me since the moment you stepped through those gates. It called me here."
Aeris clenched her jaw. "Then you've got the wrong girl."
Kael's eyes burned with something untamed, like a storm about to break. "You think I want to lose control like some beast in rut?" he spat the word like it disgusted him. "To be cursed with your scent coiling under my skin like wildfire? To feel it clawing at my insides every time you so much as breathe near me?" There was rawness in his voice..it wasn't lust.
There was no seducer in his gaze now. Only a wolf on the edge of ruin, shackled to something he didn't understand.
Aeris swallowed hard, her pulse pounding like war drums in her throat. She should run. Scream. Do something.
"You belong to me, Aeris," Kael stared at her like she was the only thing that had ever existed. "You don't feel it?"
"Bullshit," Aeris glared at him, shooting daggers with her eyes."You think you can just break into my room naked, sniff me like a feral mutt, and claim me like I'm some prize cow up for auction?" Her voice dripped venom.
His lips hovered near her jawline, his body dangerously close..heat radiating off his bare skin like fire. "I've hunted prey for years, little fox," Kael whispered, his voice a rasp of hunger. "but none ever ran this sweet."
Aeris's body betrayed her with a violent shiver. "You're insane." she spat, her every instinct screaming fight or flight.
Kael tilted his head, lips curling like the wicked smile of a devil watching someone try to escape damnation. "You keep saying that," he murmured, pleased. "But your pulse is racing…" his gaze flicked downward, trailing her body. "and your thighs…"
"Shut up!" Aeris snapped, the words bursting out of her like a gunshot.
Silence.
Kael took a step back just inches from her, he was looking at her like a wolf who'd finally found the thing that had haunted his every breath. "I'll see you at the Selection," he turned toward the broken door, completely unbothered by his nudity.
Kael paused at the threshold and glanced back over his shoulder, "And after that…" A smirk touched his lips. "you'll feel the mark I leave on you. Inside and out."
Then, he vaulted over the balcony rail, disappearing into the night.
Aeris slumped to the floor, adrenaline crashing. Her chest heaved, heart clawing to escape her ribs. The air felt too thick, her skin too tight.
Her fingers curled into the cold stone floor as a single, splintering thought crossed her mind.
What the hell had just happened?