SERAPHINA

    “I came to chase after him.”

    I nearly bit my tongue at his shameless boldness. My grip tightened around the scroll, my knuckles whitening, while Grace smirked knowingly, her eyes dancing with mischief, silently dering see, I knew iyou /itwo were lovers.

    “We are not!” I blurted out before I could stop myself.

    Ronan blinked down at me, a flicker of confusion shadowing his sharp features. Grace, however, burst intoughter, her voice carrying with mocking delight.

    “Bye guys,” she slid into her car, waving at us yfully as she drove off, leaving me alone with him.

    I exhaled a weary breath as her car disappeared from sight, but his piercing presence immediately pressed in on me, sharp and suffocating.

    “Seraphina,” he stepped closer, his tone low, velvety, and dangerous, “did iyou /isleep wellst night?” His voice caressed my skin like silk, deceptively soft, yetdened with intent. My heartbeat stumbled into a wild gallop. “Because I couldn’t sleep a wink…not after tasting your rosy lips and…”

    “Mr. William!” I cut him off, my voice too loud, too desperate.

    The dormitory assistant passing by froze, startled at my sudden shout. I wasted no time, striding quickly toward him, clutching at his presence like a lifeline. Inside, I repeated my mantra like a prayer-

    Don’t stop. Don’t panic. Don’t look back at him.

    “Theundry looks heavy,” I said hastily, snatching the basket from the poor man’s arms before he could protest. “Let me help you!”

    Without waiting for his reply, I marched toward the Academy building, head high, pretending Ronan didn’t exist. Pretending I couldn’t feel his burning gaze drilling into my back.

    Once safely inside, I locked myself in theundry room and copsed against the door, clutching my chest. My heart pounded so hard it hurt. That feeling, that strange, terrifying current that Phina and I both had felt was back, stronger than ever. All because of him.

    Chapter 147 A Dangerous Hunger

    “What the hell is happening to me?” I whispered, my voice trembling. One kiss. Just one kiss and it had unraveled me to this point. My emotions were a storm I couldn’tmand. My wolf thrashed inside me, restless and reckless. I couldn’t even meet his eyes anymore without feeling my entire resolve cracking.

    That kiss had ignited something dangerous, sparking it into me, me into wildfire. Knowing Ronan as I had for over two months, I knew one thing for certain: he would never stop. That terrified me. Because my disguise, my secrets…were at risk. Far worse, my wolf, my heart, and I was at risk. None of them were under my control anymore.

    I sat there for a long while, thinking, unraveling, until finally, I made my decision. I would not let that kiss weaken me. I would not allow these forbidden feelings to control me. Never.

    From that day forward, I began to avoid Ronan. Not in an obvious, aggressive way, but carefully, subtly. I never let myself be caught alone with him. Not in the dorm room, not in the halls, not anywhere. And fate, or perhaps the Goddess, gave me help. Seeing as the very day Grace left, the Academy introduced a new kind of training, far harsher than anything before.

    This wasn’t simply aboutbat or tactics anymore. This was mental. warfare. Emotional breaking. They starved us, worked us until our bodies screamed, and forbade us from returning to our dorms. We were forced to live in the Academy’s forest territory, copsing wherever exhaustion imed us. The sky became our only roof, the dirt our bed.

    Each day, the training grew more merciless. Wolves wed at their limits, howling for release. It was clear now, the instructors weren’t trying to make us stronger. They were trying to break us. Completely.

    That’s how a week bled by.

    “That’s all for today!” the Alpha instructor barked before leaving.

    The second he was gone, every Alpha copsed onto the cold ground, too drained to care about pride. I was no different. My body trembled violently, muscles screaming for relief. Sprawled on the dirt, chest heaving, sweat stinging my eyes, I stared up at the bleeding colors of dusk through the trees. Phina growled inside me, restless, but not because of the training.

    Because of him.

    My nails dug into the earth. His gaze, sharp, scorching, unrelenting, burned

    Chapter 147 A Dangerous Hunger

    into me from across the clearing. He sat under the shadow of a tree, one arm braced on his bent knee, his eyes locked on me with a predator’s patience. He hadn’t looked away once. His aura had grown so dark, so lethal, that even the boldest Alphas avoided crossing his path. And I was the reason.

    Seven days. Over thest seven days, I hadn’t once given him a chance to speak to me. Not a nce, not a word. When I wasn’t training, sleeping, or tending to necessities, I surrounded myself with others. Alphas who, intimidated after Reed’s expulsion, suddenly became friendly. Their sly masks didn’t fool me, but I let them linger around me because they ikept /iRonan away. They were my shield, my distraction, my excuse.

    When in reality they were not just my weapon to keep Ronan away but iRyker /ias well. To my understanding he had some kind of allergy to other Alphas and he never was around them. So he just stared at me from a distance with icold /ieyes whenever he stalked in my direction, I changed my path to the icrowd/i.

    But what I did not realize was that my actions had kept Finn away from me as well. In the past week, he had a frown across his face whenever I was among the Alphas. He would watch me but would not talk. For a second I had a feeling that I wronged him somehow.

    However, there was a strange thing that I noticed in Asher. He had been alone all the time. I have always seen him and Ronan together since the day I arrived at Lupine Academy. Yet, over thest seven days they had not been together even once, let alone speaking to each other. It made me ufortable for some reason but what made me even more uneasy was, Asher also seemed to be not talking to me. He looked like he was thinking something while staring at me all the time.

    Then again, iwho /icould beat Ronan when it came to make me supper unease? At first, Ronan tried, relentlessly, to speak with me. But as I continued to ignore him, his patience frayed. His frustration deepened. Until one day, he stopped trying altogether. He grew unnervingly quiet. Training like a beast during the day, then sitting in silence, his eyes fixed on me the rest of the time. Like a ticking bomb, ready to detonate.

    But I forced myself not to notice. My wolf finally stilled, no longer wing with strange, dangerous emotions. My control returned. The reins of my life were back in my hands. I wanted it to stay that way. No attachments. No affection. No weakness.

    By now, surely, Ronan understood that too. It was better this way. Safer. This was how it should have been from the start, and how it must remain until I left this Academy. I would not bend. I would not break.

    Chapter 147 A Dangerous Hunger

    With that conviction, I pushed myself off the ground, deliberately avoiding his gaze, and strode to the fire to im my portion of fish.

    Unaware of the storm brewing inside him. Unaware that every moment I had spent avoiding him this past week would soon be the regret of my life.

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