Filed to story: When The Moon Hides Crown
All the while, one name haunted my mind-Ronan.
Why had his touch affected me so deeply? Was it just timing…or something more?Midnight crept past.
When I finally returned to the Academy, the halls were dark and empty. I grabbed a change of clothes and slipped into the showers.
Cold water was the final step-three hours, minimum.
As the icy stream hit my overheated skin, I didn’t realize… someone else hadn’t gone to bed.
A thin curl of smoke drifted in the hallway shadows. A cigarette ember flared orange, lighting the sharp edge of a jaw.
Ronan.
Silent. Still. Watching.
He took a slow drag, eyes glowing faintly in the dark. Hunger simmered behind that gaze as the corner of his lips curled into something dangerous.
I’d just wanted to escape the heat.
But it had already found me.
SERAPHINA
“Phina… Phina..”Lgasped, standing beneath the icy spray of the shower. My body trembled as I moaned through clenched teeth, pain raking through me. I knew it had only been half an hour-far too early for this to pass-but the heat flooding my blood and my wolf’s growing need were driving us both to the brink.
Phina whimpered weakly in my mind. She was fighting just as hard as was, holding herself back from the primal urge threatening to consume us.
My knees buckled.
I collapsed to the cold tile floor, panting. “Just a little longer..” I murmured. “It’ll be over soon…”
Truthfully, I didn’t know if this trick would work. But I couldn’t give up, not now. It had to work.
The pain was unlike anything I’d ever known. My vision blurred, my mind clouded with fog. It felt as if something was tearing my soul from my body.
Desperate to stay conscious, I dug my nails into my arm, pinching and scratching at my skin. “Don’t faint…” I whispered to myself, though my voice was already fading, cracked and hollow from the strain.
I fought to stay awake-minute by agonizing minute-clinging to the cold, the sting, the pain. Time dragged on until, slowly, I began to notice a change. The fire in my blood dulled. The ache in my bones eased. The haze in my head began to lift.
My lips were chapped, my limbs numb, but I leaned against the shower wall and let the water wash over me. The worst of it was passing. My heat was ebbing away.Yet I couldn’t move. My muscles had locked up, every inch of me sore and broken. My vision remained blurry, and my awareness dimmed.! only meant to close my eyes for a second-but sleep claimed me before I could stop it.
When I next opened them, my heart lurched.
Footsteps.
We passed out! Phina yelled, panicked.
Morning light was already slipping into the room, and someone was approaching.
I scrambled upright, my body still weak, and darted for my clothes. The pain had subsided completely, my heat was over. Phina’s voice confirmed it. She was back. Whole.
I wrapped my chest tightly, slipped into the Academy’s uniform, and spritzed on perfume to mask my scent. Then I threw open the door and rushed into the hallway…
Only to find it empty.
I froze, puzzled. I was certain I’d heard footsteps. But now?
Nothing.
“Even if we imagined it,” Phina said, her voice steadier now, “those footsteps woke us up. If we hadn’t heard them, we might not have woken up in time.”
She was right. Real or not, that sound had jolted me awake-and spared me from disaster.
Just then, the Academy’s morning bell rang.
1 exhaled deeply, still trying to steady my heartbeat as I made my waytoward the dorm. The night had been the most terrifying of my life. But no one knew.
And that was what mattered.
Back in the room, the others were already awake. Finn was stepping out with a towel slung over his shoulder when he spotted me and blinked in surprise. “You showered already?”
Relief swept through me.
They hadn’t noticed I’d been gone all night.
“Yeah, woke up early,” I replied with a small smile.
Reed shot me a cold glare, and Cassius wasn’t much better. I ignored them both as usual-and thankfully, they didn’t linger. But then my attention shifted.
Ronan.
He sat on his bed like it was a throne, calmly buttoning his shirt. His gaze locked on mine the moment our eyes met.
My pulse stumbled.
The memory of his touch… the way his nearness had sent my heat spiraling out of control… it all surged back, unwelcome and far too vivid. I forced myself to look away, tearing my gaze from his.
This Alpha… I need to stay far away from him. He’s more dangerous than I imagined.
And now, only the two of us were left in the room.
If I turned and left suddenly, it would look suspicious-maybe even cowardly.
So instead, I walked to my bed, grabbed the dirty mattress, and headedfor the exit under the guise of disposing of it.
Anything to escape those eyes.
The rolled-up mattress was heavier than it looked, awkwardly pressing into my hip as i made my way toward the back of the Academy building. The air was thick with early heat, but the inner courtyard offered a small slice of calm. This was where old bedding and broken furniture were left for the Academy’s cleaners, some unseen force that whisked it all away by morning.
I dropped the mattress with a tired sigh, brushed my hands, and turned back toward the dormitory halls.
But halfway through the walk, I hesitated.
“Was it the left hallway or the one next to it?” I looked around confused.