5| ELIJAH

I woke up to an empty bed and an even emptier feeling in my chest.

Ignoring the pounding headache hammering against my skull, I sat up and scanned the room, searching for any sign of the woman I’d spent the night with—Lenora.

Flashes of her came rushing back: long, curly black hair, hazy green eyes, soft lips, and breathless moans. I groaned, dragging my hands down my face.

I wasn’t surprised she’d left before I woke up. Hell, I half-expected it. But the disappointment that settled in my chest was deeper than it should’ve been. This wasn’t just post-hookup blues. It was… something else. Something I couldn’t make sense of.

Lenora.

I didn’t even know her last name. No idea where she worked or lived within the pack. Just a beautiful mystery who’d crashed into my life and left before I could begin to understand why she’d felt so important.

Her scent still lingered faintly on the sheets—a mix of citrus and wildflowers. It teased me, fading by the second.

My wolf stirred, clawing beneath my skin, restless and agitated. That pull in my chest tightened again, sharp and unrelenting, like my entire being was reaching for her even when she wasn’t here.

Frustration welled in my gut. I glanced around the room one last time, my gaze landing on a small piece of paper on the nightstand.

Thanks for last night.

That was it.

I let out a dry chuckle, despite the hollowness of my chest. I traced the messy, hurried lines of her handwriting with my thumb before carefully folding the note and fisting it. The clock on the wall said I was running out of time to wallow.

With a resigned sigh, I got up and pulled myself together.

———

“Where the hell were you?”

Luka’s voice hit me the second I walked into our shared apartment.

He was standing in the middle of the living room, his short brown hair disheveled, dressed in nothing but sweatpants and socks. The Beta mark on his chest was becoming more prominent by the day.

“I’m surprised you even noticed I was gone,” I said dryly, flicking my gaze to the hickeys on his neck.

Luka didn’t flinch. “I called you, like, a hundred times. Sophie said you weren’t with her, so where were you?”

“Out,” I replied shortly, stepping past him toward the stairs. “Is Neil still around?”

Luka’s eyes narrowed. “He left. Don’t change the subject. Are you going to tell me where you were, or are you just going to dodge me all morning?”

I stopped at the base of the stairs and turned to him. “Where do you think I was, Luka? I cost the team the championship. My dad ripped into me. You yelled at me. I was high and tired. Where the fuck do you think I went?”

“Damn it, Elijah,” he muttered, rubbing his temples. For a moment, he just stood there, his shoulders sagging under the weight of everything. “I was worried about you. I know how irrational you can get when you’re in moods, anything could have happened to you.”

Guilt twisted in my chest.

Luka already had enough to deal with—his father pressuring him to dump his boyfriend and mate, Neil, for someone deemed “more suitable” in terms of pack ranking. He didn’t need to be worrying about me on top of it.

It was just like my father said. I was selfish.

His words still echoed in my head, sharp and cutting, from the day my mother died. Selfish for abandoning my sister to grieve alone. Selfish for grieving at all. And now selfish for making everything about myself when my best friend was suffering as much as I was.

“I’m sorry,” I said finally, grinding the words out between clenched teeth. “I acted stupid yesterday. I needed a distraction. My phone was dead, or I’d have called back.”

Luka’s gaze softened, his frustration ebbing as he met my eyes. He understood me better than anyone ever had. Of course, he did.

We’d been friends since before we could walk. The future Alpha and Beta. We were expected to be close—forced to be, even—but our friendship had grown deeper than that. Being raised by men who seemed perfect to the outside world but were anything but had a way of forging bonds.

“It’s fine,” he said after a beat, crossing his arms. “But you took a huge risk yesterday. If something’s wrong, you can talk to me. You don’t have to…”

Use drugs. He didn’t have to finish the sentence.

I forced a tense smile. “I know. If we don’t leave soon, we’ll be late. I need to shower.”

He hesitated like he wanted to push the conversation further but eventually nodded. “There’s breakfast on the counter. Neil made enough for both of us before he left.”

“Husband material, that one,” I quipped, grinning as I turned toward the stairs.

Luka snorted, muttering something about finding clothes as he walked off.

I went through the motions of getting ready: a shower, a fresh change of clothes, a rushed breakfast. Then Luka and I piled into his car for the short drive to campus all while I tried to ignore the constant hollowness in my chest.

———

The university buzzed with life, the way it always did in the early mornings.

Normally, this was my scene. Mornings were when I came alive—greeting everyone I passed, stopping to banter with my teammates, soaking in the attention that always seemed to follow me like a shadow.

But today?

I kept my head down, my steps brisk as Luka and I made our way across the crowded campus toward our first classes. But even with my head down, I could feel everyone’s eyes on me, sharp and judgmental, almost as weighty as my father’s gaze on me had been yesterday and chock full of disappointment.

No one approached, but I heard a few whispered hey and hi’s as I passed, I tentatively replied, not sticking around for one second longer. Luka didn’t say a word either, his hands shoved in his pockets as we quickly made our way to our lecture hall.

There were even more people, crowded around where I usually sat in the back. It felt like my breath was stuck in my lungs at the thought of going all the way there.

“Hey, Elijah, Luka,” a voice called from the front of the classroom.

Luka and I turned to see a slender man with long blond hair and glasses waving us over.

“Neil,” Luka said almost breathlessly, and without so much as a glance back to see if I was following, he made a beeline toward his mate.

I rolled my eyes dramatically, earning a grin from Neil as I trailed behind Luka. The moment they were within arm’s reach, the two of them leaned close, whispering goddess knew what, like they hadn’t seen each other in days instead of just a couple of hours.

“Really?” I teased when they finally pulled apart. “Could you two get any mushier? This is a public space, you know.”

Neil chuckled, while Luka shot me a flat look. “Fuck off.”

“What? Can’t handle a little teasing? How’d you put up with this guy, Neil?” I asked in a mock whisper.

Neil laughed again, and soon the three of us slipped into easy conversation, trading mindless banter about school, homework, and whatever gossip had been circulating lately.

“I heard we’ve got a new professor,” Neil said after a while, glancing around the lecture hall.

“Yeah, apparently Professor Stone couldn’t stand Elijah’s attitude for another semester,” Luka snickered, earning himself a playful elbow to the ribs from me.

I parted my lips to speak, but whatever clever retort I had planned next died in my throat the moment the door to the lecture hall opened.

A woman walked in—tall, slender, her black hair pulled into a neat bun.

My wolf stirred instantly, restless beneath my skin. The awareness hit me like a wave, sharp and unrelenting, pulling me toward her before I even realized what was happening.

She walked to the lectern, her posture straight, her movements fluid as she organized her papers. She hadn’t looked up yet, but I didn’t need to see her face to know.

It was her.

Lenora.

Her name blazed through my mind, setting every nerve in my body alight. My entire focus zeroed in on her, the rest of the room fading into nothing.

She looked up, her expression calm and professional, her eyes sharp and unyielding—so completely different from the version of her that’d been all hazy eyed and panting beneath me mere hours ago.

She parted her lips to speak but froze, her eyes scanning the room. They flitted from one student to the next until finally, they landed on me.

Her gaze locked with mine, and time seemed to stop.

The air between us crackled with something electric, something magnetic. Her eyes widened, her breath catching in her chest. Her fingers curled tightly around the lectern as if it were the only thing keeping her upright.

I saw the moment realisation set in for her, it was the same time for me.

The woman I’d spent the night with—the woman who’d left me with nothing but a scribbled note and her fading scent—was my professor.