<h4>Chapter 39: imed</h4>


    <strong>re POV</strong>


    Early in the morning, I made damn sure I was going to school.


    First, I wasn’t about to piss off Reed and risk a repeat of yesterday. Second, I had no intention of spending another second in the boarding house of horrors if I didn’t have to. Something was wrong with this ce, and I wasn’t sticking around to find out what.


    I couldn’t exin it, but the air felt too thick, too still. Even in broad daylight, shadows pooled in corners where they had no business being. I swear the walls creaked, like the house was breathing—like it knew I was here.


    Hell no.


    I had enough nightmares on my te already; I didn’t need to add "haunted boarding house" to the list. It was probably a ghost this time—for real—but I wasn’t about to go looking for proof. Nope. My horror quota was already overflowing, and I wasn’t about to poke around and invite more. My mind was open to anything at this point—werewolves, vampires, hell, even Frankenstein could show up at this school, and I wouldn’t bat an eye.


    But I did not need to see it.


    I made sure my manly disguise was in ce.


    My boobs still ached—sensitive, sore from ze’s rough hands, but I ignored it. I wrapped myself up as best as I could, forcing everything t. Wig secure, hoodie up, posture slouched. Just another average guy heading to school. Nothing to see here.


    I stepped outside onto the porch, inhaling the crisp morning air. It should’ve been refreshing, but something about the stillness of the boarding house made my skin crawl. The air was too cold, too heavy, like it was pressing against me. Like the house itself was watching.


    I shook off the thought.


    Sara arrived a few minutester, her eyebrows shooting up in surprise when she saw me. "You’re actually going to ss?" she said, crossing her arms. "Thought you were dead set on skipping yesterday."


    I forced a shrug. "Changed my mind."


    Sara frowned. "I stopped by after school, you know. You weren’t in your room."


    My stomach twisted, but I kept my face nk. "Must’ve been out."


    Her frown deepened. "Yeah? Out where?"


    For a second, I swore the wind whispered behind me—a breath, a whisper, something that wasn’t mine. I refused to turn around.


    "Nowhere important," I muttered, tugging my hoodie lower. "Let’s just go."


    Going to school felt like walking into a trap.


    I tried to keep my face neutral, to pretend I wasn’t on the verge of panic. ze. Reed. I had no idea how either of them would react when they saw me today. I only knew one thing—there was no way I was getting through the day without some kind of nightmare unfolding.


    The second I stepped through the school gates, I felt it.


    Eyes.


    Not the usual curious nces, not the kind of looks students give when someone stands out. These were different.


    Some of them weren’t human. I could tell.


    They stood too still. Their faces were too sharp, too angr, too unnatural. Some had eyes that shimmered strangely in the daylight, their stares digging into me like they could see straight through my disguise.


    But it wasn’t just them. The humans were staring too.


    Some looked confused, intrigued. Others looked at me with something closer to hunger. A few didn’t even bother pretending to be subtle—they checked me out, their gazes crawling over me in a way that made my skin itch.


    But the worst part?


    None of them looked away when I caught them staring.


    They just kept watching.


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    Like they were waiting for something.


    Like they knew something I didn’t.


    My stomach twisted, my feet hesitating for just a second. Something was wrong. More than just ze. More than just Reed. More than just me being in over my head.


    I swallowed hard and forced myself to keep walking.


    Whatever was happening—whatever wasing for me—I’d find out soon enough.


    The hallway was no different.


    The stares. Unrelenting. Unblinking.


    It wasn’t just curiosity anymore—it was like they knew something I didn’t.


    My skin crawled. I forced myself to keep walking, but my shoulders tensed under the weight of their gazes. They weren’t just watching. They were waiting.


    For what?


    I turned to Sara, lowering my voice. <i>"What? Do I have something on my face?"</i>


    She shook her head, then held up her phone on the school website notice pinned top of the online noticeboard.


    Exclusive im: use Asher – Blood Bag of ze


    No vampire is permitted to drink from him.


    My blood went cold.


    The words blurred, my pulse pounding in my ears. I didn’t even realize how silent the hallway had be, how the air around me had turned frigid.


    I didn’t notice the way everything had stopped.


    Not until I mmed into something solid.


    The second my skin made contact, my entire body locked up.


    Goosebumps raced down my arms, the hair on my neck standing on end before I even had to look up.


    I already knew.


    The tension in the air, the raw anger rolling off the body in front of me, the suffocating heat shing against the cold stillness of the hallway—


    Yeah.


    The drama had just begun.


    And the thing standing in front of me, ring down with golden, burning eyes and murder in his scent?


    None other than Reed.


    And he looked absolutely, utterly livid.


    Reed didn’t say a word.


    He just growled.


    Low, guttural—not human.


    A sound that curdled my blood, vibrating deep in my bones like a warning before a kill.


    Then his hand mped onto my arm.


    Hard. Unyielding.


    I barely had time to breathe before he yanked me forward, dragging me through the hall like I was nothing more than a ragdoll caught in the jaws of a predator.


    Eyes followed us, but no one moved. No one spoke.


    No one would help me.


    <i>Where the hell is he taking me?</i>


    Panic wed up my throat, but I didn’t dare fight against his grip.


    The heat radiating off him was unnatural. Overwhelming. Like a furnace barely contained beneath fragile skin, a firestorm seconds from erupting and burning me alive.


    <i>What the fuck did I do?</i>


    If he had a problem, he should go to ze, not me. I wasn’t the one who started this twisted, fucked-up game.


    Yet here I was—being dragged away by a wolf whose rage hummed in the air like an electric current, crackling, unstable, lethal.


    And this time...


    I was sure.


    He was going to kill me.