No one could hear her.
Not when she tried, not when she screamed inside. And now, after everything, Aria wasn't even sure she wanted to be heard.
The academy had gone quiet for the night. The wind rustled through the trees beyond the dormitory window, and the moon cast long shadows across the floor. Aria lay in bed, eyes wide open, her heart still racing from what had happened during training earlier that day.
She had touched him—Alpha Kieran Vale.
And something had changed.
The memory replayed in her mind like a fever dream: the way his fingers had closed around her wrist, strong yet careful, the way their eyes had locked for a heartbeat too long. And then—heat. A strange, wild heat that raced through her veins and awakened something deep inside.
Something that had been silent for far too long.
Her wolf.
Aria curled into herself beneath the covers. She hadn't told anyone—not that she could have even if she'd tried. But she knew it wasn't just her imagination. She could still feel it, like a phantom warmth lingering beneath her skin.
Her wolf hadn't fully awakened, but it had stirred. It had felt something in that touch.
He touched me like he knew me.
But how could he?
Aria had grown used to being invisible. No one really saw her. Not the other students, who barely acknowledged her existence, and certainly not the powerful instructors who taught them. Until now.
Now, everything was different.
The next morning, Aria moved through the academy halls like a ghost, yet aware of everything. The scent of sharpened blades from the training room. The faint copper tang of blood from the infirmary. The murmurs followed her like shadows.
"There she goes," someone whispered behind her. "The mute Omega."
"I heard she made Alpha Vale stop practice yesterday."
"No way. He never singles anyone out—unless…"
She kept walking, her head held high even as the words stung. It didn't matter what they said.
She had felt the bond.
Even if it wasn't complete. Even if it didn't make any sense.
In her next class—Shifting and Control—Aria tried to concentrate, but her focus slipped again and again. Her fingers twitched. Her skin felt strange, tingling, too tight. The sensations were unfamiliar and unsettling.
Her instructor, a stern Beta named Master Thorne, barely looked at her as he lectured. She didn't mind. She preferred it that way.
But at the end of class, as the students filtered out, Thorne paused in front of her.
"You feel different, girl," he muttered, eyes narrowed. "Something's waking in you."
Aria blinked up at him.
"You'd best be ready."
Then he was gone.
That evening, Aria didn't go to the dining hall. She slipped out instead, past the dormitory gates, and found her way to the edge of the training fields. The air was cool, the moon high and bright. It felt safer here, under the stars.
She sat beneath an old tree with gnarled roots, her knees pulled to her chest, and listened.
To the wind.
To the silence.
To the whispers.
They weren't words exactly, but impressions—like the brush of thoughts that weren't entirely her own.
You're not alone.
He felt it too.
It begins now.
She flinched as her wolf stirred again, stronger than the night before. Her body shivered, and her hand flew to her chest. There was no pain, but something inside her was shifting, realigning, as if her very soul had been caught in a current and pulled toward something she didn't understand.
Toward him.
No. It can't be, she told herself.
But even denying it didn't stop her from longing to see him again.
The next day, the academy grounds buzzed with the news that Combat training would now include private assessments for top-performing students. Aria wasn't surprised when her name was quietly posted on the list.
She was even less surprised when she found herself standing once more in the training room, facing Alpha Kieran.
He was just as cold and unreadable as ever. Dressed in dark training gear, his arms crossed, his gaze heavy.
"Begin when ready," he said, motioning for her to enter the ring.
She stepped into the circle, heart thudding.
No words were exchanged as they circled each other. No one else was present. Just them.
She struck first, fast and fluid. He parried with practiced ease, but there was no mocking in his movements—only precision. Respect.
Aria could feel his energy, coiled and intense. It wrapped around her like a storm cloud, dark and electric.
Their hands met mid-strike. Skin to skin.
And the bond ignited.
This time, it didn't feel like a spark—it felt like fire.
Heat burst through her chest, and her knees buckled. Her wolf surged upward with a howl that only she could hear.
Kieran's eyes widened.
He caught her before she hit the mat, holding her close for a breathless second.
And in that second, everything changed.
She looked up into his face, and what she saw made her breath catch: confusion, yes—but also recognition. Shock. Need.
But then his grip hardened, and he set her gently on her feet, stepping back like he'd been burned.
"Session over," he said, voice tight.
Aria didn't move. She could still feel the place where his hands had touched her. Her fingers curled at her sides, trembling.
Kieran turned and walked away without looking back.
But she knew now.
She wasn't imagining it.
She wasn't broken.
She was his.
That night, the whispers came louder.
"You were always meant to find him."
"You are more than they see."
"You carry the light. He carries the dark."
Aria sat bolt upright in bed, gasping silently.
She clutched at her chest. The heat was still there. A steady hum beneath her skin.
Something ancient was waking.
Something powerful.
And it was only the beginning.
After Kieran left the training hall, the silence he left behind was deafening.
Aria stood alone in the center of the mat, her heart pounding wildly, her skin still tingling from his touch. She could barely believe what had happened. That look in his eyes—it hadn't just been shock. It was scary. Fear… and recognition.
As if he knew exactly what had sparked between them.
She bent to pick up her jacket from the floor, her fingers trembling. Around her, the air still hummed with invisible tension, and her wolf—newly stirred—paced just beneath the surface of her consciousness.
It was no longer silent. She could feel its presence now, like a second heartbeat.
And it was restless.
The moment she stepped into the corridor, she felt the whispers return—not the ones from other students, but those that lived in the quiet corners of her mind now. Faint echoes, like the soft rustling of leaves in the wind. They spoke not in words, but in emotion, in instinct. She didn't understand them fully, but she knew they were part of her awakening.
I am not nothing, she told herself as she walked. I am not broken
Kieran stood alone in his office, hands clenched on the edge of the window frame as he stared out at the fog-covered forest. The entire academy lay in darkness beyond, but he didn't see it.
All he could see was her.
Her eyes, wide with surprise and something else. That crackle in the air when he touched her. The impossible pull between them. It had been years since he last felt anything close to this—anything at all. His soul had been numb for so long he had nearly forgotten what desire, what connection, even felt like.
But this—this was something else entirely.
She can't be mine.
He growled low in his throat and pushed away from the window. It was a mistake. A trick. There was no way a mute, unshifted she-wolf from a disgraced bloodline could be…
No. Stop it.
But the image of her lingered in his mind. The way her body had reacted to his touch. The light in her eyes. Her silence didn't matter—because he had heard her, more clearly than anyone else ever had.
And that terrified him.
Aria didn't sleep that night. Her dreams were chaotic, laced with flashes of memory she couldn't quite piece together.
A woman with silver eyes is humming a lullaby.
A man's shadow looming tall and strong, a protective presence.
A hand glowing with golden light pressed to her chest.
She woke in a sweat, breath caught in her throat, the whispers in her mind growing louder.
"Find the truth."
"Unlock your gift."
"He already sees it."
She touched her lips, wishing she could speak. Wishing she could ask someone what it all meant. But there was no one. Not yet.
She slid out of bed, padded to the window, and stared out at the moon. A cold breeze swept through the cracks, making her shiver.
Somewhere out there, Kieran was awake too. She felt it—an invisible thread pulling between them, taut and unrelenting.
Aria had always been alone.
But now, for the first time, she wasn't sure that was true anymore.
Something was changing.
She was changing.
And so was he.