Karros vanished before dawn.
Zuri did not know that yet. All she felt was the silence. A strange hush in the air when she woke up, as if something had been lifted from the world. She pressed a hand to her chest, confused by the hollow feeling spreading through her ribs.
Nothing had happened. Nothing she could name, at least. But when she pushed herself out of bed, the room felt colder. She didn't get that warm fluttery feeling in her stomach like she always did when she woke up and thought of Karros. Zuri felt like she had slept through a moment she should have been awake for.
She tried to shake it off as she got ready to prepare for school, but she couldn't. Hours before the sun rose and long before her alarm went off, Karros had been there.
He crouched in the shadows, eyes fixed on the balcony above. Four floors. Nothing impossible. At least not for him.
A deep breath. Muscles coiled. Then he launched himself, soaring in a single, fluid motion. His body moved with a predator's grace, landing lightly on the railing of the third floor, barely making a sound.
He paused, feeling the tension in every tendon, the quiet rhythm of his heartbeat. The wind brushed past him, carrying the faint scent of her apartment. Another jump and his hands gripped the balcony edge, fingers pressing into the cool concrete.
Finally, he swung over, silent as a shadow, landing on the balcony. Even in human form, his movements carried the strength, speed, and precision of the wolf inside him.
Zuri slept curled under her white duvet, her hand resting against her cheek. The soft glow of her lamp, cast a light upon her face. So beautiful and painted in warm amber light. Peaceful and vulnerable. He would do anything in his power to protect her he thought to him self.
He did not touch her.
He wanted to. He wanted to brush her cheek, tuck a curl behind her ear, trace the shape of her lips with his thumb. He wanted to feel her warmth under his palm. But he knew if he touched her, he would not be able to walk away.
So he only watched her.
Watched her for minutes that stretched into something deeper. Watched the gentle rise and fall of her breathing. Watched the lines of tension in his own shoulders loosen just by being near her. Watched a part of himself settle the way it never did even among the Lykos Dominion, not even when he ran with them under full moonlight.
She had no idea what she did to him.
How she tugged at instincts older than language. How his bones ached with the urge to stay. How everything in him whispered mine with a ferocity that paralyzed him.
But he could not stay.
It was time for the run. It was orgasmic a way of life for Karros and his people.
Time to disappear into the deep woods with his clan and abandon the restraints the Vesperian Court forced into place. Tara's people prided themselves on controlled shifts and political discipline. They kept the wolves civilized and contained.
But the Lykos Dominion did not believe in that.
They believed in release. Expression. Freedom. In honoring the way their ancestors shifted without rules, laws or hesitation. They did not silence the beast. They celebrated it. So they expressed their freedom secretly to avoid persecution by the Vesperians.
And now, the pull was too strong. His blood was restless. His instincts clawed at the edges of his control.
So he came here. One last time.
To memorize her.
To breathe her in before the wilderness claimed him again.
"You have no idea what you are doing to me," he whispered so softly the room barely carried it.
Then he stepped back.
He hesitated.
And then he slipped out the way he came, disappearing into the night, swallowed whole by the trees that called him home.
By morning, he was gone.
All week, he would be gone.
And Zuri would feel every second of it.
Zuri didn't run into Karros during breakfast or even lunch. She walked through campus, scanning crowds she did not realize she was looking through until she caught herself doing it. Her chest felt too empty and too tight at the same time.
Karros was missing.
For someone who always seemed to be in her vicinity since she met him, this deeply puzzled Zuri.
She shook the thought away and forced herself to focus on the lecture. Today she had History 255: Separation and Memory in History. Even her subject for the day made a mockery of her. Every example of letters, exiles, and lost connections pressed against the emptiness in her chest. She sat through her morning lecture, leg bouncing beneath the desk. Nothing soothed the unease. Nothing drowned the strange, restless ache.
By the afternoon, it became worse.
She caught herself glancing over her shoulder in hallways, expecting a voice that never came. Expecting his familiar presence, the subtle heat she felt whenever he was close. Expecting him to appear the way he always did.
How did he always find her?
That thought kept circling in her mind like a quiet warning.
How was he always where she happened to be?
In the hallway.
At the tuck shop.
Outside her lecture hall.
She did not know he belonged to the Lykos Dominion. She did not know mate bonds made wolves follow instinct far before conscious recognition. She did not know he felt her before he saw her, drawn to her like an invisible tether tightened around his ribs.
All she knew was that he was gone.
She didn't even get a whiff of his scent.
No familiar quiet presence lingering at the edges of her day.
By day two, her appetite disappeared.
By day three, her chest felt hollow every time she woke up, like she had fallen through a dream she could not climb back into.
By day four, her friends noticed.
"You look pale," Chelley said, frowning. "Did you sleep?"
"A little," Zuri lied.
"You are sweating," Amara added. "Are you sick?
Zuri shrugged. "It is just stress."
But it was not stress. Not even anxiety.
Not really.
It was something deeper. A pull she could not name. A pressure sitting under her skin, pressing against her bones. She felt restless and exhausted at the same time, like part of her energy had been stolen away in the middle of the night.
By day five, she woke up trembling.
Weak.
Lightheaded.
She crawled to the bathroom sink and splashed cold water on her face, but the trembling would not stop. It felt like something inside her was reaching for something that was not there.
She stared at herself in the mirror. Her eyes looked dimmer. Her skin warmer. Her breath unsteady.
"What is happening to me?" she whispered.
She did not know she was feeling the echo of his distance.
Karros was miles away, running with the Lykos Dominion. His heart thundered against the forest night. His body gave in to the shift with brutal freedom. His claws tore into the dirt. His howl cut through the dark sky.
He did not know she was suffering for it.
He did not know humans could feel it too, if the bond was strong enough, early enough.
He did not know she woke up every morning with the ghost of his presence pressing against her skin like a memory trying to force its way back.
By day six, Zuri barely made it through class. Her head pounded. Her chest felt empty. She pressed a hand to her sternum as if something inside her had cracked.
Her professor's voice became background noise.
She felt sick.
Not in a normal way.
In a way that felt wrong.
Incomplete.
By day seven, she sat outside her hostel on the stairs, wrapped in a cardigan even though the evening was warm. Her breathing slowed. Her pulse faltered.
Her friends had gone inside long ago.
She stayed.
Staring at the road.
Waiting.
For what, she did not know.
Maybe she did know.
Maybe she was lying to herself.
Because the hollow ache in her chest kept whispering a single truth she was not ready to accept.
Karros.
Karros. It had to be him.
And her body knew it long before her mind did.
Her heart whispered it even when she tried not to listen.
"Karros, where are you?"
She closed her eyes. The wind brushed her hair across her face. She imagined him there, just beyond the edge of the trees, breathing, running, free. She imagined the warmth of his presence. The strength that always made her feel safe. She imagined the brush of his fingers against hers, just once, to prove he remembered her.
The ache did not go away. But in that moment, she felt it sharpen into something tangible. A memory, a longing, a thread of connection that distance could not break.
And she waited.
For him.