Zuri's POV
Zeta woke up before me. I could hear her moving around, opening drawers, humming lightly the way she did when she was planning her day. By the time I finally opened my eyes, her side of the room was already empty. She had gone out hours ago. The sunlight leaking through the curtains told me I should get up, but my body refused to move. I stared at the ceiling and pulled the covers up to my nose.
I did not want to go to lectures and I did not want to step outside. In fact, I barely wanted to breathe.
There was something out there. Watching me. Following me. And last night, it came out of the shadows like it had been waiting for me to be alone. It almost got me.
My throat tightened as the memory flashed.
Those green eyes.
That wrongness in the air.
The way my body reacted before my mind could understand it.
I sank deeper into my bed. No. I was not leaving this room today.
I needed answers, but the only person who could give them to me was the same person I was trying not to be scared of. I thought I could avoid him for a while. Maybe until everything made sense. But the idea of sitting alone with my thoughts for even one more hour made my palms sweat.
I didn't have to leave the room, he could just come to me.
I picked up my phone and I dailed his number. He picked up instantly. I could tell he had been on standby waiting for that call.
"Can you come over? I really need some answers and someone to talk to."
"Yes. I'll be there in ten minutes."
He arrived in five.
His knock was soft, controlled. He always knocked like he was worried he might break something.
I unlocked the door with shaking fingers and stepped back to let him inside. He walked in, closed the door quietly, and stood near the foot of my bed. I offered him a seat even though I already knew what he would say.
"I'm fine standing," he murmured.
So I stayed sitting on my bed, knees pulled to my chest, while he stood there watching me. For a moment we said nothing. His eyes stayed on mine, searching, steady, like he was trying to tell me something he was not ready to speak aloud.
Five seconds. Maybe more. It felt like the air thickened between us.
Finally I exhaled.
"What was that thing that attacked me last night?"
His jaw tightened a little. He looked away, just for a second, then back at me.
"It was a Werewolf," he said slowly. "But not a Werewolf. A Feyl."
"What? What does that even mean?"
He took a step closer. Not too close. Just enough to show he was listening.
"Zuri, what you saw is something I thought I would never see in my lifetime. My pack believed they were extinct. A myth. Something old Wolves whispered about around fires to scare children."
He paused like he was choosing every word with care.
"Feyls were humans once. Ordinary people. They were the first humans to encounter Werewolves like me. They feared us and to make matters worse, they could not fight us. Werewolves have fast healing. He pulled up his shirt and said "see" where he was sleshed by the werewolf last night was completely healed. There's wasn't even a scratch. I was so so fascinated but still scared. They watched Werewolves kill their animals and wipe out entire villages for years and there was nothing they could do. No weapon could stop a natural wolf. So they went to the village priestess for help."
I blinked. "Priestess?So this is ancient."
"Very ancient," Karros responded. She told them that if they wanted enough power to ever defeat the Werewolves, they would have to take it from the source. The bite. She warned them that the pain would be unbearable and that their bodies might not survive it. Shifting like us is not something the human body accepts easily. It changes everything. Breaks everything before rebuilding it."
"So they allowed themselves to be bitten?" I asked. How did they even get a Werewolf to bite them?A human could never force that. I'm so confused."
Karros nodded. "They could not. Not without help. The priestess told them about Wolfbane and how it affects Werewolves. It weakens us and burns through our system like acidic poison. Humans are completely unaffected. So the humans planted fields of it and ground the leaves into powder. They waited until a lone wolf attacked the village. It's easier to battle one. Then they threw the powder into the air to overwhelm its senses. The scent alone makes us hesitate, but the powder was enough to weaken that wolf before it could escape. Once it was disoriented, the humans used ropes soaked in wolfsbane paste to pull it down. Constantly splashing it with Wolfsbane water. Even weakened, the wolf was still powerful. It roared and thrashed but it was too weak. They could not hold it for long. But they only needed a bite. One bite was enough for each of them."
And so the three men stepped forward. They took the bite; brave or foolish, maybe both. They wanted to defend their families, their children, their people. But their bodies rejected the transformation. Whatever makes a true Werewolf, they did not have it. Their bones shifted but not cleanly. Their senses sharpened but not coherently. The wolf inside them never settled or properly integrated. It splintered their mind. They became unstable and violent. Like rabid dogs walking on two legs."
A chill ran through me.
"Those green eyes," he added. "That is their curse. A mark showing the world that they are unnatural. That the transformation failed. A warning."
"So they became monsters."
"Not intentionally. But yes. They were created as weapons against my kind, but they were never able to defeat a natural wolf. They attack without strategy. Without control. They are strong but not smart. Dangerous but predictable. Wolves like me can overpower them easily."
The room felt colder now.
"So last night… it came after me because… why? I'm no threat to it."
"You are connected to me," he said quietly. "And wolves, even failed ones, can smell that. They react to bonds. Some are drawn to them. Some are threatened by them. I am still trying to understand which one this was."
I swallowed slowly, trying to make sense of everything, trying to slow down the panic.
My voice came out small. "Karros, what about you? What are you exactly?"
He looked at me for a long moment.
"I am a natural werewolf. My kind is born, not made. We shift cleanly. Our wolves are part of us, not something stitched on by force. My eyes turn gold because that is the mark of a true lineage. The green you saw last night is the mark of corruption. A failed imitation."
I nodded slowly. That explained the difference between the two visions burned into my mind: Karros's shift was terrifying but beautiful. The other one was just wrong.
He watched my face carefully, like he could see the exact moment fear loosened its grip around me. And I think he did see it, because his shoulders relaxed just a little.
But something else clawed at me. Something from the night before that I had been pushing aside.
"And what about you being betrothed?" I said sadly. Eyes on the floor, welling with tears.
His eyes closed for a heartbeat, then opened again.
"I was going to tell you, I just needed the right moment."
"To who?" I whispered.
"A girl named Tara."
I waited for the sting. It never came. It just sat heavily in my chest, dull and cold.
"Do you love her?"
"No."
He stepped closer. The space between us shrank.
"We barely know each other. We talk, because we have to. Our families arranged it long before I was old enough to understand what it meant. She is not cruel. She is not anything. Just a girl who expects a future with me because our families expect it. But I have never felt anything for her. Nothing real."
I lowered my gaze, but he moved again, slowly, until he stood right in front of me.
"I was sure I would marry her," he said. "Only because my family expected me to. I thought my life was already decided. Then I met you."
My breath caught.
"When we crossed paths that day, everything changed. I saw you, Zuri. And something inside me reacted before I had the sense to fight it."
His voice lowered, warm and certain.
"I think we have a matebond."
The room went silent. My heartbeat felt too loud.
"That is why you feel things so intensely when it comes to me," he continued. "Why the attraction feels like it is pulling you from the inside. It is not random. It is not in your head. It is real. It ties you to me. And it ties me to you."
He took the last step toward me, slow and controlled, like he wanted me to see he meant no harm. Like he was giving me time to pull back if I needed to.
I did not.
I was calm now. I understood. He was not the danger. He was the shield standing between me and whatever lurked in the shadows.
Still… a question slipped out of me before I could stop it.
"Would you leave Tara for me?"
His eyes softened.
"It is not that simple. And I do not want to overwhelm you when you're already dealing with so much. There are things at play that can't yet explain. This is for your safety. Not because I do not trust you, but because I need you steady before I show you the full picture. What I feel for you is real and what I have with Tara is a formality."
"But you still haven't broken it," I whispered.
"Because once I do, everything changes. For you. For me. For my entire pack."
He hesitated.
"And I will not drag you into that storm until you understand what the stakes really are."
Something inside me felt like it was slowly unfolding.
He reached out and touched my cheek gently. His fingers were warm.
"You are not alone in this," he said. "Not with the Feyl. Not with the bond. Not with anything."
His words offered protection, but when his fingers left my skin, the room felt instantly cold. I looked past his shoulder, toward the closed door, knowing that Karros was not the only creature who could smell the bond between us."