Campus gossip traveled faster than wildfire, and Ethan Blackwood's name was always on someone's lips. Most of it was shallow—girls swooning, guys making up stories about how he'd knocked someone out in one punch. But Vanessa had learned to listen closely. Wolves didn't just gossip. They leaked truths they didn't understand.
On Thursday afternoon, she sat in the student union café with Skylar, sipping bitter coffee that tasted like determination. The table behind them buzzed with voices, sharp and conspiratorial.
"Blackwood skipped last year's Spring Run too."
"Doesn't surprise me. Guy's a ghost."
"Ghost with scars, man. I heard his whole pack burned down when he was a kid. Council never talks about it."
"No, I heard it was worse. His Alpha father went feral, killed half the den. Council covered it up."
"That's bullshit."
"You don't cover up bodies unless there's truth."
Vanessa froze mid-sip. Her wolf went still too, ears pricked. Truth. Listen.
Skylar arched a brow. "Subtle much?" she muttered, nudging Vanessa's foot under the table. "You look like you just sniffed out blood."
"Maybe I did," Vanessa whispered back.
She tuned the rest of the gossip out before her pulse gave her away. She couldn't let strangers fill her head with half-truths. But something in those words stuck—scars, feral, fire. Her wolf rumbled uneasily.
That evening, Vanessa deliberately rerouted her steps across campus until she found him. Ethan sat alone on the engineering building steps, hood pulled up despite the crisp night air, notebook balanced on his knee. He wrote like the world depended on the neatness of his lines.
Vanessa hesitated in the shadows, watching him. Not because she was afraid—she never was—but because approaching him now felt different. The gossip had cracked something. It wasn't just about wanting him anymore. It was about needing to know why he'd built his walls so high.
Her wolf paced. Ask. Make him tell. We cannot heal what we do not see.
She crossed the quad. Her boots crunched on leaves. He didn't look up. But his wolf must have felt her; his pen paused mid-stroke.
"You always find me," he said flatly, without glancing up.
"You don't hide well," Vanessa answered, sitting two steps below him. "Or maybe you don't want to."
His pen scratched again. "What do you want, Crawford?"
She bristled at the surname. "Answers."
His shoulders stiffened, but he didn't stop writing. "Don't dig."
"I can't help it. You're all shadows and silence, and everyone else is filling in the blanks for you." She tilted her head. "Is it true? About your pack?"
The pen snapped in half between his fingers.
Vanessa startled at the sound. Ink bled across his knuckles. For a long, terrifying second, she thought he'd whirl on her, teeth bared. But Ethan just stared at the broken halves like they'd betrayed him.
"Who told you?" His voice was low, dangerous.
"I overheard."
He let out a sharp, humorless laugh. "Of course. Wolves can't keep their mouths shut if their lives depended on it." He wiped his hand on his jeans, black ink smearing like blood.
Vanessa swallowed. "So it's true."
His head snapped toward her, gray eyes blazing. For a heartbeat, she saw the raw animal under the man, the wolf clawing at its cage. His voice cracked when he spoke.
"Stay out of it."
Her wolf pushed forward, furious at his retreat. No. We are his. His past is ours too.
Vanessa steadied her breath. "I can't. Not when it explains why you look at me like I'm a trap instead of your mate."
He recoiled like she'd slapped him. "You don't know what you're asking."
"Then tell me."
The silence stretched sharp between them. Ethan stared at the broken pen in his palm like it might rewrite the past if he just held it hard enough. His wolf pressed against him, desperate. Tell her. Trust her. She is ours.
But Ethan shoved it down, hard. "No," he rasped. He shoved the notebook into his bag, stood, and slung it over his shoulder in one smooth, angry motion. "Don't follow me this time."
And he stalked off into the night, shoulders rigid, jaw clenched.
Vanessa sat on the cold stone steps long after he vanished, chest aching, wolf pacing inside her.
Secrets, her wolf whispered. Dark. Heavy. Break them open.
Vanessa clenched her fists. "I will," she murmured to the empty quad. "I'll break through. Whatever it takes."
The following night, the storm broke.
Vanessa wasn't looking for him this time. She had given herself a rare night off, curled up in the dorm with Skylar, watching trashy dramas and pretending popcorn could fill the hollow ache that Ethan always left behind. But her wolf wouldn't settle. It paced, ears pricked, restless.
He hurts, it whispered. Find him.
Vanessa groaned and shoved off her blanket. "I'll be back."
Skylar sat up, alarmed. "Back? From where? It's nearly midnight."
"Don't wait up," Vanessa said, already grabbing her sweater.
Her wolf led her across campus, nose tilted to the wind. She followed instinct, down quiet sidewalks and past shuttered buildings, until she found him.
Ethan sat alone by the lake, hunched forward on a bench. The moonlight carved him in silver and shadow. His hood was down, his hands buried in his hair. From a distance, he looked breakable. From up close, he looked wrecked.
Vanessa slowed, heart thundering. "Ethan?"
His head jerked up. His eyes gleamed—not human-gray, but silvered through with his wolf. "I told you not to follow me."
"I didn't," she said honestly, voice soft. "I felt you."
His jaw clenched. "Of course you did."
Silence pressed between them, heavy as the water lapping the shore.
"You've been lying," she said finally. "Not about the bond—I know you feel it. But about why you're so scared of it."
"Scared?" He barked a laugh, harsh and humorless. "You think I'm scared?"
"Yes." Her voice didn't waver. "Of me. Of us. Of whatever's in your past that you won't say out loud."
His wolf pressed hard against his skin, claws raking. Tell her. She deserves truth.
Ethan trembled, fists knotting. "You don't understand—"
"Then make me."
The words struck like a spark. His wolf lunged, shoving through, voice rumbling low and raw. She will not run. She is ours. Tell her.
Vanessa froze. She'd never heard his wolf so clearly, so close to the surface. It wasn't just a growl—it was a plea.
Her eyes softened. "Ethan," she whispered. "Your wolf wants me. Needs me. You're the only one fighting it."
His breath shook, shoulders rigid. "You don't know what happens when wolves choose wrong," he rasped. "What they become."
Images flickered across his face—flashes of something dark. A fire. A scream. Blood on stone. His wolf snarled, torn between memory and present.
Vanessa stepped closer. "Then tell me what happened. Stop making me guess."
He flinched, every muscle tightening, like her words were a blade against a scar. His wolf howled inside him, desperate. Mate. She is safe. She is home. Trust.
Ethan surged to his feet, shaking. "If I tell you, you'll hate me."
"I won't."
"You will." His voice cracked, raw, jagged. "Because I didn't just survive my pack's end, Vanessa. I caused it."
Her breath caught.
For a heartbeat, the world went still. Even the lake seemed to hold its waves back.
Ethan's face twisted, agony carved deep. He turned away sharply, shoulders hunched, fists clenched so tight they shook. His wolf roared in his chest, grief and rage tangled. Not his fault. Not his fault.
Vanessa's heart splintered. Every instinct screamed at her to close the distance, to lay her hands on him, to hold him until he stopped shaking. But she knew if she rushed, he'd bolt.
So she took one step. Then another. Slowly, steady as the tide.
"You're lying," she said softly. "I don't know the whole story yet, but I know this: you didn't destroy your pack. The boy I see in front of me couldn't."
His breath hitched. His wolf pressed against his skin, desperate. She sees truth. She knows.
"I'll prove it to you," Vanessa whispered. "I'll find the truth, Ethan. You don't have to carry it alone anymore."
He turned his head slightly, just enough that she could see his profile—eyes glinting wet, lips pressed tight. For a single second, she saw the boy he'd been: young, broken, drowning in guilt.
Then the walls slammed back up.
"You're wrong," he said hoarsely. "Stay away before you regret it."
And he strode off into the night, fast, like running from a fire only he could see.
Vanessa stood by the lake, trembling, wolf pacing fiercely.
He breaks, her wolf whispered. He bleeds. We will heal him.
Vanessa clenched her fists, fire burning in her chest. "I'll never stop," she vowed into the dark. "Not until you see what I see."
The lake carried her words out across the water, into the night where Ethan's wolf still howled for her.