KAEL'S POV
The threatening text glowed on my phone screen, and I felt my blood turn to ice.
Aria stood frozen beside me, staring at the photo of herself entering the dorm. Someone had been watching her from the moment she arrived. Someone knew she was here, investigating, asking questions.
Someone wanted us scared enough to stop.
"We need to leave," I said, grabbing my jacket. "Now."
"What? No—" Aria started, but I was already pulling her toward the door.
"That text came from inside the Academy network," I explained, checking the hallway before stepping out. Empty. For now. "Whoever sent it has access to campus security cameras. They're watching us right now. We can't stay in this room."
Aria's face paled, but she didn't argue. She grabbed Asher's bloody jacket and followed me into the corridor.
My mind raced as we moved quickly down the stairs. Three months of careful investigation, and I'd been so careful. I never searched the same place twice. Never asked direct questions. Never left digital traces.
But Aria had walked in here wearing her brother's face, and within hours, we'd been marked as targets.
Which meant someone had been watching Asher specifically. Waiting for him to return.
Or waiting for someone to come looking for him.
"Where are we going?" Aria whispered as we slipped out a side exit into the cold night air.
"Somewhere they can't follow," I said, leading her toward the woods that bordered campus. "The Forbidden Forest. It's the only place without security cameras."
"The forest where you found Asher's jacket," Aria said quietly. "Where he disappeared."
"Yes."
"So we're running toward the murder scene instead of away from it?"
Despite everything, I almost smiled. She had Asher's sharp mouth. His refusal to back down even when terrified.
"We're going where we have privacy to talk," I corrected. "And where I've hidden evidence I couldn't keep in the dorm."
That got her attention. "What evidence?"
I didn't answer until we were deep enough in the trees that the campus lights disappeared behind us. Then I pulled out my phone, turned on the flashlight, and led Aria to an old groundskeeper's shed hidden in the underbrush.
Inside was my investigation—three months of stolen documents, printed emails, photographs, and notes covering every surface. Red string connected pieces of information like a detective show.
Aria's eyes widened. "You've been busy."
"I've been obsessed," I corrected, pulling out a file folder. "After my sister Lily died, I couldn't let it go. The official story said she fell during combat training. Broke her neck. But Lily was the best fighter in her year. She wouldn't just fall."
I handed Aria a photo. Lily, smiling and fierce, holding a first-place trophy from the Academy tournament.
"She looks like she could kick anyone's butt," Aria said softly.
"She could. Which is why I never believed the accident story." I pulled out another photo—this one of the training room where Lily died. "I broke in after the funeral and found traces of wolfsbane on the equipment. Someone poisoned the ropes to make them weak. Lily didn't fall. She was murdered."
Aria looked up sharply. "Did you tell anyone?"
"I tried. The headmaster—Professor Cross—said I was grieving and seeing conspiracies where there were none. He buried my evidence and threatened to expel me if I kept 'spreading lies.'" The old anger burned in my chest. "So I started investigating quietly. And that's when I found the pattern."
I spread out a timeline on the shed's workbench. Twenty-three names. Twenty-three students who'd died or disappeared over five years.
"All of them were either Omega, Beta, or Alpha with 'weak' bloodlines," I explained. "All of them died in 'accidents' or 'ran away' according to official records. And all of them had been flagged by Professor Roman Kane's biology class."
Aria's finger traced the timeline, stopping on Asher's name. "RK. Professor Roman Kane. He teaches wolf biology?"
"Advanced genetics, actually. He runs blood tests on all students as part of the curriculum—testing for genetic markers, bloodline purity, Alpha dominance traits." I pulled out a stolen class roster. "Every student who died had been marked with a red flag in Kane's database. 'Unsuitable for continuation.'"
"Unsuitable for continuation," Aria repeated, her voice shaking with rage. "They're killing students because they don't meet some genetic standard?"
"The Legacy Program," I confirmed. "Kane and Cross are trying to breed a perfect Alpha race. Everyone else is considered expendable."
Aria was quiet for a long moment, staring at Asher's name on the timeline. When she spoke, her voice was deadly calm.
"How do we prove it?"
I'd been waiting three years for someone to ask that question. Someone who believed me. Someone who cared enough to fight.
"Kane keeps physical files in his office—the real data, not the sanitized versions in the school database. If we can get those files, we'll have proof of everything. The genetic testing. The flagged students. The elimination orders."
"Then we break into his office," Aria said simply.
"It's not that easy. Kane's office has biometric locks—fingerprint and retinal scanners. We'd need his actual hand and eye to get in."
Aria thought for a moment. "Can we trick the scanners? Fake his biometrics somehow?"
I stared at her. That was... actually brilliant. Risky and insane, but brilliant.
"Luna Park," I said slowly. "She's a Beta who hacks the Academy's systems for fun. If anyone could help us fake biometrics, it's her."
"Then we need to talk to her."
"There's a problem," I said. "Luna hates me. I turned in her girlfriend last year for cheating, and she was expelled. Luna blamed me for ruining her life."
"Did you know the girlfriend would be expelled?" Aria asked.
"No. I thought she'd just get detention." The guilt I'd carried for a year twisted in my gut. "But the Academy has a zero-tolerance policy. She was gone within a day. Luna's barely spoken to me since."
Aria looked thoughtful. "What if I talk to her? Student to student. No history between us."
"She'll be suspicious—"
"Then I'll tell her the truth." Aria's eyes were fierce. "That we're trying to take down the people who've been murdering students. That we need her help. Luna lost someone too, didn't she? That's why she hates the Academy."
I nodded slowly. Luna's girlfriend hadn't been expelled for cheating. She'd been flagged by Kane's program and disappeared two weeks after her expulsion. Luna knew something was wrong, but she'd never had proof.
Until now.
"Okay," I said. "We approach Luna tomorrow. Carefully. If she agrees to help, we move on Kane's office. If she refuses—"
My phone buzzed.
Another text from the unknown number. My stomach dropped as I opened it.
"Wrong move, Ashford. We warned you. Now your little imposter friend pays the price."
Below was a photo of Aria's best friend Maya—tied to a chair, duct tape over her mouth, terror in her eyes.
The next text came immediately:
"You have 24 hours to leave the Academy and never return. Both of you. Or Maya dies slowly. Don't test us. We've done this before."
Aria grabbed my phone, her face going white as paper. "No. No, no, no—"
"When did you last talk to Maya?" I demanded.
"Twenty minutes ago! She was at home, she was safe—" Aria's hands shook violently. "They took her. They took her because of me."
"This is a bluff," I said, trying to convince myself as much as her. "They're trying to scare us into running—"
Aria's phone rang.
She answered on speaker, and Maya's scream filled the tiny shed—raw and agonized and abruptly cut off.
Then a man's voice, electronically distorted: "Twenty-four hours. Tell anyone, and she dies. Try to find her, and she dies. Stay at the Academy past tomorrow night, and she dies. Your choice, Miss Sinclair."
The line went dead.
Aria stared at her phone, tears streaming down her face. "They have Maya. They're going to kill her."
"We'll get her back," I promised, even though I had no idea how. "I swear to you, we'll—"
"How?" Aria's voice broke. "We don't even know where they're keeping her! We have no proof, no evidence, nothing! And if we leave the Academy, we'll never find out what happened to Asher!"
She was right. We were trapped. Stay and let Maya die. Leave and let the killers win.
There was only one choice that made sense. One desperate, dangerous gamble.
"We have twenty-four hours," I said. "So we don't sleep. We don't stop. We get Luna's help, break into Kane's office tonight, steal the evidence, and trade it for Maya's life."
"They'll never agree to a trade—"
"Then we don't give them a choice." I grabbed Aria's shoulders, forcing her to look at me. "We expose everything publicly. We send the files to every news station, every police department, every pack leader in the country. We make it so big they can't cover it up. And when the whole world is watching, they won't dare hurt Maya."
Aria's tears stopped. Her expression hardened into something fierce and unbreakable.
"Let's burn it all down," she whispered.
I nodded. "Starting tonight."
We were running out of the shed when I heard it—a twig snapping behind us.
Someone was in the forest.
Someone had followed us.