Chapter 4: I Don’t Need Your Help

The training grounds looked nothing like the rest of the academy.

No polished stone, no manicured courtyards. Just open dirt fields, training dummies, and the sharp scent of adrenaline hanging in the air.

Roxanne walked beside Isla, watching students warm up around them. Some already had claws extending from their fingers. Others moved with a speed that made her stomach twist.

Her wolf had been dormant for years. She’d learned to live around that fact, to build a life that didn’t depend on shifting.

But standing here, watching everyone else flex abilities she didn’t have, it felt different. Heavier.

"You okay?" Isla asked, noticing her silence.

"I’m fine."

She wasn’t in the mood for sympathy. She’d rather struggle quietly than have anyone feel sorry for her.

The instructor called everyone into a loose circle and explained the assessment. Nothing dangerous, he said. Just a way to gauge where each student stood.

Names were paired off. Roxanne hoped for someone as inexperienced as her.

Instead, she got Priya Kessler, a girl two years ahead of her with a smirk that said she already knew exactly who Roxanne was.

"You’re the one whose mate rejected her, right?" Priya said, cracking her knuckles. "This should be quick."

Roxanne said nothing. The instructor called for them to begin.

Priya shifted partially, claws extending, movements sharpening with borrowed speed. Roxanne had nothing to match it with.

The first hit sent her stumbling back, and laughter rippled through the students watching.

She got back up.

Instead of trying to match Priya’s strength, she started watching her movements instead, the way she overcommitted to every strike, relying entirely on speed instead of technique.

Roxanne adjusted. She dodged the next attack, let Priya’s own momentum carry her past, and got a solid hit into her ribs.

The laughter died down.

Priya’s face twisted with embarrassment, and the assessment stopped feeling like an assessment. She came at Roxanne harder, faster, no longer holding back.

Roxanne hit the ground hard, pain flaring through her shoulder.

She pushed herself back up anyway.

"No wonder your mate rejected you," Priya sneered. "You can’t even fight back properly."

Something in Roxanne’s chest snapped tight, old pain colliding with fresh humiliation. She lunged forward and landed a clean strike across Priya’s jaw, surprising everyone watching, including herself.

Priya recovered fast, fury replacing embarrassment, and came back swinging with everything she had.

A few feet away, four brothers had been watching the entire exchange.

Lucien’s eyes tracked Roxanne’s movements with quiet interest. She wasn’t strong, not yet, but she wasn’t fighting like someone helpless either.

Roshan noticed the way she read attacks before they landed, adjusting half a second early every time.

Liam was grinning outright, clearly entertained by her refusal to stay down.

Kai said nothing. But for one brief flash, something shifted in Roxanne’s eyes, something that didn’t belong to an ordinary dormant wolf. He filed it away silently.

Priya lunged again, faster this time, and Roxanne couldn’t fully dodge. She braced for impact.

It never landed.

Lucien’s hand closed around Priya’s wrist mid-strike, stopping her completely. The entire training ground went silent.

"That’s enough," he said.

"I wasn’t finished," Priya protested.

"You are now."

Nobody argued with that tone. Priya stepped back, glaring at Roxanne one last time before storming off toward the others.

Roxanne straightened, more furious than grateful.

"I didn’t need you to do that," she said.

Lucien studied her, unbothered by her tone. "Are you hurt?"

"I’m fine."

His eyes dropped to her shoulder. "You’re bleeding."

She glanced down and found blood soaking through her sleeve. "I’ve noticed."

"You should have stopped fighting."

"I didn’t ask for your opinion."

He raised an eyebrow, entirely unimpressed by her attitude, which somehow made her more irritated.

Liam wandered over, grinning. "She’s got a mouth on her."

"I’ve already called you all arrogant idiots once," Roxanne reminded him. "This isn’t new information."

Liam laughed outright, clearly delighted.

Roshan studied her with quiet curiosity. "Why keep fighting when you knew you were outmatched?"

Roxanne met his gaze evenly. "Because losing and quitting aren’t the same thing."

Something passed between the brothers, an unspoken exchange she couldn’t decode. Kai still hadn’t said a word, but his eyes hadn’t left her either.

She didn’t wait around for whatever this was. She turned and walked off toward the edge of the field, done with all of them.

Halfway there, her chest tightened without warning.

Her heartbeat stuttered, then surged, pounding hard against her ribs. Something deep inside her stirred, stronger than anything she’d felt before.

For a single, disorienting second, the world sharpened violently.

She could hear a heartbeat that wasn’t her own, steady and distant. She could smell the crushed grass beneath her shoes, the metallic tang of blood still on her sleeve. The wind against her skin felt like static.

Then it vanished, gone as fast as it came.

Roxanne grabbed the railing beside her, breathing hard, her vision swimming back to normal.

What was that.

The instructor appeared beside her, expression unreadable. "You alright?"

"I’m fine," she said automatically.

He studied her a moment too long, like he’d seen something he wasn’t sure how to explain.

"Have you ever experienced anything unusual with your wolf?" he asked.

The question caught her completely off guard. "No. Why?"

He didn’t answer right away, his eyes still searching her face. "You should visit the infirmary."

"Why?"

He didn’t explain. He just gave her a small nod and walked away, leaving the question hanging unanswered in the air.

Behind her, the brothers hadn’t missed any of it.

"Did you see her eyes?" Roshan asked quietly.

"Yeah," Liam said, his usual grin gone. "That wasn’t nothing."

Kai stayed silent, his gaze fixed on the direction Roxanne had disappeared.

Lucien didn’t say anything either. But something about the girl who’d fought back with nothing but stubbornness and strategy, who’d refused help and bled through her sleeve without complaint, had stopped adding up the moment he saw her eyes change.

Something about her didn’t make sense.

By the time Roxanne made it back to the dorm, Isla was already there, eyes going wide at the blood on her sleeve.

"What happened to you?"

"Training assessment. It’s nothing."

"That doesn’t look like nothing."

"I’m fine, Isla." Roxanne pulled her shirt off and grabbed a clean one, wincing as the fabric brushed her shoulder.

She caught her reflection in the mirror while changing, checking the damage. Just a bruise, already fading at the edges the way wolf healing usually worked.

Everything looked normal.

Then, for the briefest second, her eyes flashed in the mirror, a strange, unfamiliar color flickering across her irises before disappearing completely.

She froze.

The reflection stared back at her, ordinary again, brown eyes and nothing else.

Roxanne leaned closer, touching her face with trembling fingers.

Nothing. No trace of whatever she’d just seen.

"What the hell was that," she whispered to the empty room.