Chapter 55: Familiar Stranger

~~~

The morning air bit at my skin, sharp and cold. My clothes did little to keep it out; the wind slid in through the seams, piercing through the thin fabric not meant for this weather.

I was already exhausted, my body sore and unsteady, worn hollow after being wrung out like nothing more than a rag.

As I kept walking, each step felt borrowed; my strength had already been spent before the day had even begun.

Her marks throbbed against the cold, bites and scratches, hidden under my clothes. Acting like a reminder of that unforeseen evening.

And through it all, Wryn was pressed close at my side, as if nothing had happened. As if she wasn’t the reason my body dragged like dead weight. As if I hadn’t been buried under her, as she had her way with me.

Without a word, she drew me closer, pressing my frame against hers, her body heat bleeding into me. She angled it like an act of care, shielding me from the cold, making sure I was warm.

I couldn’t tell if this was the real Wryn, the one quietly tending to me now. Or the real Wryn was the one I had witnessed yesterday, who tore into me like a beast.

Or maybe there wasn’t a difference. Maybe they were both the same, two faces of a single truth I refused to see.

Maybe… I had only ever pushed my own image of her onto her. Tried to mold her into something I could understand, something I could hold onto.

But she wasn’t someone I could define.

She was just a product of my own accursed fate.

“Still cold?” Wryn’s voice drifted into my thoughts.

I didn’t answer. I didn’t know how to. The words stuck somewhere in my throat, useless, as I kept my gaze fixed on the ground.

She huffed softly, then unwound the muffler from her own neck and wrapped it around mine, tucking it close with care.

“Better?”

For a moment, I almost felt it, the warmth of her muffler, the weight of her small act of care. I could almost believe in the kindness it carried.

It pulled at memories, ones I shared with Wryn, the ones I trusted were her true self. Her profuse apology, the way she’d comforted me when I confessed my own mistakes.

The night she’d shared her shadows with me, her past lay bare. Her insistence on feeding me, promising I wouldn’t have to crumble alone.

But then a familiar ache flared within me, reminding me of what I had endured. Whispering that I couldn’t trust the current Wryn, not until I found a way to bring back the friend I once knew.

A hope that had…

begun to dwindle.

~~~

By the time we reached St. Elms, my chest was tight with dread. Every step we took towards the gates only made it worse.

I didn’t want to be here. I didn’t want anyone to see me like this. Shaky, marred, shaped in a form I couldn’t explain.

Most of all, I didn’t want Kael to see.

That thought gnawed at me more than the pain, more than Wryn’s looming shadow at my side. What if she noticed? What if she hated me for it?

My mind started to drift, dragged somewhere darker.

What if I couldn’t get her to look at me the same? What if I never felt her lips again? The memory of her kisses burned through me like fire, sweet and suffocating all at once.

A familiar, restless itch crawled under my skin at the thought of Kael, an unwelcome habit that had recently developed.

The craving clawed at me. Ugly. Desperate. And it made me want it all the more.

As if sensing the twitch in my body, Wryn shifted closer. Her arm slid around me, dragging me into her side until there was no mistaking our relationship for any passerby.

Her breath brushed against my ear, low enough for only me.

“Are you okay?” she whispered, the words heavy with concern.

My heart hammered. The heat of her body pressed into mine, suffocating, and yet all I could think about was Kael.

The thought of Kael seeing me like this, wrapped in Wryn’s arms. Kael finding out about what we’d committed. Kael leaving me behind.

And in that moment, I admitted it to myself. I knew I was addicted.

Those kisses, her lips on mine, made everything vanish. Every worry I had, every crack in me, every creeping shadow that threatened to devour my mind… it all fled when she kissed me.

It was like stepping into another world, a place where pain couldn’t reach, where the weight of my own thoughts slipped away. A fleeting relief, yes, but one I craved with the desperation of a drowning man clinging to air.

I knew it was unhealthy, poisonous even. But it didn’t matter. I was already too far gone, already a slave to her lips.

After my silence stretched too long, Wryn finally moved. Her hand gripped mine, dragging me along the crowded corridor, as though she wanted the world to see she had me leashed to her side.

I stumbled once, my body still aching, but she didn’t loosen her hold. She never did.

And then the inevitable happened.

Kael was there, right ahead, caught in the swell of students. For a heartbeat, her face lit up when her eyes found mine, bright and unguarded.

Then, it got cut short. Wryn entered her line of sight, towering, pressing her claim against me.

And with that, Kael’s smile froze. The light in her gaze hardened, her expression stiffening as though something inside her faltered.

Her eyes didn’t just meet mine. Her gaze tore into me, cell by cell. Slicing, searing, demanding an answer I couldn’t give.

I tried, tried my best to hide it. My collar tugged higher, sleeves pulled low, all in an attempt to pretend the evidence Wryn left on my body. Marks I couldn’t erase, no matter how hard I buried them. At least Kael couldn’t see. At least-

And just then, Wryn’s hand shot out, clawing at my collar. In one sharp yank, she dragged the fabric down, the buttons snapping free and scattering, until cold air struck my bare skin.

My shoulder was laid bare to the open corridor, the deep bite marks, scratches, and bruises etched there like damning proof. It was clear as day, and the crowd soon seemed to join the dots.

A sharp gasp cut through the hall, followed by another, and then the low ripple of voices turning into a tide. Murmurs spread quick, biting at my ears, crawling like insects on my skin.

I didn’t need to listen to the words to know what they meant. By nightfall, the whole of St. Elms would know what Wryn had done.

That she’d claimed me.

The insulting display burned hotter than the wounds. I felt degraded, reduced, like I’d been dragged down into something less than human… something worth only the marks left on me.

My eyes crawled up through the crowd, desperate and unwilling all at once, until they found hers. Kael… she looked defeated, dulled, as if the light itself had been stolen from her. Like she’d just lost everything, all at once. And I knew, I was the reason.

Out of nowhere, Wryn’s maw split open, not like a woman’s but a beast’s. Before I could flinch, she crashed into me, her lips crushing mine in a savage kiss.

My breath was stolen from me, air strangled, as she didn’t spare me an inch to resist.

She devoured me whole, in front of everyone. My eyes darted to Kael as she watched. Frozen, solid. With nothing left to say.

When I finally managed to open my eyes against her crushing kiss, I realised she wasn’t even looking at me. Her gaze was locked on Kael. Burning, taunting, daring.

A cruel smirk curved across her lips before she spoke, her voice slicing through the silence.

“You think a little kiss from a sewer rat makes him yours?

Her hand pressed harder against me with a grunt.

“I’ll show you how much he belongs to me. How much he’ll always belong to me.”

She paused, her smile widening.

“Along the young I’ll bear with him.”

Shivers ran up my spine, it can’t, no-

I opened my mouth, desperate to say something, anything, to deny that claim. But before I could utter a word, her hand clamped over my lips, silencing me, refusing to move her palm as I struggled to refute.

Kael could only stare, powerless. The words had stripped her of every urge to fight, and in the hollow silence that followed, the truth settled upon her:

She had lost.

And just like that, Wryn dragged me along. The crowd split without resistance, clearing a path as if the hallway itself bowed to her presence.

I kept my eyes fixed on Kael, even as my body was forced forward. Her face, empty, broken, defeated, bore its image on my mind, heavier than any of Wryn’s bites or bruises.

Worry gnawed at me. Worried whether Kael would be fine. What if it drove her into something reckless, something that couldn’t be undone? The thought chased me, even as Wryn pulled me farther away.

We walked, just walked, not stopping until the halls emptied into silence, until the world shrank again to just us. She pushed open the door to the nurse’s office.

The same forgotten room, unsupervised, cold, the one where it all began. The one where’d she led me inside. And here we were again.

The door clicked shut behind us, sealing out the exit. The air inside felt heavier, stale with the faint scent of dust and ointment, just like yesterday.

Wryn’s grip on me loosened at last. Her earlier fire, the vicious smirk, the beastly pride, seemed to dim like a flame running out of air.

She looked at me differently now, not with fury, not with triumph, but with something more subdued, a shadow of… concern. Something that felt almost tender.

I swallowed, my throat tight. The words forced their way out, brittle and shaking, in what felt like the first time in forever.

“You… you promised me,” I whispered, the truth of it collapsing a part of me with every word. “You promised not to let me fall apart.”

“To not let me break.”

A short, bitter snicker escaped me, small and pathetic, like I was laughing at my own stupidity. I shook my head, the sound stinging more than it eased.

“Is this… is this what you meant by it?”

For a heartbeat, it seemed my words had finally landed on her. Her wolf ears drooped low, her gaze wavering, almost hurt, before she suddenly threw her arms around me.

I stiffened, the weight of her embrace pressing me in. I shoved weakly at her shoulders, tired of this cycle, tired of her.

“I am sorry,” she whispered, the words dragging out, slow and heavy, like stones slipping from her tongue.

Her grip tightened, my ribs groaning under the pressure until I swore I felt them creak. I lifted my head to meet her face, ready to glare, ready to spit something back-

But the sight stopped me.

Wryn, her eyes, shimmered faintly, wet at the edges. A crack in the beast’s mask. She was repeating herself, voice trembling now, like a broken record stuck in place.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”

The words clung to me, hollow and desperate, until I didn’t know if she was trying to convince me… or herself.

It was like back then, in the hospital room. I started clinging to a hope, that maybe, just maybe, I could reach the old Wryn again. That the person who once swore she wouldn’t let me fall apart was still there, buried beneath all the rage and hunger.

But right as I hoped, I felt something. Sticky, damp… seeping into my clothes, it carried a meaning that I was still unfamiliar with.

Her words rang differently now, twisted, perverse. Like they belonged to someone else entirely.

My chest sank as she forced me back, peeling the fabric from my skin piece by piece, while I lay pinned under her weight.

All I could do was stare. Like a dead fish. As she loomed above. Crying, yet sinking deeper into the trap of her desire, into the inevitability of being hers.

“I’m sorry.”