WILLA

Anguish.

That was the first thing I felt when I came to.

A deep, throbbing pain pulsed through the back of my skull, sharp and unrelenting, like someone had split my head open with an axe.

I groaned, shifting slightly to my right. Something prickly and dry scratched against my cheek — cold, brittle, and smelling strongly of decay.

I forced my eyelids open, blinking slowly against the heavy fog in my head.

The world blurred and tilted — streaks of brown and faded green swimming in and out of focus.

"Shit," I murmured as nausea surged. I snapped my eyes shut for a moment, then opened them again.

This time, my vision adjusted. I glanced to my right as the cold, prickly substance scratched my skin once more.

"Dead grass," I whispered. I was lying in a patch of it, right at the base of a tree.

My gaze traveled upward. Tall trees loomed overhead like dark sentinels, their branches swaying gently.

I focused on the canopy while fragments of memory rushed back. The skeleton. The seductive voice. Hitting my head...

"You’re awake."

A deep, velvety voice cut through the haze.

My heart lurched violently. I tried to push myself up, but my arms trembled and gave out beneath me. I collapsed back into the grass, narrowly missing the tree trunk.

Hurried footsteps approached through the undergrowth.

"Elyse..."

"Stay away from me," I hissed, desperately patting the ground for anything I could use as a weapon.

"Elyse..."

"Leave me alone!" I croaked, tears burning at the corners of my eyes. "I don’t know who you are. I don’t know why you’re after me. I... I..." My voice cracked.

I just wanted to start all over again. I wanted to live. To belong in a world where I wasn’t seen as less. As weird.

Was that too much to ask for?

My fingers finally closed around a small pebble. I gripped it tightly, listening to the approaching footsteps.

I blinked hard, clearing the tears from my vision, and turned to my right. I saw shoes, a clean white pair of Jordans. Weird. A monster wearing something that expensive?

"Are you al—"

I didn’t let him finish. I raised my hand and flung the stone with all the strength I had left, aiming straight at him.

He gasped and dropped to his knees.

"Fuck," he grunted in pain.

"I told you to leave me alone!" I snapped.

"I’m fucking trying to help you and save us both!" he hissed.

When he lifted his head, our eyes met. My breath hitched. He wasn’t a monster.

A defined cheekbones framed a strikingly handsome face with smooth, warm-toned skin. His raven-black hair was longer, neatly pulled back and secured at the nape of his neck, revealing the full structure of his features. A single loose strand had escaped near his temple — the only imperfection on an otherwise commanding appearance.

Almond-shaped eyes with subtle double eyelids glared at me. A strong, straight nose and a sharp jawline gave him an almost regal, predatory look.

My God... He was breathtaking. Every single male I had come across in this academy was unfairly attractive.

Maybe it was good genes.

But even elite schools like Ridgewood Academy didn’t have this kind of lineup.

"What?" he snapped, pulling me out of my thoughts. "Are you going to apologize or just keep staring at me?"

Heat crept into my cheeks. I looked away from him.

I wouldn’t apologize for thinking he was a monster. Besides, he could still be one. Verah had been possessed once, so I wasn’t letting my guard down.

He grimaced as he rose to his feet. "You’re still as annoying as ever."

I said nothing, but my eyes followed him. His back was turned to me now. I scanned the area while he muttered words I couldn’t quite catch.

I was still in the forest, but not where I had been before. A few feet away, near where the stranger stood, was a wooden sign with a large red X painted on it and a white skull underneath.

Danger.

That was exactly what that sign meant back where I came from — in the orphanage, in the Baker household... nearly everything they wanted me to stay away from, including certain food.

"Where is this place?" I murmured. Was he a kidnapper? He didn’t look like one. He looked too cool, too composed. Yet how did I end up here?

I managed to sit up, pushing myself back until I could lean against the tree for support.

I sighed as the headache eased and the world stopped spinning.

The boy turned back to me. His eyes narrowed in clear anger. "Where is this place?" he repeated in a mocking tone.

I nodded.

He let out a sarcastic laugh, glaring at me. "How about you take a guess?"

I should?

I couldn’t think of anything. I had walked around a few places in the academy, spots I knew Elyse frequented but this wasn’t one of them.

"You can’t?" he added, seeing the confusion on my face. "Of course you can’t, genius!"

"Why are you mad at me?" I asked in a small voice. I hadn’t done anything to him. I was only seeing him today for the first time. So why was he so angry?

He moved away from the sign and walked closer to me, stopping just a few steps away.

He crouched low, his face twisted in a grimace. "Are you nuts?!"

"W-what?" I stammered, blinking at him in surprise.

"Answer me!" he shouted.

"Perhaps if you tell me the exact reason you think I am, then I can give you a proper answer," I retorted.

He let out a short, disbelieving laugh. "Really, Elyse?!"

"What?"

My words seemed to irk him even more. He snarled and shot to his feet, shoving his hands through his hair like he wanted to rip it out. He let his arms drop and started pacing.

"Stay in the damned house. It was one simple command. Just one fucking simple order to keep you safe..." he trailed off.

His shoulders rose and fell with heavy breaths. The sound of his shoes crunching dead leaves was starting to get on my nerves. He spun back around to face me, his eyes blazing golden.

"What are you doing here in the Northern part of the forest?" he demanded.

"What are you doing here?" I shot back.

"Damn it," he clenched his teeth, jaw working furiously. Thin green veins streaked across his defined jawline. He balled his hands into fists at his sides. For a few tense seconds, I thought he was going to march over and strike me.

He didn’t.

"You answer me," he said in a dangerously tight voice.

"I don’t know," I said earnestly.

"You don’t?" he said.

"I don’t," I repeated.

Disbelief still lingered in those beautiful coffee-brown eyes. "You are aware of where we are, right?"

I shook my head, looking around once more. There wasn’t a single recognizable landmark. Like I said before, I only knew a few places around the academy, and their distinct features made them easy to remember.

He scoffed again, tossing his hands up in exasperation. "How can you run this far from the academy into this place and not even know where you are?"

"I... I didn’t run here," I corrected. "I..."

Would it make any sense to tell him I had suddenly found myself here? He already looked at me like I was making things up or pretending to be clueless.

I didn’t think it would matter anyway if I told him everything that had happened in the last few minutes.

I winced, clutching my head as fresh pain lanced through my skull.

"Are you alright?" he asked, the anger in his voice turned into concern.

Before I could respond, he was already crouching in front of me. His cool palm pressed gently against my temple.

I fought the urge to shudder at the sudden contact, sucking in a sharp breath as his scent teased my nostrils.

Woodsy and citrusy.

Not only did he look extraordinarily handsome, he smelled incredibly good too.

"You’re burning up," he said. His voice broke me out of my thoughts.

"Am I?" I pressed the back of my hand to my forehead, but I felt nothing. No tell-tale warmth of a fever.

He opened his mouth to speak again but shut it. Then he slapped a hand over my mouth, even though I wasn’t saying anything.

"Shhh," he whispered urgently.

"What?" My word came out muffled against his palm.

He didn’t answer. His eyes darted across the forest, brows pinched in deep concentration. His nose wrinkled in a strangely cute way as he tried to pick up scents around us.

I looked around too, wondering what had him so alert until I heard leaves rustling nearby.

I breathed in.

"Fuck," he growled, dropping his hand from my mouth.

He yanked me up so fast I heard a crack in my shoulder. I barely registered the pain as he began dragging me away from the tree.

My throat closed up in panic. I dug my heels into the soil, trying to stop him.

"Where are you taking me?" I demanded. "You didn’t even tell me why you’re here or how I got to this place!"

He sneered over his shoulder. "Forgive me for not explaining while I followed my mate into a deadly zone just to keep her safe and—"

"Y-your mate?!" The rest of the words died in my throat as I stared at him with wide, unblinking eyes.

He stopped pulling me and turned around, irritation etched across his face. "Yes, Elyse. You are my mate, and we need to leave right now!"