Chapter 1 Ashes in the Snow

The night Aurora Vale lost her family, the snow smelled like iron.

A blanket of silence had draped over Silverpine, her small hometown nestled deep in the woods-too quiet, even for winter. She had fallen asleep reading in her bed, her fingers tangled in the fabric of her worn sweater, comforted by the scent of cinnamon her mother always added to the fireplace logs.

The first scream shattered everything.

She woke with a gasp, heart already thudding in panic. The sound of snarling and crashing glass filled the air outside her room. Then came her mother's voice.

"Aurora! Get Elias and run!"

She didn't make it in time.

Her mother had begun to shift, protecting her younger brother-but the rogues were faster. Bigger. Hungrier.

Aurora saw fur, blood, and snow all blur into one horrific moment. Her father's final roar. Her brother's scream.

And then silence.

She didn't remember how she got away. Only the cold against her feet, the branches scratching her skin, the sob caught in her throat as she ran into the forest and didn't stop.

She collapsed in the snow far from home, her body trembling, skin burning, her soul ripped apart.

That was when she heard it.

A soft voice, deep within her mind.

"Live."

Her wolf.

Still unnamed. Still curled in silence.

But alive.

Three Weeks Later – Ivory Hollow City

The train squealed into the underground station and Aurora stepped off, her bag clutched to her chest like armor. Ivory Hollow was nothing like Silverpine. It buzzed and howled and breathed, alive with towering buildings and a thousand strangers who didn't know her name.

She preferred it that way.

A new city. A new school. A new chance.

Crescent Hill University had accepted her on a partial scholarship before the attack. Her enrollment had been delayed. She didn't mention why.

Now she was here, officially admitted, dorm assigned, and a modest internship at Kade Enterprises-secured through a distant aunt who owed her mother a favor. It paid almost nothing, but it covered her bus fare and coffee.

She walked out of the building clutching the crisp letter of acceptance.

The breeze caught her hair and lifted her scent.

And that was the exact moment Damien Kade walked in through the executive entrance.

Damien – Elsewhere in the Building

He paused.

Just for a second.

A strange scent had wrapped around him-wild lilac, morning rain, and something... sweet, elusive. It was there and then gone.

His wolf, Ares, stirred.

"Something's wrong."

Damien exhaled sharply and kept walking, checking his phone. He was already late for the board meeting.

Another woman-he didn't bother learning her name-was waiting in his office. Naked under a coat. Legs crossed on his velvet couch.

He didn't cancel.

But he kept thinking about that scent.

Later That Afternoon at Ivory Hollow University

Aurora sat in the second row of Lecture Hall 4B, biting the end of her pen as students filled in around her.

Her fingers still trembled sometimes. Nights were hardest.

But she was learning how to survive.

She had made a friend already-Maya, a firecracker of a girl with braids, sarcasm, and a good heart. Maya was the one who insisted she take this elective.

"Trust me," she'd said. "Professor Dusk is like academic foreplay. You'll thank me."

Aurora didn't know what she meant.

Not until he walked in.

Professor Lucien Dusk.

Tall, sharp, quiet confidence in a charcoal blazer. His eyes were ice blue, so intense they looked carved from winter. His hair was dark and fell in elegant, lazy waves to just below his ears.

He didn't speak for the first five seconds. Just looked out over the students with an unreadable expression.

Then his lips parted.

"History isn't about dates. It's about obsession. Survival. Stories we tell ourselves to make sense of what we've lost."

Aurora's pulse stuttered.

Something in the way he spoke made her breath catch.

She didn't know it yet, but he felt it too-not fully, not consciously. But when his eyes drifted over her for a moment too long... something tugged.

Then he moved on.

That Night – Damien's Penthouse

Damien Kade rolled over in bed, sweat cooling on his skin. Celeste was asleep beside him, naked, her perfectly manicured hand resting on his chest.

But he wasn't looking at her.

He was thinking about that scent.

"Still there..." he muttered, eyes narrowed as he stared at the ceiling.

"We know her now," Ares growled deep in his mind. "We just don't see her yet."

"Shut up," Damien replied aloud.

Celeste stirred but didn't wake.

Back in the Dorm

Aurora curled into bed, fingers tracing the edge of her pillow.

"Professor Dusk..." she whispered, embarrassed at how warm the thought made her cheeks.

He hadn't looked at her. Not really. But her chest had fluttered every time he spoke.

She closed her eyes, heart racing for reasons she didn't understand.