The Human Among Wolves (Aurora) novel Chapter 109

Chapter 109

Aurora

88%

The buses rolled through the academy gates just as the clock struck mine.

The familiar stone walls came into view, towers catching the pale morning light. Students immediately stirred awake, the lazy Sunday energy settling over everyone like a blanket. The engines rumbled low before finally sighing to a stop in the courtyard.

I stretched, my back stiff from sitting for hours, and nudged Mira, who had her hoodie pulled tight over her face again. “We’re here,”

I murmured.

She groaned, peeling the hood back just enough to squint at me. “I swear, if I smell pine trees again in the next month, I’m dropping out.”

That made me laugh, shaking my head as I reached for my bag under the seat. The bus doors hissed open, and one by one, students

shuffled out, voices low and tired.

The air outside was crisp, sharp with that late–autumn chill. The courtyard was quiet in the way it always was on Sundays, professors standing nearby to supervise but looking just as exhausted as the rest of us.

Mira bumped into my side as we headed toward the dorms. Behind us, Riven and Lira dragged their bags along, muttering about how unfair it was that classes were starting up again tomorrow.

“Don’t say that out loud,” I told them, tugging my bag higher onto my shoulder. “You’ll jinx it.”

Selene peeled away with Alex almost immediately, their voices trailing toward the east wing. The four of us–me, Mira, Riven, and

Lira–headed for our own building.

The dorms looked almost peaceful in the pale light, ivy crawling up the stone, the windows fogging faintly from warmth inside. The heavy door groaned when we pushed it open, and the quiet heat wrapped around us instantly.

Inside, footsteps echoed along the hallways as other students trudged upstairs.

By the time we reached our room, Mira practically collapsed on her bed, face–up this time. “Tell me again why they thought team bonding had to mean hiking half the forest?”

Riven gave a snort and tossed her boots off. “Because they hate us.”

Lira rolled her eyes but set her bag neatly by her bed. “You’re both acting like we survived some life–or–death mission. It was one

night in the woods.”

“Yeah, with riddles, running around in the dark, and mosquitoes the size of my head,” Mira shot back, covering her face with her

arm.

Their voices filled the room, light and familiar, grounding me in a way I didn’t realize I’d been craving.

|||

O

<

1/2

12:06 Thu, Jan 29 GB G.

Chapter 109

ཐཱུ 88%t

I let my bag slide off my shoulder and sat down on my bed. The trip already felt like it had blurred together–long walks, challenges, the woods swallowing us whole. And then, all the other stuff.

Kael.

Zayn.

I swallowed, my chest tightening, but I shoved the thoughts aside, focusing on the sound of Mira sighing dramatically, on Riven curling up with her blanket, on the scratch of Lira’s pen against her notebook.

It was Sunday. No classes, no professors.

Just a quiet day to breathe.

And with that thought, I sank back against my pillows, let my eyes slip closed, and for the first time since stepping on the bus, let

myself rest.

*******

The days seemed to vanish before I noticed. Mornings melted into each other, lectures stacking up in a haze of scribbled notes and

restless cups of coffee, the routine carrying me forward almost on autopilot.

Then, finally, exam results came in.

I’d been chewing my nails all week waiting for them, convinced I’d missed something huge or blanked on an answer I didn’t even realize. But when I opened the paper, my chest loosened all at once.

I passed.

Thank god.

It wasn’t perfect, but it was enough–and for a ‘human‘ in a place like this, that was already more than I’d hoped for. Freshman year was mostly theory anyway, lots of reading and memorizing, less about proving yourself with actual magic or shifting. Sophomores

had to deal with practicals, and just the thought of that made my stomach knot.