The Human Among Wolves (Aurora) novel Chapter 201

Chapter 201

Aurora

I told Kael I needed a moment.

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He hesitated, searching my face, but finally nodded. I turned away before he could say anything else, cutting across the courtyard and slipping into the narrow path behind the dorms where the snoway untouched, soft and pale. The air bit at my cheeks, cold

enough to sting, but I welcomed it. At least the cold made sense.

I walked until the muffled quiet of winter wrapped around everything–until the chatter of other students faded and all I could hear

was the crunch of my own boots.

Then another sound joined it.

Footsteps.

Steady. Intentional.

Following.

I stopped breathing for half a second.

“Aurora.”

My name, carried on a single exhale.

Just once.

Just enough.

I didn’t turn around. My shoulders locked in place, my hands curling deeper into my pockets as if that could shield me from the

voice behind me–the one thing I’d been running from since yesterday.

The footsteps slowed. Then stopped.

“You can’t just run to him,” Zayn said, voice low, strained in a way that pulled at something in my chest I didn’t want to feel.

I swallowed hard. “I don’t owe you anything,” I said quietly, words slipping out colder than the air around us. “And he’s my friend.”

Snow drifted between us, soft flakes landing on my hair, melting down the back of my neck. I still didn’t turn.

Zayn moved closer; I could hear the shift of his weight in the snow.

“You saw something you didn’t understand.” His voice dropped even further, rough edges catching on every word.

My jaw tightened. “I saw enough.”

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Chapter 201

Silence stretched, tense and thin like a wire pulled too tight.

He exhaled once, sharp. “No, you didn’t,” he said, almost pleading. Just let me explain. Please.”

Something in the word please cracked through the numbness I’d been clinging to.

Slowly–almost against my will–I turned around.

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Zayn stood there, breath fogging in the cold, eyes locked on mine with a kind of desperation that made my chest ache. The wind ruffled his dark hair, snow gathering on his jacket, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“I’m done, Zayn,” I said, and my voice shook–not from the cold. “Done with your half answers. Done with you shutting down the

second something matters.”

He didn’t speak. His throat bobbed once.

“I didn’t even get an answer about that day,” I continued, the words spilling out before I could stop them. “That day you ruined

everything. And you know exactly which one I mean.”

His face tightened, the smallest flinch I’d ever seen from him.

“So either you tell me everything,” I said, each syllable slow, steady, final, “or I don’t want to see you again.”

Those words froze in the air between us, sharper than the winter wind.

And Zayn stopped moving entirely–like my ultimatum had turned him to stone. His expression didn’t just falter; it completely collapsed, something raw and unguarded flashing across it before he could hide it again.

“You don’t know what you’re asking of me. Please don’t-”

I didn’t let him finish.

“Just fucking stop it.”

The words tore out of me sharper than I intended, my voice breaking the quiet like glass shattering on stone. “Stop treating me like

I’m made of fucking glass!”

Zayn actually flinched.

His eyes squeezed shut for a second, jaw tightening before he dragged in a long, shaky breath. The cold air fogged between us, rising

and fading like smoke.

“Okay,” he said finally, voice low, surrendering. “Okay. I’ll tell you everything. I will.” He lifted his hands slightly, palms open as if trying to calm a wild animal–except I wasn’t wild, just tired and hurt and done. “But please… not here. You’re freezing. Let’s go to