The Human Among Wolves (Aurora) novel Chapter 296

Chapter 296

My heart pounded. “That’s not your call.”

“No,” he agreed quietly. “It’s Father’s.”

Silence pressed in, thick and suffocating.

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Zade met my eyes, really met them this time. “Listen to me, Zayn. You think you’re hiding. You think you’re planning. But everything you do moves pieces on his board.”

He took a step closer. “And Aurora?” His voice dropped. “She’s already on it.”

The room seemed to tilt.

“You tell me you’re done helping him,” I said. “You tell me now.”

Zade’s mouth curved into something that wasn’t a smile. “If it were that simple,” he murmured, “we wouldn’t be having this conversation in your dreams.”

“What about Zeke and Zakai?” I asked quietly.

The words came out softer than I intended, stripped of anger, stripped of accusation. Just worry. Real, aching worry.

Zade looked at me then–and something shifted across his face. It was subtle, gone almost as soon as it appeared, but I caught it. A flicker of

something close to fear. Or maybe guilt.

“I’m trying to protect them as best as I can,” he said after a moment.

His voice was steady, but there was tension underneath it, like a wire pulled too tight.

“And it helps,” he continued, “that they’re both at the Lycan Institute Academy.”

I let out a slow breath, the name settling heavily in my chest.

Lycan Institute Academy. The best in the south. Prestigious. Powerful. Wat hed–by everyone who mattered.

Father had wanted me there once. Had pushed, insisted, framed it as an honor. A privilege. I remembered the way the offer had felt less like an opportunity and more like a leash. Too close to home. Too close to him.

I’d refused.

“So he doesn’t bother them,” I said, more a confirmation than a question. Not yet.”

Zade shook his head.

“No,” he said. “Not yet.”

The silence that followed wasn’t empty. It was loaded, heavy with the kind of understanding that didn’t need to be spoken aloud. Not yet

wasn’t reassurance. It was a warning. A temporary stay. A pause, not an ending.

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Chapter 296

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I rubbed a hand over my face, exhaustion seeping deeper into my bones. “So that’s it?” I muttered. “We just hope he stays distracted?”

Zade didn’t answer right away. His gaze drifted past me, unfocused, like he was looking at something only he could see.

“He won’t touch them while they’re there,” he finally said. “Not openly. The Academy has rules. Eyes. Politics he doesn’t want to stir unless he

has to.”

Unless he has to.

I hated how familiar that sounded.

“And you?” I asked, my voice rough. “Is this part of how you protect them? Staying close to him?”

His jaw tightened. “Someone has to be.”

The words landed hard. Not heroic. Not proud. Just… resigned.

I looked at him then–not the brother who taunted me, not the shadow slipping through dreams–but the one standing in front of me now. The one carrying weight he never asked for.

I drew in a breath, already preparing to tell him everything–about Cecilia, about Aurora, about the plan forming piece by fragile piece in our hands. The words were right there, pressing against my teeth, demanding to be let out.

But Zade stiffened.

It was sudden. Subtle, but unmistakable. His head tilted slightly, as if he were listening to something I couldn’t hear, something far beyond this room, beyond this place that already felt like it was slipping through my fingers.

1- he started, then stopped.

I frowned. “Zade-

“I have to go,” he said quickly, cutting me off before I could say another werd.

The urgency in his voice wasn’t panic, but it wasn’t calm either. It was controlled, measured, the kind of restraint that came from long practice.

From survival.

“Go?” I stepped forward instinctively. “What do you mean, go? I was just about to-

“I know,” he said, softer now, almost apologetic. His gare held mine, sharp and intent. “And you will. Just not now.”

The room felt thinner somehow, like the walls were losing substance, like the air itself was starting to pull away from us.

“I’ll try to enter your dreams tomorrow,” he added. “Okay?”

Tomorrow.

The word echoed, heavy with implication. With risk.

“We’re not done talking,” he said, firmly this time, as if staking a claim. As if daring fate itself to interfere.

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I studied his face, searching for cracks, for doubt. There was none. Only resolve. Only that same quiet burden he’d been carrying for far too

long.

“I know,” I said at last. My voice came out steadier than I felt. “We’re not done.”

Something like relief flickered across his expression. He gave a short nod,lready pulling away, already halfway gone.

And then the room dissolved.

I woke with a sharp inhale, my chest rising fast as reality snapped back into place. The academy ceiling stared down at me, solid and unyielding. My heart was still pounding, my mind racing, fragments of the dream clinging to me like smoke.

Beside me, Aurora slept on, her breathing slow and even, unaware of the storm that had just passed through my head.

And for the first time since he appeared, I understood something terrifyingly clear:

Zade wasn’t on Father’s side.

He was trapped on his board.