The Human Among Wolves (Aurora) novel Chapter 36

Chapter 36

The door creaked louder than I wanted as I slipped in

voices humming low.

academy was already stirring–doors opening, footsteps echoing,

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By the time I made it to my first class, the room was already buzzing with voices and the scrape of chairs against the floor. I slipped inside quietly, hugging the wall, and chose the far corner–the place no one ever bothered to look twice at. Safe. Or at least as safe as a

classroom could feel.

The professor’s voice droned on at the front, words spilling into the air like water I couldn’t catch. Something about history, dates, treaties–1 couldn’t have repeated a single sentence if my life depended on it. My pen hovered over the page of my notebook, not moving.

All I could think about was Zayn. More specifically, Zayn’s dorm, and the book waiting like a locked door between us. I kept running through it in my head–how I’d knock, how he’d probably scowl when he opened the door, how he’d mutter something sarcastic before actually sitting down to translate. I didn’t care about his attitude, not really. What mattered was the book. The answers. The truth clawing

just out of reach.

My eyes flicked toward the window, sunlight slanting across the floor in sharp lines. I tapped my fingers against the desk, restless. Every minute in this room felt like a wasted eternity. The dream still pulsed faintly at the back of my mind–that woman’s eyes, that child’s hand, and the name. Always the name.

Aurenya.

I squeezed the pen until my knuckles whitened.

*****

The rest of the classes dragged on forever, each tick of the clock stretching longer than the last. I tried–really tried–to listen, to keep my eyes on the chalkboard and my pen moving, but it was useless. Every word the professors spoke blurred into nothing, drowned out by the single thought thrumming in my chest: the book.

By the time the last class finally ended, I was out of my seat before the professor even dismissed us, shoving my slipping into the hall with my pulse racing. I didn’t care if I looked rude. I needed to move, needed to get out of the

bag and

The corridor felt too long, the stairs too many, but I pushed through until I burst into my dorm. My roommates were still gone–thank the stars–and I darted straight for my desk. The book sat where I had left it, heavy and waiting, its leather cover dull in the late light seeping through the window. My hands lingered on it for a moment. Cold. Solid. Dangerous.

I tucked it into my bag as carefully as if it were made of glass, then slung the strap over my shoulder and left without another pause. My steps quickened the closer I got to Zayn’s dorm, anticipation and nerves twisting together inside me.

Finally, I stopped at his door. For a second, I just stood there, staring at the wood as if it might stare back. My stomach knotted, but I forced my hand to knock.

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Chapter 36

The sound echoed faintly down the hall, then footsteps approached from inside. The door creaked open-

And I froze.

Because it wasn’t Zayn.

The man standing in the doorway was taller and broader, his presence filling the frame like he belonged there. His shoulders cut sharp lines beneath a fitted black shirt, his chest rising and falling slow and steady, and his arms… gods, they looked like they could snap a person in half without effort. But it was his face that stopped me cold.

Dark hair, thick and tousled, framed features that were all edges–a strong jaw, high cheekbones, a mouth curved not into a smile, but something unreadable. And his eyes–black, endless, and piercing–locked onto me with a weight that made my breath stutter.

I couldn’t move. Couldn’t even form a word. My hand still hovered near the doorframe, useless, while my brain scrambled to make sense of who the hell this was and why he was answering Zayn’s door.

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RVisitor

Shouldn’t she hide the book?

7 days ago

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