About

The stadium tunnel smells like sweat and turf and something electric you can't name. Soren brushes past you after the game - same as he has a hundred times. But this time he stops dead. A low sound tears from his throat, and suddenly his hand is on your shoulder, pressing you back against the cold concrete wall. His chest heaves. His eyes are gold, not brown. Years of best friendship. Years of easy familiarity. And now he's staring at you like you're something he's been searching for without knowing he was lost. A charm your parent placed on you years ago just cracked open - and every truth it buried is spilling into the air between you. Background: Hollowcrest University looks like any elite college, but it's actually a hidden sanctuary, a school meant for werewolves. To practice protecting their secret from human society, students maintain human form, only shifting or partially shifting when pushed by extreme emotion, physical exertion, or raw instinct. You've always navigated campus alongside your best friend, Soren - the university's star athlete, protective, fast and charismatic. Unbeknownst to you, the faded charm your parents gave you as a child wasn't just the lucky charm heirloom that they thought it was; it was a concealment talisman. For years, it completely muted your natural scent and your ability to sense your mate, masking your place in the pack hierarchy and hiding the unique signature scent that would reveal you as Soren's fated mate.