Chapter 3. Pranks and Mind Games

Seris’ POV

“What the moon-blessed madness are you doing, Lyra?” I hissed, glancing around in panic as her fingers danced over the forbidden panel tucked beneath a loose stone tile.

“Bringing chaos,” she grinned, the wild spark in her eyes only growing brighter.

Typical Lyra.

“I swear, if we end up in the Red Room because of this—” I started, voice sharp with warning.

“You really need to stop panicking before the panic even starts,” she replied smoothly, nose-deep in wires and arcane script. “Besides, I disabled the basic surveillance charms ten seconds ago.”

“That’s not comforting,” I muttered, but Zoe just rolled her eyes and leaned closer.

“Seris,” she said calmly, “you’re the only one smart enough to crack this system. We need you.”

“You need me?!” I gaped. “You mean you need me to commit the most absurd, suicidal tech-violation this school has ever seen?”

Zoe shrugged. “Semantics.”

My head dropped into my hands. They were going to get me killed.

Or worse—grounded by Headmistress Virelle’s mindwalk spell. And that… was something even death couldn’t outmatch.

“Phones, laptops, smartwatches—they said nothing electronic is allowed. I warned you about this!” I exhaled, already sweating as runes began glowing faintly beneath the panel.

Zoe’s voice dropped to a whisper. “And now we’re warning you. We’re in too deep to back off. Just help us get into the system.”

I groaned louder than was morally acceptable. “You three will be the death of me.”

But... they were my sisters.

And I was the only one who could pull this off.

“I want jelly shots,” I said, dead serious.

Lyra didn’t even look up. She just reached into her satchel and tossed over a ziplock full of rainbow-colored cubes. “Five, freshly conjured. Grape-flavored, too.”

Score.

I popped them like pills, moaning softly at the perfect texture. Jelly shots were my one weakness—the only addiction my foster parents ever used successfully to blackmail me into obedience.

“Okay,” I said, licking the last one off my finger. “Let’s break into hell.”

But the second my code touched the core frequency, my breath caught.

This wasn’t tech. This wasn’t even magic in the traditional sense.

It was alive.

“Uh, Zoe?” I said slowly, scanning the pulsing script across the screen. “This isn’t a digital grid. This is... mindlink-webbing. Every single student, professor, and ghost in this damn place is hooked into a living surveillance system. That’s why our mindlinks stay blocked on campus. They’re rerouted.”

Zoe’s eyes gleamed. “A hive system.”

“Exactly!” I shouted. “This place is practically sentient. It knows what we think. It listens.”

“Even better,” Zoe smirked. “We make it think we belong.”

“No, no, no! I know that look—you’re going, full rogue. You want me to create fake identities inside the mindweb?! Do you know how hard it is to clear thoughts while holding a false persona? One mistake and we’re brain-bleeding for weeks!”

“We’ve held breath underwater for five minutes straight,” Lyra countered, hands on hips. “How bad can this be?”

“It’ll kill me!” I wailed. “Clearing my mind and holding a blank slate identity while inserting three pseudo-avatars into a psychic surveillance field? Do I look like a vampire oracle with nine lives?!”

Zoe crouched next to me, her voice low. “You want to go home, right?”

I paused. Jelly shot mid-chew.

She continued. “Back to your fridge full of jelly. Real internet. Real air. Real freedom.”

I sighed dramatically. “You manipulative geniuses.”

Lyra grinned smugly. “So… what names are we going with?”

I popped one last jelly cube, feeling the sugar rush power up my brain like a war drum.

“Bring it in, girls. Let’s forge some new legends.”

We linked hands.

“I hereby forge pseudo-selves under moonlight and rebellion,” Zoe declared.

“Shadow, storm, and silence,” Lyra added with a wicked grin.

I smiled. “Let the system think we’re ghosts.”

In that moment, three outlaw hearts pulsed as one in the deepest, oldest network at Asheville Academy.

And the game?

Had just begun.

***

Talon’s POV (Alpha, Green Moss Pack)

My wolf, Leo, had been howling since morning—growling at me nonstop to quit what he charmingly referred to as my “whoring activities.”

I didn’t get it.

Every girl I touched, kissed, or screwed made him twitch with fury like he was the Pope of Purity.

“Hold off till we find our mate,” he kept saying like a broken record.

But come on, the brunette beneath me? A walking fantasy. Skin like caramel silk, legs that could lock a man’s soul, and tricks in bed that deserved awards. She moaned my name like I was the center of her goddamn universe.

And yet… I felt hollow. Even her best efforts couldn’t ignite that familiar spark anymore.

Something felt wrong.

“Dammit! This slut sucks my cock like a pro, but my mind’s still all over the place,” I mindlinked Leo mid-thrust, frustrated as hell.

“Get her off our dick, or I swear I’ll bite her head off,” Leo snarled, pacing in my mind like a caged beast.

“Can’t you let me unload first? Or do you want us walking into class with a raging fucking boner?” I shot back.

“Then fuck her hard enough she doesn’t come back,” Leo grunted. “But don’t you dare enjoy it.”

I growled low, slammed into her with finality, and let go. “Yeah, babe… ahhh… that’s it. Daddy’s gonna cum,” I groaned as I emptied into her mouth.

She swallowed like a champ.

Three orgasms later—mine, obviously—I shoved her toward the door while she purred sweet nothings I didn’t care to remember.

“Babe, I’ve got class,” I said flatly, already pulling on my jeans. I couldn’t even recall her name. Stephanie? Sierra? Something with an ‘S’, maybe. Who the hell cared?

Leo grumbled in satisfaction when she finally left.

I stood under the shower, letting scalding water beat against my back, but it couldn’t wash off the bitter feeling clawing inside me.

Something’s off.

That’s when it hit me.

The scent.

“What the fuck is that alluring, musky smell?” I muttered aloud, heart hammering. It gripped my senses like a vice.

It was addictive. Dangerous. Familiar yet foreign.

Leo froze. Then he howled.

“That’s her,” he whispered in awe. “That’s our mate.”

No. Fucking. Way.

I bolted toward the source like a man possessed, following the scent as it weaved in and out of the crowded hallway, teasing me, slipping between bodies, vanishing around corners.

“Faster!” Leo barked.

And then—it was gone.

Just… gone.

Like someone had yanked it out of the air.

I stood breathless near the old library wing, panting like I’d run a damn marathon.

Frustrated, I kicked the bottom of the ancient shelf I’d discovered weeks ago—the same one that masked the secret passage I used to sneak out of this cursed school.

Oh, by the way—name’s Talon Green. Son of the Alpha of Green Moss Pack. Born a troublemaker. Freedom junkie. Tunnel escape artist.

That tunnel, hidden behind the decrepit bookshelf, led straight to the city outskirts in five minutes flat. No guards. No sensors. Just darkness and liberation. And the best part?

Once I was in that tunnel, my powers returned. My instincts sharpened. The suffocating leash of Asheville loosened around my throat.

Leo practically danced when we got inside it.

But today? Even with freedom in front of me, he wasn’t excited. He was... distracted.

“Why don’t we follow it and see?” he asked, restless.

“The scent’s gone,” I muttered, searching again. “It disappeared the moment I stepped in.”

Leo growled low. “She’s close. She’s here. We’re just not ready to meet her yet.”

I clenched my fists.

This wasn’t just some hot girl I’d bang and forget. This was her. The one written into my soul.

“Calm down, Leo. Let’s save our asses and get to class,” I said, trying to shake the magnetic pull still lingering in my gut.

I vaporized the last trace of the brunette’s perfume off me and took off running—toward class, toward chaos, and unknowingly… toward her.

The one who would ruin me.