"Shifters exist," I said. "People who can transform into wolves. It's genetic—certain bloodlines carry the ability. They're born human, but they can shift forms. Some of them live among regular people their whole lives and no one ever knows."
Ivy's expression didn't change. She was listening. Waiting.
“You carry the shifter gene or you wouldn’t be here at Frosthaven Academy.”
A sharp inhale is her only response.
"I have mates. Four of them. It's a bond thing—we didn't choose it, it just... happened. Two of them are—were—feral. One has been lost in his wolf form. Unable to shift back to human."
"Stone," Ivy said quietly. "That's what you call him."
I blinked. "How did you—"
"You talk in your sleep. Not much. But enough." She gestured at my neck. "He did that?"
"When I went in to save him. He was dying—his body was shutting down because he was fighting the bond. The only way to help him was to enter his cell. Let him... let him decide whether to trust me or not."
"And he bit you."
"He had his teeth on my throat. But he didn't bite down. He stopped." I touched the bandages. "These are from when he grabbed me. Before he realized I wasn't a threat."
Ivy was quiet for a long moment. I watched her process it—the impossibility of what I was saying warring with the evidence in front of her.
"Shifters," she said finally. "Like werewolves?"
"Sort of. Less moon-dependent. More... biological."
"And you're mated to four of them."
"Yes. It's complicated."
"I imagine."
More silence. Ivy's expression was unreadable.
“And you think I’m a shifter too. Am I?” She shook her head, starting over. “No. First—are you okay?”
The question broke something in me. After everything—after the fear and the fury and the guilt I'd absorbed from everyone else—that simple question hit differently.
"I don't know," I admitted. "Stone is alive. He shifted to human for twelve minutes before he lost hold of it. That's progress. That's more than anyone thought was possible. But he's still more wolf than human. He still barely remembers who he was. And there are people on this campus who want him dead, who want all the ferals dead, and I don't know if I can protect him."
My voice cracked. I hadn't meant to say so much. Hadn't meant to let it out.
Ivy stood up. Crossed to my bed. Sat down beside me.
"I don't understand most of what you just told me," she said. "Shifters and mates and ferals—it sounds insane."
"I know."
"But I know you. I know you're not crazy. I know you're not a liar." She reached out, took my hand. "And I know that whatever's happening, you need someone in your corner when everything else is chaos."
I looked at her. At my roommate. My friend. The person who had just heard the impossible and decided to stay anyway.
"You believe me?"
"I believe you believe it. And I believe those are bite marks on your neck." Ivy squeezed my hand. "The rest I'll figure out as we go."
"It's dangerous. Knowing this—being part of this—"
