"Cole." His eyes stayed closed. "Look at me."
He did. Slowly. Like it cost him something.
I stepped closer. "Everyone knows something." My voice was steady. Calm. I wasn't here to cry or beg or fall apart. "I see it in the way they look at me."
He said nothing.
"Everyone is watching me." Another step. "Twilson. Silas. You. Like you're all waiting for something to happen."
Still nothing.
"And no one will tell me why."
I stopped in front of his desk. Close enough to see the tension in his hands, the way his fingers had gone white around the pen he was still holding.
"I'm not asking for comfort," I said. "I'm asking for clarity. You owe me that much."
Cole set down the pen. For a long moment, he just looked at me. Weighing something. Deciding how much he could say. When he finally spoke, his voice was careful. Precise. Every word chosen deliberately.
"Your body will change."
I waited.
"It happens when the pack bond completes. When all the connections are fully formed and stabilized." He held my gaze. "It's biological. Built into what you are."
"What kind of change?"
"I can't tell you that."
"Can't or won't?"
"Both." He exhaled slowly. "What I can tell you is that it's unavoidable. It's not a choice. It's not something you can prevent or delay indefinitely."
"And once it starts?"
His jaw tightened. "It can't be stopped."
The words landed. Biological. Unavoidable. Unstoppable. Facts. Cold, clinical facts. No metaphors. No softening. Just the bare bones of a warning stripped of everything that might actually help me understand.
"That's not an answer."
My voice came out harder than I intended. But I wasn't scared. I was angry.
"You're telling me something's going to happen to my body. Something inevitable. Something I can't control." I planted my hands on his desk. "And you won't tell me what it is. What it looks like. What I'm supposed to do when it starts."
"I've told you what I can."
"You've told me nothing. Half a warning isn't a warning—it's a threat."
Something flickered in his eyes. Pain, maybe. Or guilt. "I'm not trying to threaten you."
"Then stop talking in riddles and give me something real."
Cole stood. The movement was abrupt. He pushed back from his desk, put distance between us. Moved to the window and stood with his back to me, hands clasped behind him.
"It's all I can give you right now."
"That's not good enough."
