I set the toast down. "And you think I'm an unknown element."
"I don't think, Nova. I know." She looks at me steadily. "When Caspian told you to move at dinner that first night, that was the announcement. That was him telling every wolf in that room you're unranked, unproven, and under assessment."
The room is quiet. Outside the window I can hear voices, students walking to breakfast, ordinary morning sounds.
"Who's in it?" I ask.
"Caspian Jett leads it this year. Nico Rossi is his second. There are others, maybe six or seven of the strongest Alphas and high-ranking wolves." She pulls her knees up. "Knox Wilsonis technically a member, but he doesn't participate in the trials. He doesn't follow their structure. Even the Dominion is careful around him."
"Why me?"
"You arrived with no pack, no family, no connections to any recognized bloodline. You're late to shift, which could mean dormant power or could mean you're not a wolf at all." She looks at me steadily. "And you smell wrong. Every wolf in this building can sense it. Something about your scent doesn't match what you appear to be, and that makes you either a potential threat or a weak link they need to eliminate."
I think about that, about Caspian's assessment in the dining hall, that flat reading of me as something that didn't fit his categories.
"The pitcher," I say. "That was a test."
"That was the opening assessment. Submission test. They pushed your rank, you held position, you survived it." Lily stands, goes to the window. "Nova, I need you to understand something. These aren't pranks. This is pack law, how wolves have always established hierarchy. The Dominion will escalate the trials until they determine what you are, where you rank, whether you're strong enough to remain in the pack or whether you need to be driven out. And the Academy allows it because this is how shifter society functions."
I look at the tray. The eggs have gone cold. I pick up the fork anyway and I eat them, methodical, because Lily brought me food and because I'm going to need the calories.
"Thank you for telling me," I say.
She turns from the window. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I thought maybe they'd identify you as Omega and leave you alone, or that you'd figure it out on your own."
"You're saying it now."
"Yeah." She looks at me for a long moment. "For what it's worth, I'm going to keep sitting with you. I'm going to keep being your roommate. I need you to know that's going to cost me rank points, and I'm choosing it anyway."
My throat goes tight. I swallow and nod.
Lily picks up her bag. "Come to breakfast when you're ready. I'll save you a seat."
I go to breakfast.
The dining hall is already half-full when I walk in. I can feel the shift in the room's attention, a hundred wolves tracking movement, assessing threat. I get my tray, walk to the back table where Lily is sitting alone, and sit across from her. Start eating.
Three tables over, Caspian is in his usual position, Nico beside him, and neither of them looks at me. The not-looking is intent, a clear signal to the rest of the pack.
"They're establishing hierarchy," Lily says quietly. "You're unranked now. Anyone who associates with you before you prove yourself is taking a risk to their own standing."
I watch it happen in real time. A second-year girl I'd talked to in the library last week catches my eye from across the hall, and I see the moment she makes the calculation and looks away. Two first-years at the next table get up and move, instinct driving them away from someone who might drag down their rank. A senior passes our table and gives Lily a look, assessing how much her association with me is costing her.
By the time I finish eating, there's a three-table radius of empty space around us.
"The trials will escalate," Lily says.
"I know."
We walk to class together and I feel the weight of pack hierarchy settling into place, something I'm going to have to navigate now.
In Shifter Biology the professor calls on me twice and both times I give the right answer and both times I can feel the room's surprise that I'm still functional, still holding position. In the corridor between classes a group of third-years parts around me, giving me the space wolves give unknown threats.
At lunch the empty radius is wider.
The note appears in my locker the next morning.
I'm standing there with my hand on the door when I see the folded paper on the top shelf. No envelope, just white paper folded once. I take it out and unfold it and I read it twice before I understand.
