Chapter 8 The Morning After (Brynn POV)
I woke to sunlight streaming through the curtains and Harper's face hovering inches from mine.
"Jesus!" I jerked back, my head connecting with the headboard. "Personal space, Harper."
"You're awake. Thank God." She sat back on her heels, perched on the edge of my bed. "Do you have any idea how worried I've been? You came back at four in the morning, climbed into bed fully dressed, and haven't moved in six hours. I checked your pulse twice to make sure you were still alive."
I rubbed my eyes, trying to orient myself. My room. My bed. Harper wearing pajama pants covered in cartoon cats, looking at me with genuine concern. Everything normal except for the memories flooding back the gym, Jaxon's transformation, the impossible truth that werewolves existed and I was one of them.
"I'm fine," I said automatically.
"You're not fine. You look like you've seen a ghost." She grabbed my hand, her palm warm against mine. "What happened last night? And don't say 'nothing' because I know you, B. Something happened."
I pulled my hand away, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. My phone sat on the nightstand, and I checked the time 10:47 AM. I'd missed my wellness buddy session with Jaxon.
"I just couldn't sleep," I said. "Walked around campus until I got tired."
"For three hours?"
"It's a big campus."
Harper stood, moving to block my path to the bathroom. Her expression had shifted from worried to determined, and I recognized that look. She wasn't going to let this go.
"Brynn." Her voice was quiet but firm. "I need to tell you something about my family."
Ice flooded my veins. "What about your family?"
"Sit down. Please."
The please did it. Harper never said please unless something was seriously wrong. I sat back on the bed, and she pulled her desk chair over, positioning it so we were facing each other.
"My family has a specific role in the supernatural community," she began, her hands clasped tightly in her lap. "We're called Keepers. We maintain neutral territories, document supernatural bloodlines, and enforce supernatural law within our boundaries."
The words hit me like physical blows. "You know."
"Yes."
"About werewolves. About what happened at the assembly."
"Yes." Her dark eyes held mine. "I've known what you are since before you moved into this room, Brynn. The administration assigned me as your roommate specifically to monitor you."
The betrayal cut deeper than Jaxon's revelations had. Harper was my friend. My only real friend at this school. And she'd been spying on me the entire time.
"Get out." My voice came out flat and cold.
"Brynn"
"Get out of my room. Now."
"I can't." She leaned forward, urgency replacing the guilt in her expression. "I know you're angry. You have every right to be. But you need to listen to me because you're in serious danger and I'm the only person who can help you understand why."
"I don't want your help. I don't want anything from you."
"Our friendship is real." Her voice cracked slightly. "Everything we've shared, every late-night conversation, every stupid joke that was real, Brynn. I wasn't pretending to care about you."
"But you were watching me. Reporting on me."
"Yes." She didn't try to deny it. "My family has reporting obligations to the Werewolf Council. When a potential supernatural is identified, especially one from a significant bloodline, we're required to document their development and integration into supernatural society."
"Significant bloodline," I repeated. "What does that mean?"
Harper stood and went to her closet, pulling out a locked box from the top shelf. She brought it back to the bed, entering a combination I couldn't see before opening the lid. Inside were papers—old documents, photographs, what looked like hand-drawn maps.
"The supernatural world isn't like the human world," she said, spreading documents across my comforter. "There are rules. Treaties. Blood debts that go back centuries. And your family the Bloodrose line is at the center of one of the oldest conflicts in werewolf history."
Bloodrose. Jaxon had said something about my bloodline being dangerous, but he'd refused to explain.
"What is the Bloodrose line?"
"A pack that was nearly wiped out two hundred years ago." Harper pulled out a yellowed photograph showing a large group of people standing in front of a stone building. "They were powerful, ancient, and they betrayed another pack called the Steelclaws. The resulting war almost destroyed both sides."
Steelclaw. Like Cole Steelclaw. Like Jaxon's last name was probably Steelclaw if his brother was Cole.
"Jaxon is a Steelclaw," I said slowly.
"Yes. His father is the current Alpha of the Steelclaw Pack." Harper pulled out another document this one looked like a family tree. "And you're the last known descendant of the Bloodrose line. Your grandmother has been hiding you since you were five years old, using magical suppressants to mask your wolf."
"Why?"
"Because there's a blood debt. An old law that says any surviving Bloodrose owes servitude to the Steelclaws until the debt is paid." She met my gaze. "If they find you, they have the legal right to either enslave you or execute you."
The room spun. I gripped the edge of the mattress, trying to steady myself.
"Jaxon already found me," I whispered.
Harper's face went pale. "He knows what you are?"
"He told me last night. After I saw him and his teammates training at the gym." I looked at the documents spread across my bed, at the proof that everything Jaxon had said was true. "He said I was in danger. That certain packs would want to find me. He didn't mention that his pack was one of them."
"Oh God." Harper grabbed her phone, her fingers flying across the screen. "This changes everything. If the Steelclaws know about you, the Council needs to be informed immediately."
"Wait." I caught her wrist. "What will the Council do?"
"They'll mediate. Make sure the blood debt is handled according to supernatural law."
"And what does that law say?"
She hesitated, and I knew the answer before she spoke.
"That you belong to the Steelclaws until your family's debt is paid."
I released her wrist and stood, pacing to the window. Outside, students walked across the quad, laughing and talking, completely oblivious to the supernatural world existing alongside theirs. I'd been one of them until yesterday. Now I was something else. Something that could be owned.
"How long?" I asked without turning around. "How long would I have to serve them?"
"Traditionally? Ten years. Unless the debt is paid another way."
"What other way?"
"Death." Harper's voice was quiet. "Either yours or the Alpha's acceptance that the debt is satisfied."
Ten years of servitude or death. Those were my options. And Jaxon had known this entire time.
"He lied to me," I said. "He said he'd teach me control. That he'd help me. He never mentioned he owned me."
"Maybe he doesn't want to claim the debt."
"Or maybe he's just waiting for the right moment." I turned to face her. "You said the suppressants are completely broken. What does that mean?"
Harper closed the box, setting it aside. "It means your wolf is going to emerge whether you're ready or not. The next full moon is in twelve days, but your first full transformation could happen within days. Maybe sooner if you're under extreme stress."
"And if I transform without knowing how to control it?"
"You could hurt someone. Yourself. Innocent people." She stood, moving closer. "That's why I'm telling you all of this now, Brynn. I know you feel betrayed, and you should. I lied to you about who I was and why I was here. But my friendship was never fake, and I'm not going to let you face this alone."
"You're still reporting to the Council."
"Yes. I have to. But that doesn't mean I'm not on your side."
"How can you be on my side if you're reporting everything I do?"
"Because I can influence what gets reported and how it's interpreted." She pulled out her phone again, showing me an encrypted messaging app I'd never seen before. "I've been filing status reports on you since freshman year. Every report has emphasized your stability, your integration into human society, your lack of supernatural awareness. I've been protecting you, Brynn, even when you didn't know you needed protection."
I looked at the screen, at the long list of sent messages with timestamps going back over a year. Report after report, all marked with my name and codes I didn't understand.
"Why?" I asked. "If your job was just to monitor me, why protect me?"
"Because you're a good person. Because you didn't deserve to be punished for something your ancestors did two hundred years ago." She locked her phone and met my gaze. "And because I genuinely like you. You're my friend, B. That was never part of the assignment."
I wanted to stay angry. Wanted to hold onto the betrayal and use it as armor against more hurt. But Harper's eyes were wet with unshed tears, and I remembered every late-night conversation, every time she'd covered for me with the RA, every moment of genuine friendship we'd shared.
"I don't know if I can trust you," I said honestly.
"I know. And I'll work to earn that trust back." She wiped her eyes. "But right now, you need to decide what you're going to do about Jaxon."
"What do you mean?"
"He knows what you are. He could report you to his father at any time and claim the blood debt. But he hasn't yet." She pulled up a chair again, sitting down. "The question is why. Is he protecting you, or is he waiting for something?"
Before I could answer, her phone buzzed. She glanced at the screen, and her expression shifted from concerned to alarmed.
"What?" I moved closer. "What is it?"
She turned the phone toward me. An encrypted message, just three lines of text:
Council wants status report on the Bloodrose.
Alpha Hale has filed official inquiry.
Respond within 24 hours.
"They know," Harper whispered. "Jaxon must have told his father. The Council is getting involved."
My legs gave out, and I sat heavily on the bed. "What happens now?"
"Now we figure out how to keep you alive." She stood, already moving toward her closet to pull out clothes. "Get dressed. We need to find Jaxon and figure out exactly what he's told his father and what his intentions are."
"I can't face him right now."
"You don't have a choice." She tossed a clean shirt at me. "The Council will send someone to investigate. They'll want to verify your bloodline, assess whether you're a threat, and determine how the blood debt should be enforced. You need to be prepared, and that means getting answers from the one person who knows what the Steelclaws are planning."
I caught the shirt, holding it against my chest like a shield. "What if he's the threat?"
"Then we deal with that too." Harper's expression hardened with determination. "But first we need information. And like it or not, Jaxon is our best source."
She was right. I hated that she was right, but she was.
I pulled off my rumpled clothes from last night and yanked on the fresh shirt, followed by jeans and sneakers. My hands shook as I tied my laces, adrenaline and fear making my movements clumsy.
"Harper?" I looked up at her. "If the Council decides I'm too dangerous, what will they do?"
She met my gaze, and the answer was written clearly in her expression even before she spoke.
"They'll eliminate the threat," she said quietly. "One way or another."
I nodded, throat tight. "Then I guess we'd better make sure I'm not a threat."
"We will." She grabbed her jacket and her phone. "I promise, B. We're going to figure this out."
As we headed for the door, I couldn't help but glance back at the documents spread across my bed. Photographs of people long dead. Family trees showing bloodlines that led to me. Evidence of a history I'd never known I had.