Chapter 20 Twenty
Fear settled over the room like a suffocating fog.
No one moved.
No one breathed.
Koda’s laughter echoed off the walls—low, unhinged, wrong. It wasn’t the laugh of a boy enjoying chaos. It was the laugh of something that had waited a very long time to be heard.
Whispers broke out in shaky murmurs.
“What’s going on…?”
“Why is he laughing like that?”
“That’s not Koda…”
Harper’s chest tightened. Every instinct in her screamed that the boy standing in front of them wasn’t the same one who had been kissing her minutes ago.
Koda tilted his head back, laughter spilling freely now, his shoulders shaking. When he finally lowered his face, his smile was sharp—too sharp.
“You dare cage me for so long,” he said.
The voice that came out of his mouth didn’t belong to him.
It was deeper. Older. Layered, as if more than one voice spoke at once.
A chill ripped through the room.
The rogue beast froze mid-step, its wild eyes suddenly clearing. It lowered its massive head, ears flattening—not in aggression, but submission.
“Come, my great creation,” Koda said softly.
The beast obeyed.
It padded toward him and dropped to the floor, bowing its head at his feet.
Harper’s eyes widened, horror flooding her veins.
Creation?
Kai snapped out of his shock.
“Everyone—run!” he shouted, his voice cracking with urgency. “Get out now!”
Panic exploded.
Students screamed, shoving past each other toward the doors, overturning chairs and tables in their desperation to escape. Someone tripped. Someone cried. Someone was sobbing hysterically.
Harper turned to run—
But a blur of movement cut her off.
Wind blasted through the room as Koda vanished from where he stood and reappeared in front of the exit. The doors slammed shut with a deafening bang, the impact rattling the walls. Several students were thrown backward by the force alone.
Hair whipped around faces. Glass shattered somewhere.
“Not so fast, wolves,” he said calmly.
The scream that followed was pure terror.
Kai staggered forward, his heart hammering painfully in his chest.
“No… no, no, no,” he whispered.
This was his fault.
He had known this could happen.
He had warned Koda.
Harper stood frozen, her mind racing as she stared at him—really stared.
His posture was different. Confident in a way that wasn’t natural. His presence felt heavy, like gravity itself bent toward him. The air around him seemed darker, thicker.
“Koda?” she called, her voice barely audible.
His head snapped toward her.
For a split second, something flickered in his eyes—something familiar. Something human.
Then it vanished.
He smiled at her, slow and knowing.
“Oh, little wolfless one,” he said softly. “He feels so much when you’re near. It makes controlling him… interesting.”
Harper’s blood ran cold.
“What did you do to him?” she whispered.
Kai stepped in front of her instinctively, fists clenched, eyes blazing despite the fear clawing at his spine.
“You get out of him,” Kai growled. “You don’t belong here.”
Koda laughed again, shaking his head.
“Still so brave,” he mocked. “You always were, Kai. Even when you watched them lock me away.”
Kai’s jaw tightened.
“You’re not supposed to be awake,” Kai said, voice shaking now. “You were sealed. Father made sure of it.”
“Ah yes,” the thing inside Koda purred. “Your dear Alpha father. Such a fool, thinking chains and rituals could erase me.”
Harper’s breath caught.
Inside him.
This thing wasn’t controlling Koda.
It was inside him.
“What… what are you?” Harper asked.
The smile faded.
And for the first time, his expression turned dark.
“I am what was taken from him,” he said. “What he was never allowed to become.”
Koda’s body twitched suddenly, his hands curling into fists.
“No…” Koda’s real voice broke through for a fraction of a second. “Harper… run—”
His eyes flashed violently—
Yellow. Red. Yellow. Red.
Kai’s heart dropped into his stomach.
Koda’s eyes blazed as he advanced, the red and yellow flashes of his power casting twisted shadows across the hall. His gaze was locked on Harper, and nothing else mattered.
Kai, still recovering from the previous attack, stumbled forward to block him. “Koda, stop!” he shouted, but the warning barely registered. In one fluid motion, Koda grabbed Kai, lifting him off the ground like he weighed nothing, and slammed him hard onto the floor. Dust and papers flew as Kai groaned, the impact leaving him winded and struggling to rise.
“You think a loser like you can stop me from doing what I want?” Koda’s laugh was low, cruel, and unhinged, echoing across the hall. His eyes scanned frantically for Harper, nostrils flaring, catching her scent like a predator closing in on prey.
Harper’s chest pounded, her hands pressed against her mouth as she tried to steady her breathing. She ducked behind a pillar, pressing herself into the cold wall, hoping he wouldn’t notice her.
“Oh, come on, little wolfless girl,” Koda taunted, pacing slowly but with deadly intent. “I can smell you. Don’t you want to mate with me?” His voice was almost playful, the malice in it making Harper shiver despite herself.
“No… whatever you do, don’t—don’t let him—” Kai gasped, trying to stand, but the pain from being thrown knocked him back down.
Koda didn’t hesitate. He charged at Kai, his leg shooting out like a spear, striking him so forcefully that Kai was sent sliding across the floor, hitting the wall with a sickening thud. Groans of pain and fear echoed as students shrieked, some scrambling for cover, others frozen in terror.
Harper’s grip on the pillar tightened. Her heart raced so fast it felt like it could burst. She barely dared to breathe, terrified that any noise would give her away.
“Come on, dear Harper,” Koda called, his voice low and teasing as he began pacing in her direction. “I won’t hurt you… not really.”
The hallway seemed to shrink with every step he took. The lights cast jagged shadows across the walls, Koda’s figure looming larger than life. The students nearby squeaked and scuttled back, trying to find safety from his terrifying presence.
Harper’s lungs felt like they were on fire as she held her breath, but slowly, the noise around her dimmed. Koda had stopped moving. Silence hung in the air, broken only by the faint sound of her heartbeat. She dared a shaky exhale.
And then she turned—and froze.
Koda was standing right in front of her. His eyes glowed with that terrifying mixture of yellow and red, his smile wide, sharp, and almost inhuman. The hallway around them seemed to blur, the scent of his power and dominance filling her nostrils.
“There you are,” he said, voice low and velvety, yet carrying an undercurrent of menace.
Harper screamed, the sound echoing through the hall.