A World Made of Lies

Marcus Hale's silence was alive, a suffocating presence that closed in on me from all sides. The familiar groans of the dorm—a far door slamming, the thrum of the radiator—seemed to be occurring in another universe. My universe had shrunk to the four walls of this room, a room which had always been my sanctuary and was now a cell. A cell shared with a monster who wore the face of my best friend. The words echoed, senseless and yet horribly intelligible: Alpha. Pack. Territory. Pet. My mind, once comforted by reason and order, was a wasteland of shattered certainties. I stared at the space where Marcus had been, my entire body shaking with sudden, uncontrollable shudder. I was prey. The realization was a shard of ice in my belly. Marcus hadn't attacked Adrian; he had marked me.

Slowly, as if through water, Adrian turned to face me. The predatory, aggressive energy he had used on Marcus was replaced, but what remained behind was almost worse. He was shattered. The weight of his secret, now out, seemed to break him, etching new lines of pain and exhaustion into his young face. At that moment, he was old, burdened by a world I could not see. His storm-cloud eyes, now filled with a pleading expression, met mine. "Ethan," he began, his voice trembling. "Please. Let me explain." I stepped back, automatically, until the cold wall hit my shoulders. The movement was instinctive, a primitive flinch from a perceived threat, and it hit him harder than any blow could have. A wave of pain crossed his face. He held his hands out in a gesture of peace, of surrender. "I'm not going to hurt you. I would never, ever hurt you. You have to believe that."

"Believe you?" The words tumbled out in a strangled whisper, full of a bitterness I didn't know I possessed. "How am I supposed to believe anything? My whole life, our whole friendship. has it all been a lie?" The question hung there, tainted and cruel. I thought of all the memories we had shared: scraped knees in his backyard, all-night study sessions, easy friendship that I had held above all else. Had he been keeping this secret all along? Had every laugh, every conversation, every moment of comfort been tainted by this giant lie? "No," he said, his voice thick with emotion. "No, our friendship is the only real thing in my life. Everything else. this. is what I was born to. It's not something I chose." He took a cautious step closer, and I fought not to run. "What you guessed out. what Marcus said. it's true. I'm a werewolf. We all are." He said the word—werewolf—and the last vestiges of my denial crumbled into dust, leaving behind a cold, hard fear.

My family, my heritage… we're Lycans," he went on, his words tumbling out in a rush, as if he feared I'd flee before he could tell me everything. "Marcus's pack is ruled by another family. We've been fighting for generations. I'm the next in line for my pack's Alpha position. In a few months, my twenty-first birthday, I'm supposed to officially take on the title. That's why Marcus is here. He's contesting my right, attempting to demonstrate I'm not worthy to lead. He's attempting to create chaos." He waved a vague hand at his own body. "An Alpha's power is bound to his pack, to his emotional core. If he can destabilize me, make me appear weak and irresponsible to the Elders… he believes he can take it all." His eyes met mine, and the last, awful piece of the puzzle fell into place. "That's why he's targeting you, Ethan. He knows you're my anchor. He believes if he can harm you, or turn you against me… he can break me." The discovery was a storm, and I was swept under. Werewolves. Alphas. Pack politics. It was the premise of a fantasy novel, not mine.

My head was reeling. I pushed myself harder against the wall, seeking something solid in a world turned liquid. "So the fight in the quad… the 'run' last night… you fought them, didn't you? That's where you got those… those claw marks." He nodded, his jaw set in anger. "They attacked me in the woods. A warning. From Marcus." A wave of chill fear washed over me. He had been injured—badly injured—defending me, defending his secret. And I could feel only a paralyzing fear. I regarded him, really regarded him, and for the first time, I saw the beast beneath the skin of the boy I knew. I saw the impossible strength, the inhuman regrowth, the capacity for violence that I had witnessed myself. The friend who had clasped me in his arms was also the creature who had howled in the woods. The two images in my head fought, incompatible. "Why?" I finally whispered. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"To keep you safe!" he bellowed, his voice raw. "This world, my world, is cruel and deadly. I wanted you to have a normal life, to be safe. Keeping you out of it was the only thing I knew to do. If you knew, you'd be part of it. And once you're in, you can't get out. Look what just happened! He marked you, Ethan. Because of me." He collapsed, defeated, the weight of his failure consuming him. His anguish was a living thing in the room, and a treacherous part of me ached to comfort him. But the fear was stronger. The lies were too huge. My sanctuary had been invaded, my trust shattered, and I was facing a stranger with all my secrets, his secrets big enough to kill us both. I couldn't breathe. The air in the room was too thick with his scent, with his secrets, with his world. I needed to escape.

I pushed myself away from the wall, my body stiff and jerky. I scooped up my keys from my desk and my jacket from its hook by the door. Adrian's head snapped up, his eyes wide with a new panic. "Ethan, where are you going? Don't… please don't run from me." His voice was a physical blow, but I couldn't be halted. I couldn't think there. I couldn't gaze at him without seeing the fangs and claws he was hiding. I needed space. I needed air. I needed a world that made sense again, even if such a world no longer existed. I hit the door and hesitated, my hand on the cold metal of the knob, my back to him. "I don't know who you are anymore," I said, and the words, though uttered softly, rang like a final judgment. I dared not turn around to gaze at him and see the devastation in his face.

I just opened the door and stepped out into the hallway, leaving him to be alone with the remnants of our friendship. I didn't have a clue where I was going; I just knew that I needed to get out.

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