Page 11 of Lured By Shadows

I headed for the door without looking back. His cologne followed me, though. And his voice… God, his voice. Smooth and rough all at once, silk dragged over something coarse.

It made me wonder how long I could keep walking away before my mind caught up and pushed me into doing something reckless. Something akin to pulling him into a dark corner and forgetting every good decision I had ever made. Logically, I knew better. Still, a quiet, persistent thought lingered that one night with him would change everything, ruin me in the best possible way. He felt like the type who wouldn’t just make you cum. He’d make you forget who you’d been before.

I swallowed, warmth rising in my face as I stepped into the hallway.

The space outside barely resembled the quiet corridor from earlier. It had transformed into something alive, filled with movement and noise. Students spilled from doorways in loose groups, voices overlapping, shoes scraping against polished stone. Laughter echoed off the walls, blending with rushed conversations and the brisk rhythm of footsteps heading in every direction.

It reminded me that this place wasn’t ordinary. Prestige lingered in the air, subtle but undeniable. Everyone here seemed to belong, either through bloodline or brilliance, and most carried themselves as though they knew exactly which one applied.

Some moved with easy confidence, dressed well, their relaxed posture suggesting the world had always made space for them. Others walked with purpose, books clutched close and focus keen, carrying the weight of effort that had earned them their place. And then there was me, caught somewhere in between, a stranger in more ways than one, trying not to get swallowed by it all.

“How will you survive this semester with all these wild animals around you, lost lamb?”

His voice cut through the noise effortlessly, low and steady, and a quiet shiver traced down my spine. I kept walking, pretending I hadn’t heard him, as though his words hadn’t landed or stirred anything at all. Why did everything he said sound vaguely threatening and hot at the same time?

The hallway blurred as I focused on putting real distance between us. I refused to let him sidetrack me again, no matter how his scent lingered or how his voice wrapped around something far too purposeful for someone I had only just met.

I heard him chuckle behind me, soft and amused in a way that made it seem as though he could read everything I was trying to hide and actually enjoyed it. I picked up my pace without thinking, weaving through the students ahead.

It didn’t matter, though.

He closed the distance effortlessly.

One moment, he was behind me; the next, he was in front, walking backward with impossible ease, his gaze locked onto mine.

“How?” I asked softly.

He extended his arm. “Hold onto me.”

It wasn’t a question. It was an invitation wrapped in certainty, and it made my knees waver despite myself. His smile wasn’t arrogant, but it was knowing and strangely intimate.

For one unsettling second, I almost did it. Almost reached out and let the pull take over before common sense snapped back into place.

Then I noticed the space around us.

Students curved around him in a near-perfect arc, as though there were an invisible boundary none of them dared cross. It was eerie in a way that settled deeper the longer I looked. Not because they avoided him, but because they did it so instinctively, as though it were routine.

A strange sense of relief settled in my chest at the space it gave me, but it twisted quickly into unease. People didn’t make room like that without a reason, and the fact that no one questioned it made it worse.

I was still trying to process it when a blur of motion cut straight through the invisible line and stopped inches from me. The stranger circled me once, slow and measured, as though he were inspecting something unfamiliar. His eyes gleamed with restless curiosity, his grin stretching a little too wide.

“And here she is,” he hummed brightly.

Great. There were two of them.

“Hush now, Rupert,” Culver murmured, his tone calm and almost indulgent, as though he were soothing something unpredictable.

“I’m behaving.” Rupert’s attention snapped to him, his grin sharpening with recognition before flicking back to me. “What’s your name, little one?”

He stood taller than me, his head tilted slightly, his posture loose but alert. Only then did I realize my hand had found Culver’s sleeve, gripping it tightly without me even noticing.

“Ira,” I said, my voice quieter than I intended.

Rupert blinked, then inhaled sharply, stopping his circling. “Then it’s settled, right?”

Before I could fully react, Culver placed a hand lightly on my head. I felt it, not just the electricity of his palm but also something beneath it. My spine stiffened with awareness even though part of me wanted to melt into the touch.

“She is here to stay, brother,” Culver replied, a faint smirk touching his lips as his eyes met mine.