CHAPTER 2

KATHERINE. It took me three trips to get all of my bags from the steps of my hall to my room’s door and it had ‘not’ been a breeze. I had dismissed the signboard before the first flight of stairs in the stairwell that said ‘NO SUPER SPEED IN THE STAIRWELL’ and proceeded to go up the stairs at super speed during my first trip. I ended up running into a wolf statue that had been placed on the second landing and it had felt ‘awful’. If you thought that would have been enough for me to learn my lesson, it wasn’t. While going downstairs during my second trip, I decided to use super speed again because I felt I understood the layout well enough then. I ended up stopping too soon and too fast on the first flight of stairs and fell down the remaining steps like a fool. Thankfully, no one had witnessed both incidents but I still felt quite sore from them. I heaved a sigh as I placed the final bag next to the rest beside my door before pulling my student ID out of my packet. Since my room was a two-man room, I had a roommate, and I couldn’t help but wonder what they were like as I pressed my ID to the card reader on the door. The light on the reader flashed from blue to green while making a clicking sound and I returned my ID to my pocket before opening the door. The first thing I registered was the scent of vanilla, jasmine and bergamot before seeing the room’s interior and it was… Wow. The floor was marble while the walls were a cream color with gold-leaf leaves climbing up and down, and the things on opposite sides of the ‘huge’ room were identical. Two luxurious king-size beds on a raised platform, two makeup vanities, two ornate desks with matching swivel chairs, two bookshelves and two wardrobes with shoe racks attached to them. There were even chaise lounges and coffee tables. The only single thing in the room was a dark gray grandfather clock which was between two large windows with fabric curtains that were pulled open to show the forest outside. Surrounded by all this finery, I couldn’t help but wonder what the university’s tuition was. I then realized that I had skipped over the girl who was sitting at the vanity on the left side of the room and she was currently watching me through the mirror with slightly furrowed brows. “Hi?” she said. “Uh, hi,” I replied, plastering a smile on my face. “Hi, I’m Katherine.” I mentally smacked myself for saying ‘hi’ twice while she tipped her head to the side before turning in her seat to face me. She had a regal bearing. High, delicate cheekbones, golden brown skin, brown eyes that brought hearth-sipped hot cocoa to memory, and curly black hair. “Lenore…” She still looked confused and my brain finally processed why she was. “I’m your roommate.” “Oh.” The confusion slipped off her face before a warm smile took over. “Welcome,” she said and I returned her smile. “Thank you.” “Sorry about that. I wasn’t expecting you. I didn’t think I was going to have a roommate,” she added and I couldn’t blame her for thinking that seeing as I was showing up two weeks after the semester started. “Oh, that’s fine.” I began to carry my bags into the room. “Do you need help?” “Ah.” The bags weren’t much but I didn’t want to turn down the only person I knew here so far. “Yes.” She immediately headed for the door and we both brought the rest of the bags in. After shutting the front door, I took in the room again and it was clear that the left side of the room belonged to Lenore. The bed on the right side wasn’t made and as I opened my mouth to ask her where the bedding was, I realized that she was carrying two of my bags over to a door on the right side which I just noticed. Actually, there were two doors on the right side and each was on the far end of the right side. She dropped the bags next to the wardrobe before opening the door and gesturing inside while I walked over to her. The room had a small wardrobe, a full-length mirror, an armchair and a door at the left end. “Here’s your dressing room. That door leads to the bathroom – we share a bathroom. You can lock my door from the inside when you’re in it. Your bedding is in the wardrobe and uh… that’s about it.” She turned to face me. “If you have any questions, you can ask me. I’ll leave you to settle in.” “Thanks.” The smile I gave her this time was genuine and she nodded before returning to her side of the room. I then spent the next couple of minutes arranging my clothes in the wardrobe while Lenore read a book on her bed. When I was done with my clothes and about to start with the shoes, she broke the silence. “Have you had lunch?” My stomach rumbled at that, as if awoken by the word ‘lunch’, and heat rushed to my face while she shot me a smile. “No.” I hadn’t eaten anything today. I had been pissed that I was coming to Blackwood when I woke up this morning and refused to eat the breakfast Aunt Vivian made. “I’m going to get something from the cafeteria. Do you wanna come with me or should I bring something for you?” “The latter. please,” I replied because I didn’t want to leave what I was doing halfway and she nodded. She got off her bed and put on a pair of shoes before walking over to the door. “What do you want?” “Uh, a sandwich?” “Sure.” She walked out of the room and the moment the door shut behind her, I heaved a sigh, basking in finally being alone. Nothing against Lenore, she was quite nice, but I sort of needed this moment. My younger brother, Kit, came to mind and my heart squeezed in my chest because I hadn’t seen him before I left home in the morning. Aunt Vivian’s husband had thought it would be a good idea to take him for an outing because he knew Kit would scream and cry when he found out that I was leaving. I had done the screaming and crying in his stead when the asshole said they wouldn’t be coming back to the pack till evening. I grabbed my phone and sent Aunt Vivian a curt message, telling her I wanted to speak to my brother this night, before I resumed arranging my things. When I was finally done, I took a long hot shower in the luxurious bathroom and like the bedroom, Lenore and I had our sides but we shared the shower and bathtub. Lenore was back in the room when I walked into it and there were two brown paper bags on her coffee table. “Katherine,” she said when she looked up from her phone, her eyes twinkling, and I raised my brows. “Do you want to go to the bonfire tonight?” “Bonfire?” “The student body is throwing a new semester party next to Clearberry Lake around ten. Everyone’s going to be there.” It was clear that she would be attending it and after everything I’d been through, it would be nice to have a distraction. It would also be nice to make friends since I was probably going to be in Blackwood for a while and if I was lucky, just maybe... I'd meet my mate there. “Sure.”