His to Howl, Hers to Ignite Chapter 12: Mingled Breaths

Bella didn’t know what to say. Her throat felt dry, her fingers tightened around the strap of her sketchbook as her eyes flicked from Killian’s smirk to Luca’s warning stare.

"I’m going back to my room," she said finally, her voice quiet but steady.

Neither boy moved.

The air between them tensed, charged with challenge, none willing to back down. Killian tilted his head, his expression unreadable now, like he was studying her with new eyes.

But Luca stood firm, his shoulders square and his jaw clenched in a firm line. His stare wasn’t just protective, it was possessive. Like he already considered her sothing that needed shielding, from predators like Killian.

For a mont, it was like the hallway existed only for the three of them. But they were drawing attention now; students were beginning to pause and stare, watching their drama unfold.

"More drama. Like the one I had in the bathroom and class this morning wasn’t enough already," Bella lanted to herself.

"Sorry, did you say sothing?" Killian asked.

"I said I’m tired of the drama already, and I’ll need you two to leave alone now."

Then Bella turned on her heel and walked away, her footsteps echoing against the floor. She didn’t look back.

She could feel the weight of stare from them both behind her, one burning holes with his eyes at the back of her head, but the other was on his heels already, chasing after her.

"Bella, wait!" Luca called.

Bella didn’t say a word as Luca fell into step beside her. In three long strides, he’d caught up. For a second, she wondered if he was going to call her out for being near Killian again.

But he didn’t.

Instead, he reached over and casually tugged the sketchbook strap from her tight grip, letting it settle onto his own shoulder like it was his.

Bella blinked, caught off guard.

"What are you doing?"

"Helping you carry your bag, obviously."

"You didn’t have to—"

"It looked heavy," he said. "You were strangling the strap."

She hadn’t even noticed. Her hand flexed at her side with her fingers curling around nothing now.

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, and there was sothing softer there than she’d seen before.

"What do you even want from ?"

"I didn’t like the way he was looking at you," he said after a pause, his voice low and steady.

Bella exhaled, unsure if she was grateful or annoyed. "You were looking at too. In fact, yours was creepier. If anything, I should stay away from you. At least Killa approached like a decent person would."

A small smile tugged at his lips.

"What? What’s funny?"

"Nothing. Just that you pronounced his na as ’Killa’ instead of ’Killian.’"

"Killa, Killian—whatever. Fact remains, I’d pick him over you. There’s sothing unsettling about you, and can you stop staring at like that?"

"Difference between us is," Luca murmured, "when I look at you... I see you," he said placing more emphasis on see.

That made her stop.

She turned slightly toward him, studying his face. He wasn’t smirking like Killian, and he wasn’t trying to impress her. He just stood there, tall and frustratingly calm, as though he hadn’t just said sothing that crawled under her skin and made her feel unease.

Bella felt her pulse jamming in her throat.

"You barely know ," she said, narrowing her eyes a little. "What do you an by you see ?"

Luca gave a half-shrug. "I see you beyond what everyone else sees."

They stood like that for so minutes, she looking up at him, he watching her like he was indeed seeing sothing deeper than everyone else.

"I should walk away from this conversation, but my curiosity is getting the better part of . What do you see when you look at ?"

Luca stepped closer, gently brushing a loose strand of hair behind Bella’s ear. His fingers lingered for the briefest second against her cheek, carefully, as if she were sothing fragile he didn’t want to break.

"When I look at you," he said quietly, "I see soone who doesn’t want to be noticed. You don’t want to draw any attention to yourself at all. But your eyes... they tell on you."

Bella blinked, heart stuttering in her chest.

"You act like you don’t care what people think too," he went on. "But you do. A bit too much for your own good. You pretend you want to be invisible, in fact, you want to be invisible, but you’ve got the kind of soul that was made to be known. You’re capable of so much more than you could ever know. You were not made to hide in the shadows, Bella. You will give light to the shadows."

His words were low, truth just pouring gently into the air between them. It silenced her.

"Your eyes also scream of pain. Betrayal. Sadness. Who hurt you, mi Bella?"

"That’s enough. What do you think you are, a soul reader?" she asked, brushing his fingers away.

He stepped back half a pace, giving her room to breathe again. "I didn’t an to freak you out."

Bella swallowed, her throat suddenly tight. "You didn’t." Then, guessing he could probably read her mind and know she was lying, she added, "Well, maybe a little."

Luca smiled, slow and knowing. "Co with . I want to show you sothing."

"What?" she asked, wary. "Another of your superpowers?"

He chuckled. "I don’t have any superpowers, at least none that would be totally foreign to you."

"Okay, you’re saying a lot of weird things this afternoon. And I’m not even sure I want to decode what you an." She hesitated. "Why would I follow you anywhere?"

"Because I want you to, and trust , you’d really want to see this," he said, walking backward now, still holding her sketchbook. "Co on, Bella. You can keep the exit in view the whole ti. I won’t trap you."

She narrowed her eyes, heart warring with caution. This was stupid. She barely knew him. He was intense and strange. Very strange. Everything logical was screaming at her not to go.

But she was curious.

And right now, her curiosity was louder than caution.

"Fine," she muttered, adjusting her bag. "But if you murder , my spirit will haunt you."

"I’d expect nothing less," he said with a grin.

He led her through the back wing of the school, past a series of old wooden doors and dusty frad photos of past graduates from Whitethorn. The hallway was empty, and Bella’s footsteps slowed as they approached an unmarked room tucked between the archives and a locked faculty lounge.

Luca unlocked the door with a small key from around his neck.

"What is this place?" she asked, stepping into a small room that slled like paint and chemicals.

"My hideout," he said simply.

As she walked further in, the room spread out larger than she expected. Light poured from a row of overhead bulbs, keeping the room just bright enough to clearly see the canvases that were lined up on the walls, so stacked, so pinned, others leaned against bookcases.

Bella stood frozen in the doorway.

"You painted all these?" she asked, incredulously.

Luca nodded, setting her sketchbook on a stool. "Yeah."

She walked slowly, drawn forward as if the art itself was calling her. Each piece was stranger and more beautiful than the previous one.

He drew wolves, mostly. So were howling at full moons, so were sprinting through endless forests, others were snarling and majestic. But there was more. Packs curled together in sleep. A single alpha standing alone on a cliff. Wolves with eyes like humans. So shifting mid-form, half-human, half-beast. So blurred with movent like they were caught in motion.

Then, near the corner, she paused.

"Is that the school?"

"Yeah," he said, coming to stand beside her.

The painting was of Whitethorn, but this seed very real.

"The school looks older and... wilder here. Like sothing out of a dream. It doesn’t look like this now."

"Yes it doesn’t. I painted it from the picture of it in my head," Luca said. "It once looked like this. Maybe it will again."

Bella turned to him slowly. "I think I prefer how the school looks in your painting."

"Thanks," he muttered under his breath.

"Why do you choose to draw wolves?"

He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he looked at one of the paintings, a pack gathered beneath a blood-red moon, stretching in the dim light provided by it.

"They’re misunderstood," he said finally. "Most people only see the teeth."

Bella looked at him, the way he said it, like he felt compassion for them.

"You see them... differently?" she said.

He nodded. "Yes. They’re not just so creatures looking to devour, unless the need be, of course, but they have feelings. They’re graceful. They stand out. And they look for every way possible to express themselves. Which isn’t possible most tis. That’s why I draw. To show these feelings."

"I have hundreds of paintings like these. But I think you’ve seen enough for our first eting. I’ll show you more when the ti is right."

"I just..." He stepped closer until their breaths mingled.

"Luca..."