“Luka! Luka!" 

Matthew's voice finally found its way to Luka's eardrums. For a brief moment, Luka was numb. His struggles and efforts to be accepted by a fraternity lost one of its core values. The guy he was running away from stood right the opposite of him. 

"Isn't that the d'Auvrecher dude you had a fight with?" asked Matthew. 

"Yeah," Luka blinked a few times. "Yeah, that's him." 

Matthew grabbed Brayden's sleeve. "Brayden, how did this happen?" he asked. "Luka is trying to avoid him and now he joins forces with Gamma?”

"Beats me," Brayden looked astounded as well. "He never showed up to Delta's house." 

"What about Bashar?" asked Luka. 

"Bashar? You mean the rich ghoul?" replied Brayden. "He's Gamma's legacy. Of course he's going to pledge Gamma." 

"You know all about that?" 

Brayden surprisingly just laughed. "It's not too late to unpledge yourself, kid." 

Seeing the anxiety in Luka's face only made Brayden grinned wider, "Go on. Prove me right. You may have the same genetics with your cousins, but you don't have the same guts. Gutless boys can never call themselves a Delta. Not on my watch." 

Luka snapped back to his normal self. No, he couldn’t let this vampire ruin his plan. Finlay’s tactic might just backfire, but everything else still stood. He would be a Delta Pi Kappa even if it meant Raoul would be a Gamma Theta Pi.

He was just going to clap back when each group began chanting their songs and marched outside the stadium. They were carried away by their own fraternities to their houses where they threw a party, celebrating the new era. 

Becoming a pledge took Luka's mind off of the crazy turn of events. After the party, all eight of them had to clean up the house. In the morning, the pledges were gathered in Delta house’s common room. They were dressed in formal wear, standing together circling Kiowa while carrying an unlit candle.

Stickman told them to close their eyes, then began opening the event that turned out to be the big brother ceremony. After three minutes of explaining this ritual, he finally told them to turn around and open their eyes. Matthew nearly smiled from ear to ear as he met Gin’s sneaky eyes. Meanwhile, Luka was faced with a soft and friendly bistre face. Ohini.

The big brothers were instructed to lit the pledges’ candle with their own. And then Kiowa led the pledges to recite an oath. As Luka followed Kiowa’s guidance, he glanced at the other boys peeping in from the threshold. Brayden was one of them. Impossible! How did he not get to choose a little brother?

After the ceremony was over, they were allowed to talk to their assigned big brothers. Luka used this chance to thank Ohini for choosing him, while Ohini straight up told him the five things he wanted from him. Unexpectedly, the fifth thing he wanted from him was to forget about Daisy.

“Werewolves mate forever,” he explained. “And werewolves live twice, even sometimes thrice, as long as mortals. You will suffer if you’re fixed on one girl when you’re only eighteen.”

He’d love to clarify how Tante Annemarie and Onkel Lasse had met on their first year in Erebus, but he didn’t want to argue with his big brother five minutes after he got him. Besides, Ohini just proved his mom’s theory despite the reasoning difference.

And then they started learning the meaning behind the Greek letters. And then the secret handshake. And then the password. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff to learn. It's a university anyway. 

Once they returned to Olympus Hall, it all came back to haunt Luka. 

“Hey,” Castor greeted him just when he entered their room. "Is everything okay? Finlay told me about what he said to you. He regrets it now, so should you." 

"Yeah, yeah, everything’s under control," Luka sat on his bed, looking like complete shambles. "For now. It’s still pretty… Is that a squirrel?" 

Castor opened his palms and showed a squirrel in his hands. "He's been sneaking in here from the window," he answered. "I have no food to give him. I only got some warmth from my hands." 

Luka pulled out the drawer of his desk and handed him a bag of almond nuts. 

"Thanks," Castor gave the squirrel a handful of it. The squirrel frantically nibbled the nut. He looked back at Luka, “So after the historic Brayden versus Mohan, there will be a new vicious rivalry, huh? Luka versus Raoul?”

“No, I won’t let it come to that,” assured Luka. “We’ll be two different guys in two different fraternities who are active at two different times. It’s not like we’re gonna bump into each other all the time.”

“I hope you’re right.”

Luka also hoped for the same thing. He's glad his cousins introduced him to Delta. He's glad the Delta guys liked him. He's glad that he was accepted. But why would that vampire follow him rushing for a fraternity? He must be a special kind of coward having all that power and still looking for more. 

After returning the squirrel back to the tree outside their window, Castor went out to see his incubus friends while Luka had to attend his class. They both waited in front of the elevator as Castor had to get used to walking instead of teleporting. After it dinged, the doors opened. He stared straight to Ariane's yellow eyes. 

"Oh, party's over?" she asked as her cousin walked in. "Hi, Castor." 

"Hey, Ariane," Castor smiled. "Did you put some lipstick on? Looks great." 

"Thank you," again, Ariane blushed. She looked down. "Nice shoes." 

Luka just pretended he wasn't listening to all that. The elevator went down while he wished for it to go straight to the ground floor so he didn't have to be the third wheel. 

The doors opened again. Finlay and Emily did not expect to see them in the elevator and so did they. 

"Oh hey, guys," Emily came in. The sparkles in her eyes dulled when she caught the pin on Luka’s navy argyle sweater. "Well, well, congrats on pledging, Luka." 

"Thank you, Emily," answered Luka. 

"You guys met before?" asked Ariane. “How come you never told me about this?”

“’Cause I don’t want you to ask me when,” Emily grinned. "It's surprisingly embarrassing, even for my taste." 

"Nothing’s more surprising to me than seeing all of ya know each other," Finlay spoke up. 

"Oh yeah, Emily, this is Finlay," said Luka. "He's my classmate. And this is Castor, my roommate." 

"And guys, this is Emily," Ariane continued. "She's my classmate and Matthew's sister." 

"You're Matthew's sister? Can you read my mind too?" asked Castor. "Or better not. I may never let you get out of my mind if you do." 

This time Emily blushed while answering that yes, she could do the mind talk too. Luka leaned over to Finlay and whispered, "How is he always in love with every girl he just meets?" 

"He's an incubus, mate, it's his job," answered Finlay. Emily glanced at him. He waved, "Hi. Pleased to meet yer acquaintance." 

"Aha, you're the Bae guy!" Emily beamed. Luka burst out laughing. 

"Of all the things he could tell ya about me, he chose that story," Finlay rolled his eyes. "If he were here, I'm gonna..." 

"Ding!" 

"Heeeeey... what have we here? " Matthew opened his arms seeing them.

The elevator became noisy now that they all met. They were still babbling when they arrived at the lobby as if there were no other people around them. The commotion went down when the bell of announcement rang. 

“Good afternoon, fellow Erebuzzers,” this time a guy made the announcement. “It will be a pleasantly warm day today with 65 degrees. And the night will be cool with light precipitation and the rise of the harvest moon. Yes, you heard that folks, there will be full moon tonight. I repeat, there will be full moon tonight.”

Luka and Ariane quickly sifted at each other.

“To all freshman werewolves, please report to Miss Wakefield regarding your vault,” continued the announcer. “To all upper class werewolves, please get ready at Full Moon Forest at 5 pm and report to Hank Barnes.”

“Vault?” asked Emily.

“It’s our safe house,” explained Luka. “It’s like a cage in which our full moon form will be contained. They said it’s a super safe alien technology. There’s nothing to worry about.”

“What about werecats?” asked Matthew. “They don’t have to go to The Vaults? No, wait, don’t answer me. They didn’t warn the werecats. My bad, my bad.”

“You saw yourself how Mohan transformed, did it involve full moon?” asked Luka.

“Wait, that’s his full moon transformation?” Matthew had a goosebump. “How the fuck are we still alive?”

“Thanks to Brayden and Sanzhar, I guess,” Luka shrugged. He chuckled seeing Matthew holding himself, surprised with his luck.

“If it’s super safe, do you think they’ll let me visit you in The Vaults?” Emily asked the cousins. “I’m dying to see your fursona.”

“And that’s what you’ll be doing if you visit us,” Ariane hooked her arm on Emily’s shoulder. “Dying.”

“Full moon form is not a fursona,” Matthew yapped. “And it’s surely not something you should be swooning about.”

Luka chuckled. He then pat Ariane’s arm. “We gotta go to class now. Text me if you wanna report to Miss Wakefield.”

“Okay.”

They parted ways. Castor spread his wings and blasted off into the open air. Finlay was going to fly too, but Luka pulled him back so he’d walk with the rest of them.

After class, Luka and Ariane went to check in on Miss Wakefield, where she required them to sign on some kind of roll call sheet. The number they signed on was the number of their vault. She also reminded them to be in Maeda Hall, where The Vaults was located, before six p.m., although the full moon would rise around 7:26.

“Is there a way that I can get a more secure vault?” asked Luka to the staff. “Because I don’t think my wolf will like being in a cage like that.”

Miss Wakefield just scoffed, “It’s the most secure place on Earth and Odevlar, love. You have nothing to worry about.”

It was 5:22 when Luka texted Ariane. She told him that she was at The Hub, handing out flyers for her activism club. Because The Hub was closer to Maeda Hall, he strode down the lane to pick her up. 

And he saw it. Just after a group of girls passed in front of him, Ariane's face came into his sight. She was standing uptight with tense shoulder and sharp glare against a taller figure wearing all black. His face was as white as the moon. 

Raoul d'Auvrecher.