Bella's POV.

I woke up on the cold floor of the boys' locker room, and every part of my body ached. My head felt heavy, and my neck throbbed with a pain I had never felt before.

I reached up slowly and touched the spot where his teeth had sunk into my skin. The mark was raised and warm under my fingers, and the second I remembered how it got there, my whole body went stiff with fear.

I tried to sit up too fast, and the room spun around me. My arms shook, and I felt myself tipping sideways toward the hard tile floor.

Before I could fall, strong hands caught me under the arms and lifted me up like I weighed nothing at all. I blinked hard until my eyes could focus, and there he was. Dominic.

He was already fully dressed again, standing over me with his arms crossed and his gray eyes locked on my face. He looked calm on the outside, but I could see the way his jaw kept clenching, like he was holding something back.

For a long moment, neither of us said a word. I sat there on the bench where he had placed me, and he stood a few feet away, watching me like he was waiting for me to break apart.

When he finally spoke, his voice came out flat and hard, the same voice I remembered from the mating ceremony.

"You're my mate," he said. "I have marked you. There's no need to feel that as a strange thing anymore."

I stared at him. Strange did not even begin to cover what I felt. My heart was still racing, and my neck still burned, and every part of me screamed that something enormous had just happened to my whole life without anyone asking me first.

But underneath his flat tone, I noticed something else. His shoulders were too stiff. His hands were pressed so tightly at his sides that his knuckles had gone pale.

He was not as calm as he wanted me to believe. He wanted me to feel okay, even if he had no idea how to say it the right way.

My fingers drifted back up to the bite mark, and I winced as it itched under my touch. Tears burned behind my eyes, hot and sudden, and I forced them back down before they could fall.

I was not going to cry in front of him again. Not after everything that had already happened to me today.

"Why did you walk away from me at the ceremony?" I asked, my voice shaking more than I wanted it to. "You didn't want me then. Why do you want me now?"

Dominic's jaw tightened even harder, and for a second I thought he would not answer at all. Then he let out a slow breath through his nose.

"I didn't know," he said. "My wolf, I guess he switched to choosing you. I felt different tonight. He doesn't always let me feel the bond right away."

I wrapped my arms around myself and looked down at the floor. None of that made the humiliation from the ceremony disappear. Everyone had seen him walk past me.

Everyone had laughed. And now I was supposed to believe that his wolf had simply changed its mind hours later, like I was something he could decide on twice.

Dominic must have seen the doubt on my face, because he moved closer and knelt down in front of me so we were eye level.

His hand came up under my chin, and he tilted my face up gently, his voice losing some of its hard edge.

"I know what happened with Elias," he said. "I found out what happened with the video. But none of that matters to me now."

My eyes went wide, and for one small second, something warm bloomed in my chest. Someone was telling me the video did not matter. Someone was looking at me like I was not the joke the whole school had decided I was.

But that warmth did not last long. It curled up and died almost as fast as it came, because I had believed someone once before when he told me things that were not true.

I had believed Elias when he said my body was perfect, when he said he wanted to wait for me, when he said I could trust him with anything. Look where that had gotten me.

So I said nothing. I sat there with my lips pressed together, staring past Dominic's shoulder at the row of lockers behind him, and I let the silence stretch out between us.

After a while, Dominic tilted his head, studying me the way someone studies a puzzle they cannot solve.

"Why are you so quiet?" he asked.

I finally looked at him. "Because the last time a boy told me things did not matter, I ended up standing in a hallway while the whole school watched a video of me in my underwear," I said.

"So forgive me if I do not just believe you because you say something pretty."

Something shifted in his expression. It was not anger, and it was not the cold mask he usually wore. It looked almost like he understood, even if he did not know how to say so out loud.

He did not argue with me. He did not try to convince me all over again. He simply nodded once, like he had accepted that trust was something I would decide to give him later, if I ever decided to give it at all.

For a moment his eyes hardened, and the softness from a minute ago drained right out of his face. He straightened up and took a step back, his arms crossing over his chest again, and his voice came out sharper than before.

"You still think you're worthless because of what he did," he said. It was not a question. "You're sitting here doubting everything I say because some coward with a puck for a brain made you feel small."

He said it like the idea itself made him angry, like he could not understand why anyone would ever look at me the way Elias had.

It did not sound gentle. It did not sound kind. But underneath the hard edge in his voice, I could hear something else trying to push through, something that almost sounded like he could not stand the thought of me hurting and did not know any other way to say it than to sound angry about it instead.

He stood up and reached down to help me to my feet. My legs still felt shaky, but his grip on my hand was steady, and I let him guide me toward the locker room door.

When we reached it, he stopped and looked back at me, his gray eyes searching my face like he was trying to memorize it.

"You'll come to the pack house tonight," he said. "We really need to talk. Bella."

He paused, and something in his voice softened just enough for me to notice. "I won't allow anyone to ever humiliate you again. I promise you that."

Before I could find any words to answer him, he turned and walked away, leaving me standing alone by the door with my hand still tingling from his touch.

I watched him go until he disappeared around the corner, and then I let out a long, shaky breath. My neck still throbbed. My mind still spun with everything he had said and everything he had not explained.

I did not know what it meant to be someone's mate. I did not know if the mark on my neck made me his forever, or if this was just another way for a boy to make promises he would break the second things got hard.

I pushed through the locker room door and stepped out into the cool evening air, and I started walking home.

My legs carried me forward on their own, one step after another, while my thoughts stayed stuck on everything that had happened since that morning. The video. The ceremony. The bite.

I kept touching the mark without meaning to, feeling the raised skin under my fingers every few minutes, and every time I did, I heard Dominic's voice again in my head. No one will ever humiliate you again.

I wanted so badly to believe him. Some small, stubborn part of me wanted to hold onto those words like they actually meant something.

Maybe this was my chance to be seen as more than a joke. Maybe this was my chance to finally matter to someone who would not throw me away the second it became convenient.

By the time I turned onto my street, the sky had gone dark, and the porch light outside my house cast a soft yellow glow over the front steps.

I slowed down as I got closer, confused by the sound of laughter drifting toward me. My mother's laughter. And underneath it, a second voice, low and familiar in a way that made my stomach drop before my mind even caught up.

I stopped walking completely when I saw him standing on my own porch, leaning against the railing like he belonged there, smiling at my mother as if he had not destroyed my entire life just that morning.

Elias.

His eyes lifted and found mine across the yard, and his grin stretched wider, slow and mocking, like he already knew exactly how much seeing him there would hurt.

"I heard you got claimed by the new Alpha," he called out, loud enough for the whole street to hear. "I guess you finally got lucky, poor girl.

Bella's POV.

I stood outside the Northwood Pack House with my arms wrapped tight around myself, staring up at the tall stone walls glowing faintly under the porch lights.

My stomach twisted with every step I took toward the front doors. A guard met me before I even reached them, nodding once like he had been expecting me, and led me inside without a single word.

The halls were wide and quiet, lined with old portraits of past Alphas, and my sneakers felt too loud against the polished floor. By the time we reached a heavy wooden door near the end of a long corridor, my palms were damp with sweat.

The guard knocked twice, then pushed the door open and stepped aside to let me through.

Dominic's quarters were bigger than I expected, with a large bed against the far wall and smooth dark furniture that looked like it had never once been touched by mess or clutter.

The window on the other side of the room was cracked open, letting in a cool breeze, and Dominic stood in front of it with his back to me, his shoulders set and still.

He turned the moment the door clicked shut behind me, and my breath caught in my throat. He was not wearing his mask.

I had only ever seen his full face twice before, once at the ceremony under bright lights and again in the locker room while my mind was too scattered with fear to really look.

But now, standing there in the soft glow of his bedroom, I let my eyes travel slowly across every part of his face.

His jaw was sharp and strong, his gray eyes even more intense up close, and near the edge of his jaw, I noticed a faint mark, small and pale, like an old scar that had healed a long time ago.

I stared a little too long, wondering where it came from and what had put it there.

"What are you looking at?" Dominic snapped, his voice suddenly harsh enough to make me jump.

His eyes had gone sharp, almost defensive, like my staring had touched something he did not want touched. "Do I look that strange to you without the mask?"

I flinched at the sudden change in his tone, my whole body going stiff.

"No," I said quickly, my voice small. "I wasn't trying to— I just noticed a mark near your jaw. I didn't mean anything by it."

He seemed to catch himself then, his jaw tightening as he looked away from me, toward the window.

A few seconds of silence passed before he spoke again, quieter this time, like he was forcing the harshness back down.

"It's nothing," he muttered. He walked over to the small table by his bed and picked up the black mask resting there, turning it over slowly in his hands like it weighed more than it looked.

"My wolf is wild. Harder to control than most. I wear this to keep myself in check. When people can't see my face, they can't read what I'm feeling. It helps me stay steady."

I nodded slowly, watching the way his fingers traced the edge of the mask like it was something he both hated and needed.

I understood more than he probably realized. I knew what it felt like to hide behind something just to survive each day, to build a wall so no one could see how close you were to falling apart.

I did not say any of that out loud. I just let him keep talking, sensing that this was the closest he had come to opening up to anyone in a long time.

He walked slowly around the edge of the room while he spoke, like standing still made the words harder to say.

He told me that his wolf had been different from the moment he was born, stronger and angrier than anything the pack elders had ever seen in a boy his age, and that his father had decided early on that the only answer was control, not comfort.

There had been no gentle lessons, he said, only strict ones. No one had ever taught him how to sit with fear or grief without turning it into something sharp enough to survive on.

The mask, he admitted, started as a punishment tool his father used to make him hide his emotions from the pack, and somewhere along the way it had become the only thing that made Dominic feel safe in his own skin.

Hearing him say it so plainly, without asking for pity, made my chest ache in a way I had not expected.

He set the mask back down and took a step toward me, his hand lifting slightly like he meant to touch my arm.

Before I could stop myself, I flinched hard and pulled back, my whole body bracing on instinct.

The second the flinch happened, something flickered across Dominic's face, quick and sharp, like actual pain had cut through him for a moment.

He covered it fast, his expression sliding back into that familiar cold mask even without the real one in his hands.

He stepped back and crossed his arms tightly over his chest.

"I'm not Elias," he said, his voice low. "I won't hurt you."

Hearing him say it out loud, so plainly, loosened something tight in my chest.

I felt the fear in my body ease, just a little, enough that I reached out first this time and let my fingers brush against his hand.

"I know," I whispered. "I'm just scared. A little."

Dominic looked down at where our hands had almost touched, and something in his shoulders relaxed.

He told me quietly about the nights his wolf clawed at the inside of his chest, desperate to break free, about the years he spent learning to bury every feeling so deep that nothing could slip through the cracks.

He said his father raised him to believe that softness was weakness, that showing anyone your fear only gave them a way to use it against you.

I listened to every word, surprised at how much he was giving me without me even having to ask.

"You don't have to be scared of me," he said finally, his voice calmer now than I had ever heard it.

He reached out again, slower this time, and lifted my hand in his.

My heart pounded as he bent his head and pressed his lips softly against my knuckles. The warmth of it spread all the way up my arm.

"But I need time. I need you to trust me."

I nodded, my chest full of something warm and fragile that I was almost afraid to name.

For the first time since the video, since the ceremony, since everything that had gone wrong that week, I felt something close to safe standing there in his room.

It scared me almost as much as it comforted me, but I let myself hold onto it anyway.

Dominic walked me slowly through the rest of his quarters before I left, pointing out a smaller room connected to his own that he said would be mine whenever I chose to stay.

It had its own bed and a wide dresser, empty and waiting, like he had already planned this before I ever agreed to any of it.

I ran my fingers along the edge of the dresser, trying to imagine my life folded into a space inside his world, and something about the idea felt both terrifying and strangely hopeful at the same time.

When it was finally time for me to leave, Dominic walked me to the door and told me to head straight home, promising he would check on me later.

I stepped out into the hallway alone, my mind still replaying the feel of his lips against my knuckles, when raised voices from somewhere down the corridor stopped me cold.

I froze near a corner, my back pressed instinctively against the wall. The voice was loud, sharp with fury, an older man's voice that carried easily through the stone halls.

"You claimed that chubby girl? The one from the video? You're really willing to embarrass this pack, Dominic?"

My whole body went numb.

I recognized the venom in those words instantly, the same kind of cruelty the whole school had thrown at me just days ago, except this time it came dressed in authority, in a voice that clearly expected to be obeyed.

Then I heard Dominic answer, his tone dropping into something low and dangerous, colder than I had ever heard him speak even to me.

"I want you to know that she is my mate," he said. "Touch her, and I'll destroy you."

My breath caught in my throat.

I did not need to see the man's face to know exactly who he was. Only one person in this pack held enough power to make even Dominic's voice shift like that, hard and warning and afraid all at once.

Dominic's father

Bella's POV.

I walked through the school gates the next morning with my head held higher than it had been in days. My legs still felt a little shaky, but I forced my shoulders back and kept my chin up as I stepped through the iron gates that had swallowed me in shame just a week ago.

A tall guard walked a few steps behind me, quiet and steady, sent by Dominic himself to watch over me. I could feel eyes turning our way almost instantly, whispers rising up around the courtyard like they always did, but this time I refused to let them pull my head down.

"Is that her guard?"

"The Alpha actually assigned someone to follow her around?"

"I heard she trapped him too, just like she tried with Elias."

The words still stung, sharper than I wanted to admit, curling low in my stomach the same way they had the day the video leaked. My body still carried every insecurity those whispers had carved into me, the ones about my curves, my weight, the way I filled out a school uniform differently than most of the other girls.

But I kept walking anyway, one foot in front of the other, because stopping meant letting them win all over again, and I was done giving them that.

"Bella!"

Riley's voice cut through the noise before I even saw her. She came running across the courtyard, her ponytail bouncing, and threw her arms around me so tight I nearly lost my balance.

"I found out! You're the Alpha's mate now! Bella, I am so, so happy for you!"

I hugged her back, laughing despite myself, feeling some of the tension in my chest loosen for the first time all morning. "I still can't believe it myself," I admitted, pulling back to look at her.

"He's just, I don't know, different these days. Colder one moment, softer the next. But I think he's really trying to make something good happen between us."

I told her about the mask, careful to keep my voice low so no one else could hear. I told her how his hands had shaken slightly when he set it down on the table, how his voice had cracked just a little when he talked about his wolf being harder to control than anyone else's.

Riley listened with wide eyes, nodding along like she understood exactly how strange it felt to see someone so powerful turn out to be carrying so much underneath the surface. I did not tell her about the flinch, or the way his face had gone tight with something like pain when I pulled away from his touch.

Some things still felt too fragile to say out loud, even to my best friend.

Riley squealed and pulled a small bag of snacks out of her backpack, pushing it into my hands like a celebration gift. "You deserve every good thing coming your way after everything that happened. I mean it."

Her smile was so genuine it made my throat tighten a little. Not everyone in this school wanted to see me fall apart. At least I still had her.

We had barely taken two steps toward the main building when a shadow fell across our path, and my stomach dropped before I even looked up. Elias stood there, arms crossed, his face twisted with something ugly that had replaced the charm he used to wear so easily.

"So," he said, voice dripping with mockery, "you decided to trap him too, huh? Same little trick you tried with me. Guess it finally worked on someone stupid enough to fall for it."

Heat rushed up my neck, and for a second the old fear tried to climb back into my chest, the same fear that used to make me shrink and apologize just to make him stop looking at me like that.

I opened my mouth to answer him, but before a single word came out, the guard stepped smoothly between us, blocking Elias's view of me completely.

"The Alpha ordered that no one disrespect his mate," the guard said, his voice flat and final, leaving absolutely no room for argument.

Elias's jaw clenched hard, his eyes flicking past the guard's shoulder to glare at me one last time before he let out a low growl and stormed off without another word.

I watched his retreating back, half expecting the fear to come rushing in the way it always had before. Instead, something steadier settled into my chest, warm and a little surprising.

Dominic had done that. He had made sure that even when he wasn't standing right beside me, I would not have to face Elias's cruelty completely alone.

Riley squeezed my hand once he was gone, her voice dropping low and serious for the first time all morning. "You didn't even flinch that time," she said, watching my face carefully. "A week ago you would have looked at the ground the second he opened his mouth."

She was right, and it surprised me too, how much steadier I felt standing my ground instead of shrinking away from it. Something about having someone in my corner, even a silent guard sent by a boy who barely knew how to say kind things out loud, had started to change the way I carried myself.

I turned to say something to Riley about it, my voice practically gushing with gratitude, when a flicker of movement across the courtyard caught my eye.

Dominic stood near the edge of the training field, arms crossed, watching everything that had just happened with a stillness that felt almost protective from a distance. Our eyes met for a second, and he gave me one small, sharp nod before turning and walking away toward the ice rink without another glance back.

My heart did something ridiculous, fluttering hard in my chest like I was fifteen again instead of standing here as someone's claimed mate. I spent the rest of the walk to class thinking about that nod, replaying it over and over, wondering what exactly it meant that he had been watching at all.

Maybe it meant nothing more than an Alpha checking that his mate was safe. Or maybe, some small hopeful part of me whispered, it meant he cared more than he knew how to say out loud yet.

By the time I sat down in first period, I could barely focus on a single word the teacher said. My fingers kept drifting up to my neck, tracing the raised edge of the mark hidden beneath my collar, and every single time I touched it, I remembered the warmth of Dominic's lips pressed against my knuckles the night before.

Riley elbowed me gently under the desk, leaning close with a knowing grin stretched across her face.

"You've gone far, girl," she whispered, eyebrows raised.

I felt my cheeks heat up instantly, and a small laugh slipped out before I could stop it. "Maybe I have," I admitted quietly, ducking my head to hide the smile threatening to take over my whole face.

The morning passed in a strange blur of whispers I mostly managed to ignore and stolen daydreams about gray eyes and a hand that had felt so gentle against mine. By the time lunch rolled around, my stomach was doing nervous little flips that had nothing to do with hunger.

I sat with Riley near our usual spot by the window, picking at my food, when a younger pack member I barely recognized approached our table and pressed a small folded note into my hand before disappearing just as quickly into the crowd.

I unfolded it slowly, my heart picking up speed the moment I recognized the handwriting, bold and sharp, pressed hard into the paper like whoever wrote it did not know how to be gentle even with a pen.

Come to the hockey rink after school. I want you to watch me practice. Bella, make sure you wear something comfortable, please.

I read it twice, then a third time, my thumb tracing over his name at the bottom like it might tell me more than the words themselves. Riley leaned over my shoulder, reading it just as fast, and let out an excited little gasp.

"He wants you there," she said, grinning wide. "That's huge, Bella. Guys like Dominic don't just invite people to watch them practice."

I folded the note carefully and tucked it into my pocket, my fingers lingering over the edge of it for a moment longer than necessary. A slow smile spread across my face despite every instinct in me screaming to stay guarded, to remember how badly trusting someone had wrecked me before.

But this felt different. Dominic had proven that much today, standing back and letting his actions speak instead of empty promises.

Still, as the final bell rang and I made my way toward the rink with my heart hammering against my ribs, I could not shake the small, nervous flutter wondering exactly what waited for me once I got there.

Whatever it was, I had a feeling my life was about to keep changing faster than I could catch up to it.