"Maya."

The voice was deep, commanding, and loud enough to bounce off the steel lockers.

I paused, turning my head. "Are you talking to me?"

Felix took two steps toward me, his brow furrowed in irritation. "Why are you acting like you don't see anyone? You walked right past me."

A faint scent rolled off him—pine needles and cold rain. It prickled the back of my neck, but my head remained clear. "Sorry. I don't know you."

Felix let out a dry bark of laughter. His mouth twisted into an arrogant smirk. "You don't know me? That's rich. Who was the pathetic wretch on her knees three weeks ago, begging me to look at her? Crying about how much she loved me?"

I raised a finger, pointing past his broad shoulder.

Blair stood ten feet away on the walkway. Strawberry milk clung to her soaked sleeves, her face blotchy and scarlet with fury as she glared at the two of us.

"You should probably figure out how to soothe your girlfriend first," I said.

I didn't wait for an answer. I spun on my heel and walked down the hallway.

"Hey! Get back here!" Felix bellowed.

I kept moving. Behind me, his footsteps didn't pursue. Instead, Blair's shrill voice ripped through the corridor.

"Felix! Look at me!" she shrieked, stomping toward him. "She threw milk at me, and you're chatting with her? You don't care about me at all! You never loved me!"

"Blair, lower your voice," Felix snapped, his tone distracted. "Everyone is staring."

"I don't give a damn who's staring!"

Their shouting faded as I turned the corner into my homeroom.

The classroom was half full. A few kids glanced at me, then quickly dropped their gazes. I slid into an empty desk in the third row, unzipped my canvas bag, and pulled out my completed math worksheets and biology test prep. I stacked them neatly near the edge of the wood.

The door flew open with a bang.

Blair stormed down the center aisle. Her blonde hair was damp, plastered against her skull, smelling strongly of artificial sugar.

"You think you're slick, don't you?" Blair slammed both hands onto my desk, rattling the metal frame. "Flirting with Felix right after you ambushed me in the yard?"

"Sit down, Blair," I said without looking up.

"Don't give me orders, you trash!" She grabbed my homework packet and my biology test.

Before I could reach across the desk, she ripped the papers straight down the middle.

Rip.

She tore them again, shredding the white sheets into confetti, scattering the scraps across my shoes.

"Let's see you hand that in," Blair sneered, crossing her arms over her chest. "Let's see what the teacher says when you fail the term."

I didn't scream. I didn't flinch.

Instead, I stood up, walked around the side of her desk, and snatched her leather designer bag off her chair.

"Hey! Drop that!" Blair reached for the strap.

I swung the bag upside down.

Textbooks, expensive makeup, spiral notebooks, and study binders crashed across the linoleum floor.

I lifted my boot and brought it down hard on her open planner, snapping the plastic spine. Then I scraped the sole across her neat loose-leaf notes, grinding black dust into the paper. I gathered the crumpled pages in two hands, tore them into ragged strips, and dumped the entire handful into the blue recycling bin beside the door.

"I have zero interest in your boyfriend," I said, dusting my palms together. "Keep him."

Blair’s mouth hung open. She was a pretty Beta, but right now her jaw twitched with unbridled rage.

"You're a lunatic!" Blair shrieked, pointing a shaking finger at me. "You're completely insane! I swear to God, Maya, I will make you pay for every single page!"

"Try it," I replied, taking my seat again.

The side door clicked open. Mr. Harris, the calculus teacher, walked in with a stack of folders under his arm. He froze, staring at the shredded paper covering the floor between our desks.

"What is the meaning of this?" Mr. Harris barked, adjusting his wire-rimmed glasses. "Why is there garbage all over the room?"

Blair instantly slumped her shoulders. Her bottom lip trembled, and tears pooled in her eyes like she had practiced the transition in a mirror.

"Mr. Harris," Blair whimpered, voice cracking. "Maya attacked me. I just walked in, and she dumped my bag and tore up all my assignments for no reason!"

A boy sitting near the window leaned forward. "Yeah, Mr. Harris. Maya just grabbed Blair's things and trashed them."

"She went crazy," Chloe added from the back row, clutching her bruised ribs. "We all saw it."

Mr. Harris frowned, his eyes narrowing at me. "Maya, is this true? After everything that happened to you in the woods, this is how you behave on your first morning back?"

"No," I said simply.

"Three students just contradicted you," he snapped.

"Then let's go ask someone who doesn't take sides," I said, standing up. "Security office. Room 104."

Mr. Harris blinked, thrown off by my tone. "What?"

"The overhead camera is right above the whiteboard," I pointed toward the black dome in the ceiling corner. "It points directly down the center aisle. Let's look at the footage right now."

Blair's fake tears vanished, replaced by sudden panic. "Mr. Harris, we don't need to waste time with—"

"Actually, we do," Mr. Harris interrupted, glancing up at the camera dome. "Follow me. Both of you."

Five minutes later, the security guard hit play on the desktop monitor.

On the screen, Blair marched in, grabbed my papers without warning, and shredded them with a spiteful grin before I ever touched her bag. The timestamp was plain as day.

"That's enough," Mr. Harris said, his voice flat. He turned to Blair. "Detention for three days, Miss Montgomery. And you will replace every single sheet of Maya's coursework by tomorrow morning."

Blair’s face flushed purple. She stormed out of the office without a word.

By lunchtime, the school's online gossip board had exploded.

*Did Maya get a brain transplant in the hospital?*

*She shredded Blair's bag and made Mr. Harris write Blair up!*

*The quiet Omega is gone. Who the hell is this girl?*

I ignored my phone and spent the rest of the day in the library.

When the final bell rang, I headed through the side exit toward the student parking lot. The afternoon sun beat down on the cracked asphalt, casting long shadows between the parked sedans.

A tall figure stepped out from behind a silver pickup truck, blocking the sidewalk.

Felix.

He shoved his hands into the pockets of his varsity jacket, his grey eyes locked on mine. "You put on quite a show today, Maya."

"Move," I said.

He didn't budge. He closed the gap between us until he stood barely a foot away. That cold pine scent rolled off him again, thick and heavy.

"You can play tough with Blair all you want," Felix said, lowering his voice into an arrogant purr. "You can pretend you don't care. But we both know the truth. I felt it the second you walked past me at the front doors."

I stared at him blankly. "Felt what?"

"The spark," he whispered, a nasty smirk pulling at the corner of his lips. "You're my fated mate."

I didn't answer. I didn't gasp.

"And here's what's going to happen," Felix continued, his tone turning vicious. "Next month, at the pack gathering, I am going to stand on the podium and formally reject you. In front of every pack member. In front of your family. I'm going to make sure everyone watches you suffer when the bond snaps."

I blinked once, completely unaffected. "Are you done?"

Felix's smirk vanished. "Did you hear what I said? I'm going to reject you."

"Good," I replied evenly. "Go do it right now if you want. Saves me the trouble of ignoring you."

Veins pulsed along his neck. My lack of tears was clearly not part of his script.

"You think you're untouchable now?" Felix pulled his phone from his jeans. He tapped the screen and thrust the display in my face. "Let's see how arrogant you feel when this gets posted on the forum."

The video started playing.

On the screen, a girl was kneeling in the dirt outside a house, sobbing uncontrollably. It was me.

Past-me clutched the cuffs of Felix's jeans, her knuckles white, her face red and swollen with tears.

*"Please, Felix!"* the recorded voice cried out from the tiny speaker. *"Don't throw me away! I love you! I'll do whatever you want, please!"*

Felix leaned down toward my ear, his voice venomous. "Look at yourself. Groveling in the mud like a starving dog."

I looked at the girl in the video, then stared straight into Felix's eyes.

Something about the background of that footage wasn't right.

My fingers shot out before Felix could react.

I snatched the phone right out of his hand, gripped the casing tight, and hurled it into the asphalt.

The screen exploded in a shower of black shards.

Before Felix could register what happened, I brought my combat shoe down on the wreckage, twisting my sole until the metal chassis bent into a twisted wedge. The tiny speaker fizzled and died.

"What the fuck did you do?" Felix roared, lunging forward with his arms out.

I stood my ground, staring straight through him. "Problem solved."

"That was my phone, you crazy bitch!" His fists shook at his sides, his chest heaving with fury. "You destroyed the only proof!"

"You wanted to show it to the school?" I shoved both hands into my pockets. "Show them now. Go on, pick up the scrap metal."

Felix bared his teeth, his jaw twitching so hard a tendon threatened to snap. "You think you won something here? You're nothing! When the pack assembly comes, I'm going to strip your title and throw you to the outer fringes. You'll starve in the dirt where you belong!"

"Keep barking," I said, leaning in until our foreheads were inches apart. "Wait and see who makes who suffer first. Try me."

I bumped his shoulder hard as I passed.

He didn't chase me this time. I heard him curse violently, kicking the crushed plastic across the empty stalls.

Walking away, my thoughts locked onto one absolute goal: Felix wasn't going to reject me on a podium. I was going to make that arrogant bastard crawl through the mud and beg on both knees.

To break an Alpha like him, I needed leverage.

I needed Joe.

***

The next afternoon, the high school cafeteria sounded like a zoo.

Trays clattered. Voices competed against the hum of industrial ventilation fans. Every table was crowded—except for the long booth tucked beside the concrete pillars in the corner.

Joe sat there alone.

He was broad-shouldered and sharp-featured, with a thick line of scar tissue cutting through his left eyebrow. Unlike Felix, who bathed in the adoration of his sycophants, Joe carried an aura so freezing that nobody dared sit within five feet of his shadow. His pack and Felix's pack had been at each other's throats for three generations.

I grabbed my red plastic tray from the counter and walked directly toward his booth.

Whispers broke out along the nearby tables.

"Is she insane?"

"Where is she going?"

"That's Joe... he put two senior Betas in the ER last winter."

I ignored the murmurs, reached the empty seat directly across from Joe, and pulled the metal chair back with a screech.

I sat down.

Joe didn't flinch. He kept chewing, his fork stabbing into a portion of rice, completely ignoring my existence.

I picked up the pair of plastic tongs from my tray, plucked my roasted chicken drumstick, and dropped it straight into the center of his plate.

A drop of dark gravy splashed onto his thumb.

Joe stopped.

He set his fork down against the rim of his plate with a dull clink. Slowly, his dark eyes rose from the food to fix on my face.

"What do you think you're doing?" Joe asked, his voice low, raspy, and dangerously quiet.

"Giving you lunch," I replied.

"I didn't ask for it."

"Take it anyway."

Joe leaned back against the vinyl seat, his arms folding across his broad chest. His sleeves were rolled to the elbows, exposing dark ink crawling up his forearms. "Get lost, Maya. I don't share tables."

"I'm not here for company," I said, leaning my forearms against the table. "I want to team up with you to take down Felix."

Joe stared at me for two beats, then barked out a short, mocking laugh. "You? Team up with me?"

"You heard me."

"I don't work with Omegas," Joe said flatly. "Especially broken ones who got their brains scrambled in the woods."

"I'm not broken."

"You're a liability," he countered, pointing a fork toward my nose. "You think because you kicked two cheerleaders in the courtyard, you're a fighter? Felix runs the strongest pack faction in this district. You're an ant beneath his boot."

"And you've been trying to stomp his faction for two years," I countered, keeping my voice level. "How's that going for you?"

Joe’s eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. "Watch your tongue."

"Your pack lost the southern border run last month," I said, leaning closer so only he could hear. "Felix took the supply depot, and you got pushed back to the rail line. You want him buried just as badly as I do. The enemy of my enemy is a friend."

Joe let out a dry scoff, picking up a napkin to wipe his thumb. "You talk a big game for a girl who was on her knees weeping for him three weeks ago."

"That wasn't me."

"It's all over the gossip forum," Joe mocked, tossing the crumpled napkin onto his tray. "Every kid in this school has seen the video of you begging him not to discard you like trash. You expect me to trust an obsessed ex who might fold the second he flashes an Alpha growl at her?"

"The phone with that video is in three pieces in the south parking lot," I answered evenly. "And Felix knows exactly who broke it."

Joe raised an eyebrow, a hint of curiosity cutting through his cold mask. "You smashed his phone?"

"Crushed it with my boot."

"Bold move. Still doesn't prove shit." Joe picked up his fork again. "You're unpredictable. You're emotional. If I move against Felix, I need a steel pipe, not a stray dog looking for revenge."

"Give me a test," I said.

Joe paused, his fork hovering an inch above his plate. "What?"

"Test me. See if I'm a stray or a weapon."

Joe smirked, his tone dripping with skepticism. "Why would I waste my time testing an Omega?"

"Because you have nothing to lose," I said. "If I fail, Felix crushes me, and you remain untouched. If I succeed, you get the opening you've been waiting two years to find."

Silence stretched between us. Around us, the cafeteria noise seemed to blur into white noise.

Joe studied my face, looking for hesitation, fear, or a tremor in my voice. He found none.

"What's your plan?" Joe asked, lowering his voice until it was nearly a rumble.

"The school football championship is next month," I told him, tapping the edge of the laminate table. "Felix is the star quarterback. The entire pack council will be in the VIP bleachers. His father, the elders, every alpha in the county. It's his crowning glory."

Joe's gaze sharpened. "Go on."

"I will humiliate him in front of every single one of them," I said. "On the field, in the open, where his father can't cover it up. I will tear down his golden-boy image until he's the joke of the territory."

Joe watched me with an unreadable expression. He picked up the chicken drumstick I had tossed onto his plate, turning it over in his hand.

"If you fail," Joe said slowly, "Felix won't just reject you. He'll have you thrown beyond the perimeter fence. You won't survive a second night in those woods."

"I won't fail," I said.

Joe took a bite of the meat, chewing slowly while his dark eyes locked onto mine.

"The championship game," Joe said after swallowing. "Make him crawl in the dirt where everyone can see. Make him a laughingstock."

"And if I do?"

Joe tossed the clean bone back onto the plastic tray. A fierce, predatory glint sparked behind his scarred brow.

"If you have the guts to pull that off," Joe said, leaning across the table, "I'll give you everything you need to break his neck."

A shadow fell over the corner of our table before I could answer.

Across the room, standing beside the cafeteria double doors, Felix was staring straight at the two of us, his face drained of all color.