Tatiana's POV

Her scalding coffee cascaded over my hair, the burning liquid searing down my scalp and dripping onto my neck. The pain bit deep, spreading like fire under my skin, but I clenched my jaw and swallowed back the scream clawing at my throat.

Veronica knew. She and her pack of loyal shadows knew exactly what they were doing. Being an omega with no wolf, pouring coffee on me wouldn't heal as theirs would. Instead, my flesh would be blistered and sting till I treat it at the clinic.

“How does that feel, whore?” Veronica’s sharp and venomous voice cut through the hush of the hallway. “Exciting? Just as exciting as it must have been throwing yourself at other people’s mates?”

Laughter rippled around her minions. I stared at the floor silently. Unlike with Liana, whose barbs I might have thrown back, Veronica was different. Her name alone carried the weight of fear. Daughter of the Beta to the Alpha King. Second richest in the whole pack. If the King had children of his own, she’d never matter. But fate handed her an empty throne to sit on and she wore it like a crown.

“Why isn’t she speaking?” one of Veronica's friends sneered, tilting her head at me, her curls bouncing with the mockery.

“Perhaps the cat’s got her tongue.”

“Or maybe she’s forgotten how to speak. Wouldn’t be surprising—wolfless and mute? Quite the pathetic package.”

Snickers echoed before Veronica’s lips curled into something crueler. “Well, that won't matter today because I’ll deal with her until her wolf awakens to help her.” The finality in her tone twisted my stomach.

Everyone knew Veronica never threatened. She promised and every promise was carried out. Professors never interfered because they were too afraid to, fearing what her father would do to them.

“Why are you throwing yourself at my boyfriend, Tatiana?!” she shrieked.

"I already told you, mistress, I began with the title I had been forced to address her by. "I wasn't throwing myself at him. I only missed a step and fell..."

" So I'm a liar?...."

" That wasn't what I meant, I.."

Before I could even open my mouth to finish, her palm cracked across my cheek. The sting radiated instantly, layering over the ache of my burns. I clenched my fists, my teeth digging into my lip. I refused to break in front of her.

I wasn’t going to shatter.

Even the music room I had been longing to run to earlier was forgotten. The sanctuary I craved, gone. And this was all because of him. Deus Veyra.

---

A FEW HOURS EARLIER

I had stormed out of my dorm, my rage barely held together. The staircase connecting both wings of the academy loomed ahead—the girls’ dorm to the left and the boys’ to the right. I had no destination, just the desperate need to escape.

And the music room quiet and always empty was the only place that came to my mind. Somewhere for me to think. To breathe and plan how I’d fight this looming expulsion when all evidence stacked against me.

My mother’s death and her secrets hidden inside this very academy demanded answers and I couldn’t leave now.

Lost in thought, I missed a step and my foot slipped.

I braced for impact, but instead of cold marble, I crashed against a chest—solid, warm, and bare. My head pressed into taut muscle, the smell of sweat and cologne filling my senses. A hand gripped my waist, steadying me.

For one foolish second, I wanted to stay. To let this stranger hold me up against the weight of everything pressing me down.

“This is the most desperate way a girl’s tried to get my attention.”

His cocky voice snapped like glass. I jerked back, heart plummeting but laughter was already spreading through the stairwell.

Of course. Deus Veyra, the academy's most arrogant jerk. Their famous hockey alpha.

I turned to flee but his hand shot out, blocking my path.

“You fall on me to get my attention, then try to run? Do you think you’re that special that I’d chase you?” His smirk carried the easy arrogance of someone who knew the whole school worshipped him.

“I’m sorry for bumping into you,” I muttered with a brittle voice. I tried to step around him to attempt to leave again. Not today as I wasn't ready for him. Not when I had nothing left in me to endure his endless taunts.

But Deus wasn’t done.

“What’s that smell?” He sniffed the air, gaze darting around. My stomach twisted. He wasn’t talking about the hallway. He was talking about me.

“What smell?” I shot back, finally meeting his eyes to catch that they were Hazel-brown.

He stood one step below me, bringing us nearly eye-to-eye. I had spent months avoiding him and dodging his taunting games. But now, staring this close, I saw why girls melted. He was extremely dashing and good-looking. Athletic and untouchable, like the academy's golden boy he was.

The bane of my existence in this academy. And my greatest curse.

“Strange,” he murmured, sniffing again. “It’s faint… but it’s there. I caught it the first time” he said more to himself than to me. He looked confused just like I was from the rubbish he was spilling.

Then he leaned towards me, so close that his breath warmed my skin, pressing his face into the curve of my neck.

“What are you doing?!” My voice cracked as I shoved at him. The push was weak and trembling. He only leaned back because he chose to.

Gasps rippled through the growing crowd. Phones lifted and recording. My stomach dropped. This would spread like wildfire, another nail in the coffin of my reputation.

“Your scent.....it disappeared,” Deus said again, his eyes narrowing with suspicion. “Why does your scent come and go?”

I was growing tired of the questions he kept asking.

Before he could press further, I bolted from the space he made following his questions about my scent. I ran like the flames of hell were licking at my heels.

Because he wasn’t just any alpha. He was Veronica’s betrothed.

And I knew her wrath would find me.

Still thinking of her, I hadn't reached the hallway down the stairs for me to stand face to face with her.

The one I had been trying to escape.

***

The shock of icy water snapped me back into the present. I gasped, shivering as the filth of soda, juice, and now water clung to my soaked uniform. Flour dusted my skin. Sugar crusted against my hair. Powdered milk turned rancid in the heat of my body.

“This is what suits you, Tatiana,” Veronica hissed, yanking my head up. Her eyes burned with unbridled hatred. “A slut dressed as she deserves.”

Her hand lashed across my cheek again and again.

Her friends laughed, one of them holding up a phone. Recording every strike. This would be plastered across the secret group chat before nightfall. The entire academy would watch my humiliation on repeat.

I tasted blood where my teeth cut my lip. But still, I stayed silent.

Because breaking now meant giving them everything they wanted.

And I couldn’t nor would I.

I closed my eyes as more slaps rained down, each strike snapping my head to the side. I simply waited. Because her slaps always came at the end as her twisted signature of finality.

Today, at least, she’d chosen a hidden corner with her pack of shadows instead of dragging me into the cafeteria or my classroom for a full spectacle. Small mercies, if they could even be called that.

“The next time I see you around Deus, I’ll skin you alive.” Her voice dropped into a growl as she grabbed my hair one last time and shoved me to the ground. My body hit the floor with a heavy thud, pain jolting through my spine.

“He is mine. Stay away from him. If you can’t, I’ll take your eyes myself. And if it’s your face or your skin that makes him stare, I’ll disfigure you with a hot iron.” She leaned close, her breath hot against my ear. “One day, Tatiana. One day.”

“Yes… mistress.” The words scraped from my throat like broken glass. I hated saying them but silence would only bring more blows. And I was already crumbling inside.

It was evening now. The sky outside had long since dimmed, and I realized I hadn’t eaten all day. My birthday wish was supposed to be a day that should have mattered—but had been drowned in bruises, slaps, and humiliation.

“Good.” Veronica snapped the word like a whip before turning on her heel.

“Whore,” one of her friends spat, following her out.

I watched their shadows disappear into the darkened hallway. My chest heaved as I sat there, torn between rage and despair. How could people look so perfect, yet carry hearts this vile? Didn’t their Luna training teach them kindness? Or was cruelty their inheritance as much as wealth and privilege were?

“Tatiana.”

The voice made me jolt. I scrambled up from the cold floor, hastily wiping at my swollen eyes, smoothing my ruined uniform as though the gesture could erase the humiliation baked into me.

“Draven…” My voice cracked. Relief, confusion, and longing tangled inside me.

“What are you doing here? When did you get here?” My words tumbled too quickly, desperate to fill the silence. The place Veronica had dragged me to was deserted, far from where other students usually wandered. And his timing felt… strange.

A thought stabbed at me. Had he been there all along? Watching while Veronica and her friends battered me? Why hadn’t he stepped in? He could have stopped them with a single word. His family was powerful enough and his voice would carry weight. The betrayal of that possibility burned almost worse than Veronica’s slaps.

I shoved the thought down before it consumed me. He was here now. That was what mattered.

But then my eyes darted to his hands and nothing was him. Even his pockets were flat.

Did he forget? My birthday? Did he plan some surprise I hadn’t guessed yet? Or…

"Tatiana" he called again.

The words landed like another slap, sharper than all of Veronica’s combined. My heart froze in my chest, refusing to beat, as if denial could erase what I just heard.

“I’m breaking up with you.”

Tatiana's POV

My smile at seeing him slowly faded. Maybe I hadn’t heard him right. I let out an awkward cackle, clinging to denial. Perhaps this was some cruel joke of his, I thought. Probably part of a prank he would play before finally revealing what he had prepared for my birthday.

“Stop joking around, Draven,” I managed to whisper, forcing a shaky laugh. “I’m not falling for your little prank.”

I tried to sound casual, like this was normal. “You can stay right here and wait for me while I run back to my dorm to change out of this,” I said, brushing at my ruined uniform, the stains of humiliation still clinging to me.

I expected some comfort, even just a question from him. Was seeing me in this state not worth at least asking what had happened? For gods’ sake, he had been my boyfriend for over four months—what was with this sudden coldness?

“I’ll quickly—”

“You don’t need to bother yourself, Tatiana.” His voice cut through mine flatly. “I already told you I’m ending things here.”

He turned to leave, but panic clawed through me and I rushed in front of him, blocking his path.

“Just like that?” The words slipped out before I could stop them, trembling on my lips.

“What’s the reason, Draven? We’ve been fine until this evening. We even spoke through the academy computers earlier. What changed? What suddenly happened?” My voice pressed, desperate and searching for the smallest crack in his mask.

Tonight of all nights—on my eighteenth birthday, the one I’d clung to for years—how could this be happening? Since my wolf hadn’t awakened at sixteen, I had held onto hope that at eighteen, fate would finally grant me the gift I’d been denied. And instead… this.

Draven’s eyes swept over me from head to toe and the disgust etched across his face sliced deeper than Veronica’s slaps.

“What’s this about, Draven?” My voice shook again, close to breaking. “You’ve never looked at me like this before.”

“Look at yourself and then look at me, Tatiana.” His words dripped with disdain. “Do we look like we belong on the same level? Do we look like we’re supposed to be dating? I came to put an end to this madness.” This was nothing like the boy who once held me close.

The knots in my stomach tightened painfully.

“Is this because I confronted you after catching you cheating on me?” I asked, my voice breaking into a whisper. “If that’s it, then I’m sorry. I won’t do it again. You’re free to be with whoever you want.”

I reached out for him, desperate for any scrap of the warmth he once gave me, but he flinched back as though my touch were poison.

The rejection split me open.

“Draven… I don’t understand,” I almost sobbed, forcing back the tears burning my eyes. “You told me my status as an omega meant nothing to you, even if you were a Beta’s son. You told me you loved me for my heart, not my rank or my beauty. So why are you looking at me like this now? Why are you so cold and distant?”

My heart was pounding so violently it drowned everything else out. I couldn’t hear nor think.

“Did I do something wrong? Did anything happen? Just tell me!” My words tumbled out in a frantic rush. “Please, Draven—what happened?”

I grabbed his arm, clinging to him as if that could anchor me. My voice cracked, spilling out my desperation.

“Whatever happened, I’m sorry. Please, don’t leave me. I’ll do anything you want me to. Even if it’s giving up my virginity to you—if that’s what it takes, I’ll do it. I’ll fix this. I’ll do whatever it takes for us to be okay again.”

But Draven wrenched his arm from my grasp, running his fingers through his hair in agitation.

“Didn’t you hear me?” he snapped louder this time and his voice boomed through the corridor. His anger drew a small crowd to the spot where Veronica had humiliated me earlier, their curious eyes widening at the spectacle.

“I’m done, Tatiana. Do you understand?” His voice rose higher, harsher, final. “I’m done and fucking done! It’s over between us!”

"Why?" The word slipped from my trembling lips as the first tear slid down my cheek.

"I didn’t do anything wrong," I whispered, my voice heavy with disbelief. "I’ve been nothing but good to you—sacrificing, caring, giving all of myself just to prove I was worthy of you. I loved you with everything in me. So why… why, Draven?"

His laughter was cruel and his eyes burned with contempt and disgust.

"Don’t tell me you don’t know about your reputation in this school," he spat.

I shook my head, choking on the pain. "Oh, please, Draven. You know those are lies."

He knew it—he had seen it himself. The one time he’d tried to touch me, he’d been stunned at how untouched I truly was. But I didn’t throw that truth back at him. Not here in front of everyone.

"The same lies, Tatiana?" he scoffed. "Everyone knows what you are. A slut. An omega who throws herself at any man with money or status. And now what? Deus is your new target?"

The crowd rippled with whispers, feeding on my humiliation.

"You’ve been run through like some cheap whore in a second-rate brothel," he said, his voice rising, meant for all to hear. "You disgust me."

His words struck like a slap, my skin burning with shame. My breath caught in my throat as the murmurs swelled around us like a roaring tide.

This wasn’t the Draven I once clung to. Not the boy who had sworn, time after time—even after I caught him cheating—that he would change because I meant something to him.

I turned away, refusing to give him the satisfaction of my tears, refusing to engage in his public theater. But his voice dragged me back, laced with cruelty.

"Do you know how hard it’s been, dating you these past few months?" His tone was filled with scorn. "Did you know the shame I felt being with a whore like you?"

"I’m a virgin, Draven!" I burst out, rage spilling through the cracks of my despair. "I’m innocent of every single one of these accusations! Why won’t you believe me?!"

The crowd laughed at my desperation, their mockery searing me deeper.

"Believe you?" His sneer widened, twisting his face into something monstrous. "When almost all my friends brag about how good you are in bed? Virgin? Don’t make me laugh."

Their laughter exploded, a cruel chorus that shook me.

My world crumbled, piece by piece, beneath the weight of his betrayal.

"You may have fooled me for months," he went on, "but it ends here. No one wants a used and broken product."

While the crowd cheered his every word as though he had put on the grandest performance of the night, I struggled to breathe.

I couldn’t stand there another second so I ran. I stumbled, blinded by tears, until I found refuge in the shadow of a pillar near the exit, praying no one would see me till they all left.. Praying the ground would swallow me whole before the shame consumed me alive.

*****

I sat on the cold, rusted chair tucked in the shadowed corner of the empty academy road.

The night pressed in around me, silent except for the faint hum of crickets and the distant howl of wolves beyond the academy walls.

My hands trembled in my lap, the sting of Draven’s words replaying again and again inside my head like a cruel song I couldn’t shut out.

My eyes were swollen from crying, but no matter how many tears I shed, the ache in my chest only grew heavier.

The day had begun badly and ended as the worst of my life. As if Veronica’s torment wasn’t enough, Draven’s betrayal had struck deeper.

And now, knowing the truth from what I overheard behind the pillar as he laughed with his friends while leaving made it all unbearable.

It had all been a game all along. A dare. He had courted me, whispered sweet lies into my ear, held me close, only to win some twisted challenge from his friends. The only thing he hadn’t succeeded in was sleeping with me, but he’d still lied about that too, boasting proudly to them that he had.

I hugged my knees tighter, curling into myself, my breathing shaky as I whispered to no one, my voice breaking in the night. “Why me? Why always me?”

A shadow moved and suddenly a white handkerchief appeared in front of my face.

I flinched and stood abruptly, roughly wiping away my tears with the back of my hand. I didn’t plan to meet anyone here and I had no interest in knowing who was offering me pity.

“That’s rude,” a cold voice remarked, but I only whispered a broken response.

“Please… just stay away from me.”

I turned quickly, trying to escape, but I sensed the figure following me. Irritation flared in my chest, burning through the sorrow and I spun around sharply.

“What is it now?!” My voice cracked with fury. “Who are you and what do you want from me? Haven’t I had enough humiliation already?”

“Chill, chill,” the boy replied, his tone calm but steady. “I was led here by my wolf. He sensed my mate nearby. I’m Carlos.”

My heart stuttered but I shook my head violently.

“Well, there’s no highborn here. That means your mate isn’t here either. So leave me alone,” I snapped, though my tone softened at the end. From his looks and the air around him, it was obvious he came from a wealthy family—probably even nobility. Highborn she-wolves were always fated to alphas or betas, never omegas like me. There was no reason for him to remain here.

Yet he didn’t move. And before I could process further, another figure burst into the road.

“I’m Jasper,” the newcomer said quickly, his eyes locking onto mine. “Carlos’s twin brother. And… I’m your mate as well.”

I froze, stunned. My lips parted, but no words came out. Mate? Another? How?

Shock tightened my chest as Jasper’s words rattled inside me. I didn’t even have a wolf. My scentless existence had always made me invisible to wolves like them. So how could their wolves possibly claim me when there was nothing for them to sense?

I was still grappling with the impossibility when the shadows shifted once more.

This time, the figure that emerged made my stomach knot violently. Deus.

His presence unsettled me in a way I couldn’t explain and yet my eyes widened further when I saw a red, glowing string that tethered to his wrist. A bond but not to me even as he was walking towards me, as if led by something.

He was my mate too.

The world tilted beneath me as confusion swirled with fear. And then the cruelest part of it all—Deus was already betrothed.

How could this be possible? How could the Moon Goddess curse me like this? Fated to not just one but three of the arrogant alphas I hated.

Titiana POV

“Explain to me how this is possible, because you cannot be standing there telling me you are my mate,” Deus said, his voice loud enough to pull every eye in the hall toward us.

“I am not telling you anything,” I said, keeping my shoulders straight even though my hands were shaking, because the bond was already there and denying it would not make it disappear. “It happened the moment the ceremony started, and I felt it before I even understood what it was.”

“That is impossible,” Deus replied, turning away from me and then back again as if the answer might change if he looked twice. “I already have a betrothed, and I am not rejecting my future for some trick.”

“This is not a trick,” I said, forcing my voice to stay steady while the room buzzed with loud whispers. “I did not choose this, and I would not humiliate myself by lying about something like this.”

Deus laughed sharply, and nothing about it sounded amused. “You expect me to believe that an omega like you suddenly becomes my mate during a public ceremony, and I am supposed to accept that without question.”

“I expect you to believe the bond,” I said, meeting his eyes even though it hurt, because the pull between us made rejection feel heavier. “Whether you accept it or not does not change what it is.”

Deus stepped closer, lowering his voice. “You found another way to lure me, and I should have known you would try something desperate, because this is what omegas like you do when they want to climb.”

“That is not fair,” I said, and the words felt too small for what I wanted to say. “You do not get to rewrite reality because it inconveniences you.”

“It inconveniences everyone,” he snapped, gesturing toward the elders and the watching students. “I cannot be mated to you when I am already promised to Veronica, and you will not ruin that arrangement with a lie.”

Before I could respond, Jasper stepped forward, his expression cold and dismissive, as if the entire situation bored him. “If we are done pretending,” he said, “then let me make this clear. I reject her as my mate.”

The words landed harder than I expected, even though I had not been looking at him. “Jasper,” Carlos said sharply from behind him, but Jasper did not turn.

“It is beneath my status to be involved with a low omega,” Jasper continued, his tone calm and practiced. “I am meant to be bonded to an alpha or a beta’s daughter, someone suitable, and that is not her.”

“I did not ask for you,” I said, finally looking at him, because staying silent felt like agreeing. “I did not ask for any of this.”

“That does not matter,” Jasper replied, already stepping back. “What matters is that I will not be tied to this mess.”

"Jasper!!!" Carlos called his name, louder, but Jasper walked away without slowing, leaving a space behind him that no one tried to fill.

Deus looked at me one last time, his jaw tight, his decision already made. “I will not accept this bond,” he said. “Not now, and not ever.”

The elders began to move, conversations starting up as if my life had not just been split open in front of everyone, and one by one, people drifted away until the hall felt too large and too empty at the same time.

I left without looking back, because staying would have meant breaking down where everyone could see me, and I refused to give them that. The walk back to the dorm felt longer than usual, every step heavy with thoughts I could not slow down, because my mind kept replaying every word, every look, and every rejection.

When I reached my room, the door was closed, and for a moment I stood there staring at it as if it might open on its own. I knocked, then knocked again, and called out, my voice sounding smaller in the quiet hallway.

Nothing happened.

I knocked again, harder this time, and finally one of my dormmates opened the door just enough to look at me, her eyes bright with curiosity. Before I could say anything, laughter broke out behind her, spreading through the room like it had been waiting for me.

“Look who came back,” someone said, and the laughter grew louder, sharper, filling the space with sound that made my chest tighten.

I did not answer them, because I did not trust my voice, and instead I stepped past the open door and moved toward my bed, focusing only on getting there without falling apart.

“Do not ignore us,” another voice said, close enough that I felt it rather than saw it. “Everyone knows how desperate you were today.”

I kept walking, my head down, my hands clenched at my sides, because stopping would have meant listening.

“Begging a man who already has a betrothed,” the voice continued, followed by more laughter. “Did you really think he would choose you?”

I felt a hand grab my arm, stopping me just short of the bed, and when I looked up, the girl’s smile was wide and cruel. “He did not even care,” she said. “But you still threw yourself at him like you always do, thinking he could contain your whole life.”

“Let go of me,” I said, my voice low, because yelling would have given them what they wanted.

She laughed and tightened her grip for a second longer before I shoved her hand away and stumbled back, finally reaching the bed. I pulled the blanket over myself, turning my face toward the wall, and the room slowly grew quieter as they lost interest.

I lay there long after the lights went out, staring at nothing, my thoughts looping back to the hall, to Deus’s face, to Jasper’s rejection, and to the bond that refused to disappear no matter how much they denied it.

Sometime in the night, I woke up suddenly, my heart racing, and I sat up in the dark, whispering to myself, “What is happening to me?”