Chapter 4

Looks like the bullying’s kicking off early this year.

I slipped into the classroom, quiet as a shadow, and headed straight for the last seat in the corner. Prime viewing spot. The drama was already unfolding like a scene from a play I’d seen before—because I had.

“Lilith, is it true?” A girl with curled platinum-blonde hair and a surgically sweet voice leaned in. “You had a sister who went missing for ten years?”

Anna. Pack royalty in her own mind. Head cheerleader, reigning queen of the Snow Moon Academy social pyramid. And in my last life? Lead tormentor.

Back then, I was a good girl. The long-lost daughter of the Smiths, trying to fit into a pack I didn’t belong to. Quiet. Weak. Leashed.

Not anymore.

While the pack princesses played nice, I tapped into my phone under the desk, coding something sharp, just in case I needed a digital dagger later.

Across the room, Lilith’s expression dipped—not sorrow, just… calculation. Her lips curled slightly.

“Yes,” she said, soft as snowfall. “Her name is Mia. She’s… very beautiful. I’ll introduce you, if I get the chance.”

Anna’s eyes gleamed. “As beautiful as you? Please. You’re the face of this academy. Our Alpha Queen!”

Alpha Queen? I nearly choked.

Try “beta-botched with a scalpel.”

Snow Moon Pack Film Arts Academy wasn’t short on natural-born beauties. The kind of elegance you can’t fake, no matter how many times you go under the knife. But Lilith? She wore her surgeon’s work like a trophy. Chin: sculpted. Nose: filed. Breasts, lashes, even that luscious wave of hair? Synthetic. She didn’t inherit the Smiths’ high-gene pool. She bought her way in—procedure by procedure.

She’d been getting surgeries since she could shift. Trying to meet the Smiths’ impossible standards. But no matter how skilled the Pack Doctor was, skin stretched a hundred times still cracks under scrutiny. From far away? Maybe flawless. Up close? Straight-up uncanny valley.

And that “cheer captain” title? She ranked seventh in the vote. Until, somehow, tens of thousands of votes magically appeared overnight.

Subtle.

“Anna,” Lilith said, her voice dipped in honey. “Don’t say that in front of Mia. She might feel… inferior.”

“Tch. Wasn’t she just some mutt from the outer borderlands?” Anna scoffed, flipping her hair like it owed her money. “What, she thinks she can compete with you?”

A few girls giggled. Lilith tugged Anna’s sleeve gently. “Stop… you’ll scare her.”

“She’s in our class, right? Invite her to lunch. I want to see if she’s actually this ‘goddess’ you’ve been hyping,” Anna said, voice sharp under the sugar.

Lilith brushed her hair aside, revealing a gauze bandage on her forehead.

“She probably didn’t come today,” she murmured, almost too conveniently.

A girl gasped. “Your head—what happened?”

Lilith fumbled, covering it. “Oh… I went on a trip. Yesterday. I was out looking for Mia.”

Anna slammed the desk. “Tripped? Yeah right. That hill rat probably shoved you!”

“Mia didn’t mean to…” Lilith whispered, her voice trembling like glass. “She ran away from home. We were so scared. Mom and Dad didn’t sleep all night… it’s all my fault…”

And here came the fake tears.

I clapped, slow and deliberate. “Wow, Lilith. Bravo. You should major in drama.”

The room fell silent.

Lilith turned, her crocodile tears drying the instant she saw me. “Mia?” she gasped. Then smiled like we were long-lost sisters. “You’re in this class too? That’s wonderful!”

She reached for me.

I stepped back. Like her fingers were dipped in acid.

Undeterred, she pouted, voice dripping with concern. “Where were you last night? We were so worried…”

“Worried?” I tilted my head. “Weird. Didn’t see you anywhere near the front gate.”

“We… we asked around,” she stammered. “The guards said they didn’t see you leave. Mom thought maybe a kind neighbor took you in. That’s why we stopped looking…”

Anna was staring now. Her jaw practically unhinged.

Her gaze raked down my body—sizing me up. Her pupils twitched.

Jealousy. Raw and burning.

She’d tolerated Lilith’s plastic princess routine because of her family name. But me? A “stray Omega” from nowhere, prettier than her without lifting a finger?

Unacceptable.

“So that’s where you were,” she hissed. “Let me guess—you climbed into some old Alpha’s bed?”

One of her lapdogs snorted. “The villa district’s crawling with them. Perfect hunting ground for a little gold digger.”

“They’d never want someone like her. Maybe if they were blind. Or deranged.”

“Lilith, you should get her tested. Who knows what kind of… parasites she brought back.”

Their voices piled on, one by one—each more venomous than the last.

And Lilith?

Lilith stayed quiet. Eyes lowered. Shoulders trembling—not from shame, but from the effort of holding back a smile.

I rolled my neck slowly. A quiet pop echoed.

My fingers twitched, aching to snap.

“You done?” I asked, voice like frost.

“We didn’t even say anything wrong—”

Slap.

Anna gasped, her hand flying to her cheek. “You hit me?!”

Crack.

Another slap—harder, cleaner, unapologetic.

The classroom froze. Not a breath, not a whisper. Anna’s face was already flushing red, the skin swelling where my hand had landed. She opened her mouth, then shut it again. For the first time in her life, the queen bee had no comeback.

Lilith’s head jerked up. “Mia! Why would you do that?!”

I turned to her, voice cold as ice. “Oh, look who finally found her voice. You were mute when they called me a disease. Now suddenly you care?”

Lilith blinked, trying to look stricken. “They were… just kidding.”

“Kidding? That was slander. And you stood there grinning like it was comedy night.”

Anna finally snapped out of her shock. “You’re insane! I’m reporting to you! You’re going to get expelled, you psycho!”

“You insulted me. Thought I wouldn’t hit back?”

“You’re the one sleeping around and acting like a victim!”

“Oh? You mean this kind of sleeping around?”

I pulled out my phone. Just one tap.

The screen lit up with a video. No audio. Didn’t need it.

Anna. Naked. Fully alert. Enthusiastic. In bed with three men—none of them gentle, all of them grinning. It was clear she wasn’t drunk. She wasn’t coerced. And it sure as hell wasn’t her first rodeo.

You could hear a pin drop.

Every head in the room slowly turned to her, their expressions caught between shock, disgust, and morbid curiosity. Anna looked like she’d just seen a ghost.

“How the hell do you have that video?!” she shrieked, face pale, lips trembling.

I smirked, flicking toward Lilith. “Take a wild guess.”

In my last life, Lilith had used that exact video to blackmail Anna—turned her into a loyal lapdog with one clip. She weaponized secrets like knives.

This time? I beat her to the punch. Hacked her phone. Dug through her files. Found the dirt before she could use it.

Same filename. Same video.

Karma’s funny that way.

*********