Chapter 3

No one ever wanted Lilly’s attention unless it was her friend Emma. Lilly was more of an outsider even though she was the Alpha’s daughter.

The gasps only made Lilly’s inner monologue go off even more ‘Great, now the rumour mill is going to go off. The rest of the day is going to be just awesome.’

Lilly felt her cheeks flush from the unexpected gesture and the attention it drew. She quickly pulled her hand away, trying to maintain her composure.

"It was nice to meet you, Axel," she said, her voice slightly strained. "But I need to get to my next class."

As she turned to leave, Axel called out, "I hope we'll have a chance to talk more, Lilly. Perhaps over lunch?"

Lilly hesitated, torn between her instinct to avoid pack politics and her curiosity about this intriguing newcomer. "Maybe," she said noncommittally before hurrying out of the classroom.

The hallway was abuzz with whispers as she made her way to her locker. She could feel the stares of her classmates, some curious, others envious. Lilly kept her head down, focusing on getting her books to get to her next class, which was her worst subject.

As Lilly approached her locker, she could already see Kendra and her posse waiting for her, their eyes gleaming with malicious curiosity. Lilly sighed, bracing herself for the interrogation she knew was coming.

"Well, well, well," Kendra drawled, her voice dripping with fake sweetness. "Looks like little Lilly's finally caught an Alpha's eye. And not just any Alpha, but Axel Blackthorn himself."

Lilly tried to ignore them as she opened her locker, but Kendra stepped closer, blocking her path.

"What's the matter, Lilly? Cat got your tongue?" Kendra taunted. "Or should I say, wolf got your heart?"

The other girls giggled, and Lilly felt her patience wearing thin. She slammed her locker shut, turning to face Kendra.

Something in Lilly snapped as she responded to Kendra and her slut friends, “Kendra and your besties here, unlike you all, I don’t want to be someone’s Luna. I want to be left alone with my violin to play my music.”

Which only made the five she-wolves' mouths drop and hit the floor. Lilly regained her usual composure and walked off with her books.

As Lilly rushed to her next class, her mind was a whirlwind of thoughts. She couldn't shake the image of Axel's intense gaze or the feeling of his lips on her hand. It was unsettling yet strangely exhilarating.

She slipped into her seat in her Calculus class just as the bell rang, grateful for the distraction of complex equations. But even as she tried to focus on the numbers scrawled across the whiteboard, her thoughts drifted back to the mysterious Alpha.

"Ms. Riverwood," Mr. Thompson's stern voice cut through her reverie. "Perhaps you'd like to come up and solve this problem for the class?"

Lilly's heart sank. Calculus was her weakest subject, and she had been too distracted to follow the lesson. She reluctantly made her way to the front of the room, but as she took the whiteboard marker from Mr. Thompson’s hand, a strange sense of calm washed over her. She had never felt this way before in this class, especially when she was called upon to.

Lilly stood at the whiteboard, marker in hand, staring at the complex equation. The strange sense of calm that had washed over her lingered, and suddenly, the numbers and symbols seemed to arrange themselves in a new way in her mind. It was as if she was looking at a musical score rather than a math problem.

With newfound confidence, she began to write, her hand moving swiftly across the board. The class watched in stunned silence as Lilly, usually struggling with this subject, solved the problem easily and elegantly.

Mr. Thompson's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Well done, Ms. Riverwood. That's... that's correct. And quite an innovative approach, I might add."

Lilly blinked, looking at her work in disbelief. How had she done that? As she returned to her seat, she could feel the curious stares of her classmates and hear whispers as she made her way back to her seat.

Even once she had returned to her seat and looked back at the board, she was still in disbelief at what had just happened. All the thoughts and emotions she had been feeling and going through in her mind helped her focus on the task. Well, at least for now, Mr. Thompson might leave her alone for a while instead of always picking on her to solve the question on the board.

The rest of the class passed in a blur, with Lilly still trying to process what had just happened. As the bell rang, signalling the end of the period, she gathered her things quickly, hoping to avoid any questions from her classmates.

But as she stepped into the hallway, she again found herself face to face with Axel Blackthorn. His presence seemed to fill the corridor, drawing curious glances from passing students.

"Impressive work in there," he said, his deep voice sending an involuntary shiver down her spine. "I didn't realise you were such a math prodigy as well as a musical one."

Lilly felt her cheeks flush. "I'm not," she admitted. "That was... unusual. I don't know what came over me."

Axel's eyes seemed to glimmer with something akin to understanding. "Sometimes, we surprise ourselves with what we can do; just roll with it.”

His words, “Just roll with it,” seemed to ring in her mind like a bell.

The rest of the school day just seemed to fly by, but she did end up having lunch with Alpha Axel and her best friend, Emma.

Just like that, the end of every school day had arrived. Soon, she would be home in the pack house, where she could go up to her room and play her violin some more before it was time for dinner.