CHAPTER 5

Alisa’s POV

The next few days felt like living in a nightmare I couldn't wake up from. Every hallway I walked down, every class I attended, every meal I tried to eat in the cafeteria—whispers followed me like shadows.

"Look, there's the gold digger."

"I heard she's already moved on to the twins."

"Pathetic. Throwing herself at anyone with money and status."

The worst part wasn't even the whispers. It was the photos. Someone had managed to capture the moment Hades gave me his jacket, the moment he walked me to the medical wing. From certain angles, it looked intimate, romantic even. And somehow, these photos were everywhere—printed and stuck to bulletin boards, shared on academy social media groups, passed around like trading cards.

How did they even get these? I wondered as I tore down another photo from the library wall. Were they watching me the whole time?

"Ailsa!" Jenny called as I entered our dorm room after another hellish day. "Some girls stopped by looking for you. They seemed... intense."

My stomach dropped. "What did they say?"

"Just that they wanted to talk to you about staying in your lane." She bit her lip nervously. "They didn't seem very friendly."

Great. Fan clubs making house calls now.

I was heading to the bathroom when I heard familiar voices in the hallway outside our door.

"She's been seen with both Hades and Cayden now. It's obvious what she's doing."

"Someone needs to put her in her place before she embarrasses herself further."

"Or embarrasses them. The Hunter brothers don't deserve this kind of harassment."

I pressed my ear to the door, my heart racing.

"I say we make it clear that she's not welcome here. A little omega scholarship student thinking she can seduce her way to the top? Disgusting."

Scholarship student? How did they know about my financial aid status? That information was supposed to be confidential.

"Tomorrow," another voice said. "We'll handle it tomorrow."

Sleep didn't come that night. I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, my mind racing with paranoia and dread. The brothers must be behind this, I kept thinking. There's no other way people would know so much about me, about my background.

They were systematically destroying my reputation, turning the entire academy against me. But why? What had I done that was so terrible it warranted this level of retaliation?

I stood up to them. I didn't bow down and apologize. I treated them like regular people instead of gods.

Around 3 AM, Jenny's gentle snoring was interrupted by my phone buzzing. A message from an unknown number: Check the academy forum.

Against my better judgment, I opened the academy's online platform. My blood turned to ice.

There, pinned at the top of the social feed, was a thread titled: "New Student Alert: Social Climber Spotted." It had hundreds of comments and shares, all discussing my supposed attempts to seduce the Hunter brothers.

The next morning, I barely made it out of the dormitory before the attacks began.

"There she is!" The same blonde girl from before—Veronica—approached with a group of at least fifteen students. "Our little social climber."

"I don't want any trouble," I said, trying to walk around them.

"Too bad," another girl sneered. "We want to talk to you."

They surrounded me on the main quad, where dozens of other students stopped to watch the show.

"We know what you're doing," Veronica said loudly, clearly performing for the audience. "You think because you're an omega, people will feel sorry for you? Think you can use that sympathy to get close to powerful alphas?"

"I haven't done anything wrong," I said, my voice carrying across the quad.

"Nothing wrong?" A guy with expensive sneakers laughed. "You've been throwing yourself at the Hunter brothers since day one!"

"That's not true!"

"Please," Veronica rolled her eyes. "First Hank, then Hades, and now we hear you've been bothering Cayden too. What's next, going after the professor?"

"I haven't been bothering anyone!" My voice was getting shrill, but I couldn't help it. "I've been trying to mind my own business!"

"Mind your own business?" Another girl stepped forward. "Is that what you call stalking them around campus? Taking photos with them?"

"I didn't take any photos! Someone else—"

"Sure they did," Veronica cut me off. "Look, scholarship girl, we get it. You're not used to being around successful people. But there are rules here. Standards. And you clearly don't meet them."

The crowd was growing larger, phones coming out to record. I felt trapped, exposed, like an animal in a zoo.

"You don't know anything about me," I said desperately.

"We know you're a lying, manipulative little omega who thinks she can seduce her way out of her pathetic life," the guy with expensive sneakers said. "We know you cheated your way into this academy and now you're trying to stay by throwing yourself at anyone with power."

"That's not—"

"Girls like you are all the same," Veronica continued, her voice dripping with disgust. "No talent, no breeding, no class. Just willing to do whatever it takes to climb the social ladder."

I can't take this anymore. The humiliation, the lies, the way they were twisting everything—it was too much.

"You want to know the truth?" I shouted, my composure finally cracking. "The truth is your precious Hank Hunter mistook me for hired entertainment! The truth is none of them can stand the thought that someone might not worship the ground they walk on!"

The crowd murmured, but Veronica just smiled. "And there it is. The real you. Bitter, jealous, and delusional."

That's when I heard the voice that made my blood freeze.

"Miss Lindon?" A security guard was pushing through the crowd. "Dean Morrison wants to see you in his office. Immediately."

The walk to the Dean's office felt like a death march. Students stared and whispered as I passed, and I could hear phones buzzing with messages about the confrontation in the quad.

This is it, I thought, my hands shaking as I approached the imposing wooden door marked "Dean Morrison." They're going to expel me. All of this—escaping Leon, starting over, trying to build a new life—it's all been for nothing.

The secretary didn't even look up as she waved me toward the inner office. "Go right in. He's waiting."

I took a deep breath, wiped my eyes one last time, and opened the door.

The sight that greeted me confirmed my worst fears.

Dean Morrison sat behind his massive desk, his expression grave. But what made my heart stop were the four figures standing to the side of the office.

All four Hunter brothers.

Hughs stood with his arms crossed, his red eyes cold and calculating. Cayden leaned against the wall with that fake smile I'd heard about, his green eyes watching me with amusement. Hades had his hands in his pockets, looking anywhere but at me. And Hank—Hank was smirking like he'd just won the lottery.

They did it, I realized, my legs nearly giving out. They actually came here to get me expelled.

"Miss Lindon," Dean Morrison said gravely. "Please, have a seat. We have quite a lot to discuss."