Chapter 5

Lila’s POV

I stood in the middle of the courtyard with my heart trying to climb out of my throat.

“Kael,” I said, voice already shaking. “Please. Just listen to me for a second.”

He turned his head slowly, like I was something unpleasant he had just stepped in. The Omegas beside him went quiet. A few Alphas smirked. Phones were already starting to rise.

“Kael, it’s me,” I tried again. “Lila. From the other night. Prom. The garden. You remember, right?”

He looked me up and down. Slow. Deliberate. His golden eyes dragged from my face to the oversized hoodie that couldn’t fully hide the soft curve of my stomach, the thick thighs, the fuller chest. Something cold and disgusted settled in his expression.

Then he laughed.

It wasn’t a small laugh. It was sharp and loud enough that the people closest to us turned.

“You’re serious?” he said. “You’re actually serious right now?”

“I just need you to listen—”

“No.” He cut me off, still smiling like this was the funniest thing he had seen all week. “I don’t need to listen to anything.”

My hands curled into fists at my sides. “We were together. You took me outside. You—”

“I never slept with a big pig like you.”

The words landed like a slap.

For a second the entire courtyard went silent.

Then someone snorted. A girl near the front covered her mouth but the laugh still escaped. Another voice whispered, “Did he just say that?” Someone else started recording without even trying to hide it.

Kael’s eyes stayed on me, cold and bored. “Get lost.”

“Kael, please—” My voice cracked. “You know it was me. You said my name. You told me you noticed me. You—”

“I said get lost.” He turned his shoulder like I was already dismissed. “Go find someone desperate enough to want that.”

A boy behind him laughed out loud. “Damn, Thorne.”

An Omega girl giggled. “She’s actually crying. Look.”

I couldn’t move. My feet felt glued to the concrete. The hoodie suddenly felt too thin. Every soft part of my body felt exposed under their eyes.

Then I felt it.

Someone was watching me from the edge of the crowd.

I turned my head slightly. A tall male student I had never seen before stood a few steps away from the main group. Black hair. Sharp features. Eyes that looked almost too intense under the afternoon light. He wasn’t laughing. He wasn’t recording. He was just staring at me, expression unreadable.

Our eyes met.

Kael noticed the direction of my gaze and followed it. When he saw the stranger, he smirked.

“What?” Kael called out, loud enough for everyone to hear. “You want the pig too?”

A few people laughed again.

The tall student didn’t look at Kael. His eyes stayed on me. When he finally spoke, his voice was low and calm, cutting through the noise without effort.

“You should go.”

It wasn’t mocking. It wasn’t kind either. It sounded almost like an order.

I stared at him for a second longer, then the sound of more laughter snapped me back. I turned and ran.

My vision blurred almost immediately. Tears spilled so fast I could barely see the path. Students parted around me, some still laughing, some filming. I pushed through them and into the side hallway, lungs burning, new body feeling heavy and wrong with every step.

I almost reached the bathroom door when a deep voice stopped me.

“Wait.”

I froze.

Footsteps came closer, slow and deliberate. I didn’t turn around. I couldn’t. My shoulders were already shaking.

“I said wait.”

The same voice from the courtyard.

I wiped my face roughly with my sleeve and forced myself to look at him. Up close he was even taller. His presence felt heavier than any Alpha I had ever stood near. His eyes moved over my face, taking in the tears, the red eyes, the way I was trying to make myself smaller.

“What?” I managed, voice wrecked. “Here to call me a pig too?”

He didn’t smile. He didn’t look away.

“No.”

Just that one word. Quiet. Certain.

I let out a broken laugh that sounded more like a sob. “Then what do you want?”

He studied me for a moment longer. When he spoke again, his voice was lower.

“You’re crying over someone who just threw you away in front of everyone.”

“You don’t know anything,” I whispered.

“I know enough.” His gaze flicked down for half a second, taking in the way the hoodie clung to my changed body, then returned to my eyes. “He doesn’t deserve those tears.”

My throat tightened. “Why do you care?”

“I don’t. Not yet.” He paused. “But I don’t like watching people get discarded like that.”

I didn’t know what to say. Fresh tears spilled over anyway.

He watched them fall, expression unreadable. Then he stepped back slightly, giving me space.

“Go clean your face,” he said. “And stop giving him the satisfaction of seeing you break.”

I stared at him, still trembling. “Who even are you?”

For the first time, something almost like interest passed through his eyes.

“Draven,” he said simply. “Draven Voss.”

He turned and walked away without another word, leaving me standing alone in the hallway with tears still running down my face and his name echoing in my head.

I pushed into the bathroom, locked myself in the last stall, and slid down onto the cold floor.

The sobs came harder this time.

“It was real,” I whispered into my hands. “It was real… it was real…”

But even as I cried, I couldn’t stop hearing his voice.

He doesn’t deserve those tears.

And the way he had looked at me when he said his name.