Chapter 4

“What's wrong?” I ask, dread lacing my voice.

She says nothing, so I grab the phone and I'm shocked by what I see on the school's blog post. My appetite leaves me for the second time today.

Beside the boldly written words ‘ALPHA SLUT’ is a picture of Jax and me kissing, his face blurred.

I feel my legs turn to jelly as the world spins in my periphery. I can vaguely hear Bri asking if I'm okay, but I'm far from okay. I'm anything but okay.

I stand up and run out of the restaurant, wanting to get away from the eyes and whispers. I finally let my wolf take over, and I feel my entire body adjust to my wolf form, my clothes falling onto the floor in shreds.

I run out of campus and into the woods. I run as far and as fast as my feet can carry me, wanting to get away from it all.

Eventually, I stop to catch my breath. I walk in my wolf form for a few minutes before shifting back into my human form. Then I collapse onto the floor and start crying.

I stay like that for hours and only get up to leave at dusk. My body is exhausted from both shifting and crying.

I walk through the woods naked, and suddenly I hear footsteps, followed by voices.

“Brooo! That was brutal!” a voice says, followed by laughter.

“Someone had to put that slut in her place.” The second voice says.

“Are you sure Jax is gonna approve? I mean, you did go a bit too far.” A third voice speaks. It sounds vaguely familiar.

I tiptoe closer to get a better view of the people talking. My curiosity is piqued. I move with the wind to mask my scent.

A few feet from my hiding spot are three other wolves from our campus pack. I recognize all three.

Darrell and Peter from earlier, and then Damian.

They're all wearing shorts, their tops nowhere to be found. I assume they also came for a run. Luckily for them, they had the good sense to bring shorts. And I'm here, butt naked in the woods.

“Don't worry, Jax is gonna understand. She literally insulted me. Her weird hybrid friend is gonna get what's coming for her too.”

I fight the urge to come out of my hiding place to confront them. They're three Betas, and I'm just an Omega. I wasn't winning that fight in any realm.

“Besides, bros before hoes.” Says Peter to back up Darrell's claims.

Damian lets out a little scoff.

“I hope you guys are right, though. I'm starving. Let's get back before dinner time is over.”

At the mention of dinner, I'm reminded of how hungry I am, and my stomach rumbles. I pray they don't hear it.

Luckily, they don't.

They start to strip to shift, and I avert my gaze, crawling out of my hiding spot in the opposite direction. I hear their paws hit the ground as they leave.

I shift back into my own wolf form, not wanting to be seen naked on campus grounds. I run in the opposite direction from the boys until I reach campus, then turn towards Bri's building complex.

Luckily, her room is only one floor above the ground floor, so I scale the walls in my wolf form with the aid of the oak tree beside their complex.

I take a few steps back, bounce off the wall, and land on one of the tree's low-hanging branches. I maneuver through it, making sure to avoid the weaker ones.

I get to the one closest to her window. By chance, her window is open, and I dive in, shifting back into my human form as soon as my feet hit the soft rug in her room.

She lets out a ghoulish scream, which makes me immediately hold my ears. She stops when she sees it's me.

“Dawg, never do that again. I could've made you deaf.” She says, looking mildly annoyed.

“I'm sorry.”

I look behind me and find the window glass shattered across the floor. I suddenly remember the state I'm in and make a feeble attempt to cover myself.

She heads for her closet, grabs a few oversized tees and shorts, and chucks them at me. Oversized for her, but mostly normal for me.

I dress up and immediately climb into her bed, taking in the Gothic-style decor in her room like it's my first time here. My eyes fix on the bejewelled skull hanging on her door.

“Now I gotta explain to management how this happened. Are you good?” She asks, concern clouding her features.

I shake my head.

“Move.”

I move over, and she crawls in beside me. She gathers me into her arms, and I bury my head into the crook of her neck. My wolf instincts take over.

Bri hates hugs, but in trying times like this, she makes an exception for me.

“Wanna talk about it?” She asks again after we've been cuddling for a while.

I cave and tell her everything, from the events of the day before to what I heard in the woods tonight.

We say nothing for a while, and then my stomach grumbles.

“Eaten anything today?”

“Not really.”

She gets up and moves to the kitchenette in her room. She microwaves some leftover pizza and passes me a soda from the fridge.

I inhale the meal in a matter of seconds, and she gets me some more. After I finish, she takes away the plate and sits beside me again, not saying anything.

“You gotta be careful with them, you know that, right?” Bri finally says.

“But Jax loves me. It's just these boys being assholes.”

“They are. That's obvious. But what has he said since then?”

I immediately remember the texts from earlier. I remember my backpack in the restaurant.

Bri notices and points to the corner of her closet. I grab it and pull out my phone.

But still no message from Jax.

“Nothing.” I mumble, my mood getting even darker.

“See.”

“Maybe he's busy or something.”

“Girl, can you hear yourself? Well, we have little evidence for now, but either way, just be careful.”

“Okay, I will.” I say, plopping down onto her bed again.

“Anyways. I heard the mer-girls are hosting a party. I also heard it's gonna be epic. We gotta turn that frown upside down. You look like the bears after Goldilocks broke into their home, literally.”

“I don't wanna go.”

“'Cause of Jax and his pack of howling assholes? Be fucking for real.”

“I just don't wanna.”

“Well, we are. Besides, he could be there, and you can get this over with once and for all.”

I consider that and finally agree.

“Okay, I will go.”

“Yayyy! It's tomorrow.”

“I'm doing your hair, by the way.”

“What's wrong with my hair?”

“Have you seen you in a mirror lately?”

“I'm literally a ghoul, you know I can't.”

And we both burst into laughter and talk about any and everything we can think about.

I fall asleep feeling somewhat calmer, the thoughts of everything fading to the back of my mind.