Chapter 2

Tatiana's POV

Her scalding coffee cascaded over my hair, the burning liquid searing down my scalp and dripping onto my neck. The pain bit deep, spreading like fire under my skin, but I clenched my jaw and swallowed back the scream clawing at my throat.

Veronica knew. She and her pack of loyal shadows knew exactly what they were doing. Being an omega with no wolf, pouring coffee on me wouldn't heal like theirs would. Instead, my flesh would be blistered and sting till I treat it at the clinic. 

“How does that feel, whore?” Veronica’s sharp and venomous voice cut through the hush of the hallway. “Exciting? Just as exciting as it must have been throwing yourself at other people’s mates?”

Laughter rippled around her minions. I stared at the floor silently. Unlike with Liana, whose barbs I might have thrown back, Veronica was different. Her name alone carried the weight of fear. Daughter of the Beta to the Alpha King. Second richest in the whole packs. If the King had children of his own, she’d never matter. But fate handed her an empty throne to sit on and she wore it like a crown.

“Why isn’t she speaking?” one of Veronica's friends sneered, tilting her head at me, her curls bouncing with the mockery.

“Perhaps the cat’s got her tongue.”

“Or maybe she’s forgotten how to speak. Wouldn’t be surprising—wolfless and mute? Quite the pathetic package.”

Snickers echoed before Veronica’s lips curled into something crueler. “Well that won't matter today because i’ll deal with her until her wolf awakens to help her.” The finality in her tone twisted my stomach.

Everyone knew Veronica never threatened. She promised and every promise was carried out. Professors never interfered because they were too afraid to, fearing what her father would do to them.

“Why are you throwing yourself at my boyfriend, Tatiana?!” she shrieked.

"I already told you mistress....." I began with the title I had been forced to address her by. "I wasn't throwing myself at him. I only missed a step and fell and......"

" So I'm a liar?...."

" That wasn't what I meant, I......"

Before I could even open my mouth to finish, her palm cracked across my cheek. The sting radiated instantly, layering over the ache of my burns. I clenched my fists, my teeth digging into my lip. I refused to break in front of her.

I wasn’t going to shatter. 

Even the music room I had been longing to run to earlier was forgotten. The sanctuary I craved, gone. And this was all because of him. Deus Veyra.

---

A FEW HOURS EARLIER

I had stormed out of my dorm, my rage barely held together. The staircase connecting both wings of the academy loomed ahead—the girls’ dorm to the left and the boys’ to the right. I had no destination, just the desperate need to escape.

And the music room quiet and always empty was the only place that came to my mind. Somewhere for me to think. To breathe and plan how I’d fight this looming expulsion when all evidence stacked against me. 

My mother’s death and her secrets hidden inside this very academy demanded answers and I couldn’t leave now.

Lost in thought, I missed a step and my foot slipped.

I braced for impact, but instead of cold marble, I crashed against a chest—solid, warm and bare. My head pressed into taut muscle, the smell of sweat and cologne filling my senses. A hand gripped my waist, steadying me.

For one foolish second, I wanted to stay. To let this stranger hold me up against the weight of everything pressing me down.

“This is the most desperate way a girl’s tried to get my attention.”

His cocky voice snapped the moment like glass. I jerked back, heart plummeting but laughter was already spreading through the stairwell.

Of course. Deus Veyra, the academy's most arrogant jerk. Their famous hockey alpha.

I turned to flee but his hand shot out, blocking my path.

“You fall on me to get my attention, then try to run? Do you think you’re that special that I’d chase you?” His smirk carried the easy arrogance of someone who knew the whole school worshipped him.

“I’m sorry for bumping into you,” I muttered with a brittle voice. I tried to step around him to attempt leaving again. Not today as I wasn't ready for him. Not when I had nothing left in me to endure his endless taunts.

But Deus wasn’t done. 

“What’s that smell?” He sniffed the air, gaze darting around. My stomach twisted. He wasn’t talking about the hallway. He was talking about me.

“What smell?” I shot back, finally meeting his eyes to catch that they were Hazel-brown. 

He stood one step below me, bringing us nearly eye-to-eye. I had spent months avoiding him and dodging his taunting games. But now, staring this close, I saw why girls melted. He was extremely dashing and good looking. Athletic and untouchable, like the academy's golden boy he was.

The bane of my existence in this academy. And my greatest curse.

“Strange,” he murmured, sniffing again. “It’s faint… but it’s there. I caught it the first time” he said more to himself than to me. He looked confused just like I was from the rubbish he was spilling.

Then he leaned towards me, so close that his breath warmed my skin, pressing his face into the curve of my neck.

“What are you doing?!” My voice cracked as I shoved at him. The push was weak and trembling. He only leaned back because he chose to.

Gasps rippled through the growing crowd. Phones lifted and recording. My stomach dropped. This would spread like wildfire, another nail in the coffin of my reputation.

“Your scent.....it disappeared,” Deus said again, his eyes narrowing with suspicion. “Why does your scent come and go?”

I was growing tired by the questions he kept asking.

Before he could press further, I bolted from the space he made following hiwbcindhsi about my scent. I ran like the flames of hell were licking at my heels.

Because he wasn’t just any alpha. He was Veronica’s betrothed.

And I knew her wrath would find me.

Still thinking of her, I hadn't reached the hallway down the stairs for me to stand face to face before her. 

The one I had been trying to escape.

***

The shock of icy water snapped me back into the present. I gasped, shivering as the filth of soda, juice and now water clung to my soaked uniform. Flour dusted my skin. Sugar crusted against my hair. Powdered milk turned rancid in the heat of my body.

“This is what suits you, Tatiana,” Veronica hissed, yanking my head up. Her eyes burned with unbridled hatred. “A slut dressed as she deserves.”

Her hand lashed across my cheek again and again. 

Her friends laughed, one of them holding up a phone. Recording every strike. This would be plastered across the secret group chat before nightfall. The entire academy would watch my humiliation on repeat.

I tasted blood where my teeth cut my lip. But still, I stayed silent.

Because breaking now meant giving them everything they wanted.

And I couldn’t nor would I.

I closed my eyes as more slaps rained down, each strike snapping my head to the side. I simply waited. Because her slaps always came at the end as her twisted signature of finality.

Today, at least, she’d chosen a hidden corner with her pack of shadows instead of dragging me into the cafeteria or my classroom for a full spectacle. Small mercies, if they could even be called that.

“The next time I see you around Deus, I’ll skin you alive.” Her voice dropped into a growl as she grabbed my hair one last time and shoved me to the ground. My body hit the floor with a heavy thud, pain jolting through my spine.

“He is mine. Stay away from him. If you can’t, I’ll take your eyes myself. And if it’s your face or your skin that makes him stare, I’ll disfigure you with a hot iron.” She leaned close, her breath hot against my ear. “One day, Tatiana. One day.”

“Yes… mistress.” The words scraped from my throat like broken glass. I hated saying them but silence would only bring more blows. And I was already crumbling inside.

It was evening now. The sky outside had long since dimmed, and I realized I hadn’t eaten all day. My birthday wish was supposed to be a day that should have mattered—had been drowned in bruises, slaps and humiliation.

“Good.” Veronica snapped the word like a whip before turning on her heel.

“Whore,” one of her friends spat, following her out.

I watched their shadows disappear into the darkened hallway. My chest heaved as I sat there, torn between rage and despair. How could people look so perfect, yet carry hearts this vile? Didn’t their Luna training teach them kindness? Or was cruelty their inheritance as much as wealth and privilege were?

“Tatiana.”

The voice made me jolt. I scrambled up from the cold floor, hastily wiping at my swollen eyes, smoothing my ruined uniform as though the gesture could erase the humiliation baked into me.

“Draven…” My voice cracked. Relief, confusion and longing tangled inside me.

“What are you doing here? When did you get here?” My words tumbled too quickly, desperate to fill the silence. The place Veronica had dragged me to was deserted, far from where other students usually wandered. And his timing felt… strange.

A thought stabbed at me. Had he been there all along? Watching while Veronica and her friends battered me? Why hadn’t he stepped in? He could have stopped them with a single word. His family was powerful enough and his voice would carry weight. The betrayal of that possibility burned almost worse than Veronica’s slaps.

I shoved the thought down before it consumed me. He was here now. That was what mattered.

But then my eyes darted to his hands and nothing was him. Even his pockets were flat.

Did he forget? My birthday? Did he plan some surprise I hadn’t guessed yet? Or…

"Tatiana" he called again.

The words landed like another slap, sharper than all of Veronica’s combined. My heart froze in my chest, refusing to beat, as if denial could erase what I just heard.

“I’m breaking up with you.”