LOGINCassie's POV“You can't do this to me,” “It's been decided.” he responded without looking at me. I stood up. That was all I had left. Just my legs carrying me upright and my hand reaching for my bag and the very specific kind of exhaustion that comes from fighting a battle that was rigged.I got three steps toward the door, it opened before I touched it.Caspian walked in, to my surprise. He didn't look at me first. He looked at Daven, and whatever was in that look made Daven get to his feet faster than I'd seen him move this entire meeting."Alpha Caspian." Daven's entire voice changed register. "I wasn't aware you wanted to see me""I am not here for you." Caspian stepped fully into the room and finally glanced at me, just once, quick and assessing, making sure I was okay. Then his attention went back to Daven. "Sit down.""Caspian, what are you doing here?" I asked, my eyes moving between him and Daven.Daven sat down. I stood very still near the door and watched a man who had ju
Cassie's POVThirty pairs of eyes turned to look at me.I sat completely still with my pen still touching the paper and thought that I had not had a single normal day this entire week and it showed absolutely no signs of stopping. I stood up slowly and made my way to the head’s office.I took a deep breath and I knocked twice."Come in, Miss Hale."I pushed the door open and stopped walking the second I saw her.Katie. Sitting in the chair across from Head Daven's desk with her legs crossed and her hands folded neatly in her lap like she was posing for a school brochure. She looked up at me and smiled, a slow and satisfied smile. I wanted to turn around and walk back out, but I didn't.Principal Daven gestured to the empty chair beside Katie without looking up from the papers on his desk. I sat down, kept my back straight, and stared forward."Miss Hale." He finally looked up, folding his hands on the desk. He was a broad man with a careful voice, the kind of person who chose every
Cassie's POV Asher. Of course it was Asher. "Sure," I said, because at that moment my mouth had stopped consulting my brain before making decisions. "Go ahead." He pulled out the chair beside me and sat down with ease. He set his bag down, and didn't immediately reach for anything. I looked back at my notes. Or I looked at my notes the way you look at something when you're not actually seeing it. My eyes were moving across the page but absolutely nothing was going in. The words kept rearranging themselves into nonsense and I kept starting the same paragraph over and over and getting nowhere. Asher said nothing for a while. Just sat there doing his own thing while I performed the act of studying with genuinely embarrassing dedication. "You're struggling," he said finally. "What? No. I am completely fine." "You've read the same page four times." "I'm a thorough person." "Cassie." "I have a quiz, Asher. I need to focus." "I know. That's why I am asking." He leaned slightly
Cassie's POV "Cassie Hale." My own name felt like a slap. The forum post had my full name sitting there in bold, clean letters, served to the entire academy on a plate. "Shit," I breathed as I bolted out of the auditorium. I didn't think about it, didn't plan it, just tucked my diary under my arm and moved. I heard my name behind me, their voices overlapping in a way that would have made my heart do something stupid under any other circumstance. Right now all it did was make me run faster. The hallway hit me like noise and light and too many people at once. A few heads turned. Someone whispered something to the person next to them and they both looked. I kept moving, the kind of walking that was one bad second away from becoming sprinting. I didn't make it far before a hand closed around my arm and yanked me sideways through a door I hadn't even clocked was there. The smell of mop water and cleaning supplies hit me immediately. It was the janitor's closet. “Please, I don't wan
Cassie's POV I looked at them. I thought I was hearing things. I waited for him to take it back or laugh or tell me it was a weird joke they'd cooked up to distract me from the Katie situation. Everyone looked serious. Mate? Their mate? "Sorry," I said, pressing my hand over my mouth. "Sorry? Okay, wow." Luka watched me with something between amusement and concern. "Are you good?" "Absolutely not." I pointed between the three of them. "You're Alphas." "I think we know that already,” Caspian said. "How can I be the mate of three Alphas from three different territories?" "And I'm—" I gestured at myself, at all of me, at the very specific, very unfortunate reality of what I was. "I don't have a wolf. I'm a wolfless omega. I can't even do anything properly. I eat lunch alone because half of this school thinks I'm bad luck." My voice stayed steady somehow. "So whatever you think you all felt, I need you to consider the possibility that you got it wrong." "Alphas don't get mates wr
Cassie's Pov I didn’t sleep much, but by morning I felt steady enough to face school again. I showered, packed my bag, tied my hair in a bun and told myself I wasn’t going to hide anymore. If Katie wanted to play a game, I would stop running from her. Before leaving the house, I opened my phone and typed the message I’d been rehearsing in my head all night. ‘Meet me in the auditorium at 12.’ My finger hesitated for only a second before I hit send. The reply came almost instantly, short and sharp, exactly like her. ‘Bet.’ I walked into school with my heart beating like it was about to burst out of my chest. People stared, whispered, looked twice, and each time my breath seized, but I kept my head down and stayed small. I stayed in the back of every class, barely lifting my eyes, counting the minutes until lunch by 12, I made sure even Lily had no idea I was in school. I met Katie behind the auditorium after lunch, the place where people went when they didn’t want witn







