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Chapter 1

Adele Wilson

The blaring sound of my alarm interrupted my sleep, yanking me out of sleep and back into the cruel world after hours of being asleep.

Each morning, the sound of my alarm felt like a call to death and nightmare. Something I couldn't avoid. I needed to face it.

"Are you awake, darling? You are going to be late for school." My beloved father spoke from outside, a small knock sounding on the door.

I rolled off the bed with the little strength in me, slipping my big feet into my flip flops. "I'll be there in a minute, dad."

As I stood in front of the mirror, staring at my plump face, I could only wish for one thing. To wake up one morning and see that I had lost all the fat and be a slim and beautiful girl like every other person. That is not too much to ask, right?

After a quick shower, I got ready for the academy, leaving my room to go join my father in the dining room.

"Good morning, dad." I sat across from the forty-eight-year-old man, his brown eyes brightened with a smile as they gazed at me with love and compassion. The only man who ever looked at me like I matter to him.

"I hope you like the food." He smiled as he helped me dish out my food.

"Yes, dad. I love it. You cook better than me." I chuckled.

"Let me help you with that." He reached for the jar of water and poured me some, inviting a warm smile to my face.

This was the only time I ever got to be genuinely happy. Around my father.

Silence thickened around us. I could feel my dad's gaze on me as I ate, but I held my gaze low, resisting the urge to tell him that I wasn't interested in going to the academy. If he didn't go through a hard time before enrolling me in the school, I would've opted out before now.

"Are you having a nice time at the academy? Are you making friends?"

His question stirred something inside me, and my eyes stung with tears, but I held them back.

I looked at him and smiled. "Yes. I made a lot of friends, dad." I just hope he didn't notice the pain in my eyes. The lies behind the fake smiles.

He reached for my head and ruffled my hair. "I'm glad you are fine, child."

I nodded, forcing a smile. How was I supposed to tell him that I was being bullied at the academy? That the sight of me irritates every single person there?

"Adele..."

I raised my gaze to see him smiling at me, but what he failed to do, was hiding the pain behind the smile. Does he by chance know what I'm going through?

"If it ever gets hard, you can always come home to me, alright?"

"Hmm. I'll be fine." I assured him, even though I was barely hanging on.

I left for the academy after breakfast.

My heart stalled, and heat caught in my throat as I stood in front of the tall building, tightening my grip around my backpack.

Just like every other day, I thought of going back from here, but I knew that as always, I had to endure and push through this until the end.

I took a deep breath. "You got this, Adele." I whispered, my voice barely audible over the pounding in my chest.

My legs trembled beneath me as I stepped inside the building, and silence welcomed me the moment I stepped inside the hallway.

All eyes were on me. Their loud murmurs piercing through my ears. The air itself felt like it was gossiping about me. I was used to getting attention each day that I came to the academy, but this was different. The atmosphere felt eerily quiet. Did something happen?

"Look who is here?"

I halted abruptly on my track, my heart skipped a beat as Henry, the alpha prince, stood in front of me, blocking me from entering the locker room.

"You're late to school today, fatty." Henry teased me, his blue eyes piercing at me.

I wanted to snap "Don't call me that.", but getting on the prince's nerve would be the worst mistake I would be making today, so I held back.

"Come with me." he turned his back on me and started to walk away.

"The drama coordinator wants to see the casts for the upcoming school drama." he added, not turning to look at me.

My eyes shot open. "Casts?"

My phone beeped at that moment, and I froze on the spot when I saw the announcement in the school forum. The academy was hosting its thirty years anniversary in a few weeks from now, and I, Adele Wilson, was chosen as the leading actress.

My body went numb, cold seeping through my body as my grip around my phone tightened. Why me of all of the students in the academy? Of course, it was to set me up for another bullying.

"Don't keep me waiting." Henry's voice cut through my thoughts before he left my sight.

I followed him hesitantly to the school ballroom where almost every students in my class were already waiting. Their noise which I could hear from outside earlier, all faded into silence the moment I stepped inside. Their eyes all piercing holes in my body as they gazed at me.

The drama coordinator was one of the professors in the academy. He paused and turned to me, his eyes scanned my body briefly, then to my face.

"I wonder why Henry chose her." Those words were supposed to be in whispers, but I heard them clearly.

Henry's smirk welcomed as I turned to look at him. He picked me out of all the students just so he could torment me. Why does he hate me this much? Why the hell does it bother him that I'm plump and ugly? Or was there another reason for this? Something I didn't know about?

"Here is the script. You should rehearse it." The drama coordinator thrusted the script in my palm, then looked at me with a smile that didn't reach his eyes, and said, "Good luck, Adele. You got this." And with that, he headed out of the ballroom.

I lifted my gaze to Henry, a tear dropped from my eyes as I asked, "Why are you doing this, Henry?"

He shrugged, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips as those words carelessly rolled out of his tongue. "Because messing with you is the only fun I get around here, Adele."

As his eyes bored into mine, a smile on his face, I noticed something behind them. Was it bitterness? Boredom? I couldn't pinpoint it.

It hit me hard at that moment why he was bullying me. It wasn't because I was ugly or plump. He had nothing against me. He just found this fun to do.

He wrapped his arm around my shoulder, pulling me close without warning. "Everyone, let me introduce to you, the leading actress of the academy's upcoming drama. Adele Wilson."

As if this was funny, the ballroom echoed with the students' laughter, piercing a hole in my heart.

My eyes wandered around the ballroom for no reason, and I spotted Jason Wolff, standing with his hands in his pockets. Calm and collected. As always. His eyes were on me. Blank and unreadable as always. It felt like he was always watching me.

Jason Wolff was the son of the late Nightshade Pack's beta. Rumour had it that after the death of his father fifteen years ago when he was just eight, he was sent out of the country to another Pack, and only moved back into Nightshade Pack two years ago.

My face burned with embarrassment. Heat caught in my throat at the shame of my crush being here while I was getting bullied.

I had liked and admired Jason from afar for two years, but he never noticed me. How the fuck was he supposed to, when we are from different worlds?

While I was just an ordinary daughter of a packhouse guard, an ugly plump werewolf with big dreams of becoming a figure skater, a dream that may never come true in my lifetime, Jason was the opposite. He was the epitome of perfection. A top student, leader of the ice hockey team, and a cute young man who has every lady's panties dripping just at the sight of him.

I'm not making things up, I've heard a few girls say that a lot.

Even in the face of embarrassment, I still didn't fail to notice how hot he looked today. How he stood out in the crowd with the most perfect height, sexy physique, and fuck! Those honey-brown doe eyes. Those eyes that would have me undressing with just a glance. Jason looked like he'd been carved from sin itself. Perfect, hot, dangerous, and utterly unreachable.

"Hey, Jason."

My grip tightened around the script as I watched Chloe, Henry's sister walked over to him, clinging to his arm possessively as though she owned him.

Chloe wasn't just the alpha's daughter, but the leader of the figure skating team, and Jason's wannabe girlfriend. She parades herself in the academy as Jason's girlfriend, but not many people know that they are not in a relationship.

"How about we practice one of the scenes here, hmm? It's a kiss scene. I bet you have never kissed a man before, right?" Henry chuckled, grabbing my hand and forcing me to face him.

"Is she seriously going to kiss her? Ew!"

"Henry must be messing with her. I know he won't try to kiss that ugly thing."

Those demeaning words made my heart wrench tightly in my chest.

"We still have to practice, Henry. Let's go to the locker room." I noticed the shift in Jason's mood before he stepped forward, getting Henry's attention.

Henry's eyes flashed with disappointment as he looked at me. "Let's say you are lucky today... See you around."

Henry winked at me, then ruffled my hair before walking out of the ballroom, not before throwing Jason a glare. I had no idea what happened, but that was definitely not a friendly glare.

"Let's go to the cafeteria before you go to the ice rink, Jason. Bills on me."

I raised my gaze as Chloe's voice brushed through my ears, and I saw her leaving with Jason.

Our eyes met as Jason looked in my direction. His eyes held many mysteries and secrets. What is he hiding?