CHAPTER 1

TAE

My pack believed that we were special. Hand picked by the Goddess and made protectors. They call it Hwansu in our tongue – Phantom beast. That was before they were attacked and shredded by marauders.

If my pack saw me right now, cowering and hiding all because I thought I saw my tormentor, they’ll toast me for shaming our legacy. All because of Ronan fucking Blackwood.

“Sunny?”

I flinch at the mocking tone in Ronan’ voice and press my back against the wall, praying that the waste bin is large enough to hide my small frame.

I’m not lucky enough as I see Ronan’s boots step into my line of sight. I slowly lift my head, my hazel eyes clashing with his light green ones. There it is again! Those darn flutters whenever I’m around him. I just want it to end.

“Hiding from me?” His smirk is cruel, making his whole face appear menacing.

“No. I was - stomach ache.”

I stand as I say this, not wanting to be at a disadvantage around him. He’s never hit me before – in the two years that I’ve been at Alpha Court – but I don’t want to give him the opportunity to do so. Lest I annoy or disgust him once again.

“Do you think starving yourself would make you more pretty ... thinner?” His lips pinch in displeasure as he says this and I sigh internally. Somehow, something I’ve done has pissed him off again.

“I’ll eat.” He’d taken to glaring at me in the dinning hall a year ago, and only shifts his focus once I’m done eating. I’m sure it’s because he can then have a good meal without my presence nauseating him in the room.

“And showing your skin doesn’t make the girls thirst after you.” My eyes fall to my t shirt, a frown on my lips because the shirt doesn’t show any skin at all. If at all, it’s too modest for the depravity that goes on at this school.

“The weather is too cold for that.” He mumbles this part out difficultly. We were both the only people on the last floor in our building – him because his grandfather built the dorm, and me because I had a ‘falling out’ with a previous roommate who hated seeing my eyes and had to move rooms immediately.

“I don’t get cold.” Despite it being the truth, Ronan scowls at me. The last time I’d gotten sick, it was a terrible fever and I’d been locked in my room without any medication for two days. Ronan swore he could smell my funk from the hall, so he broke my door down when I didn’t answer. Since then, he’s been really insistent that I never put him in that situation where he has to look after me. Or care for me.

“Still.” He doesn’t say anything after this, instead turning to the right. It’s then that I make out his friends, Hermes and Zeke. They’re frowning at Ronan, probably confused as to why he’s the only one allowed to make his digs at me. They’re not aware of the deal we’ve struck – No one is.

“Come on, Ronan. Damon's going to be pissed.” Zeke rubs his hands together for warmth, shooting me a cold stare.

“He’s going to wait. Relax.” I can see that his mood is quickly souring and the need to get out from his sight ramps up.

“Uh, I’ll just... go?”

Before I can move around him, he has me shoved against the wall, my back slamming against the hard surface as I feel my insides quake. Goddess.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“To eat?” I say this, because it might be what gets him to release me this time.

“I need your tears, Sunny.”

And this is why Ronan continues to be a thorn in my flesh. My first week at school, I’d been asked to introduce myself. I’d told my class about my name and it’s meaning – which is why Ronan calls me Sunny – and I’d told them about the attack.

Embarrassingly, I’d ended up crying a few minutes into the story and some mean person had recorded my speech, sharing it to everyone on campus. Ronan had approached me the next day – after ignoring me coldly when I moved in – asking if emotions were easy to me. He’d hurt me that first time just to force my tears, prodding deep into the attack of my pack.

“I don’t have any left, Ronan.”

His nostrils flare at my refusal to grant him his wish. It’s dehumanising, what he has me do all because the entire academy is somehow beholden to him. Except his two friends.

“Yes, you do. You’re going to cry for me. Now, Tae.”

At my harried breaths, he laughs cruelly. “I guess I should send someone after your old man, make him join his dead pack.”

My throat squeezes as I think of Hyun. I don’t know what would happen if Ronan hurt my only family, all because he’s obsessed with seeing my pain and hurt.

My frustration wells up inside me and bleeds out of the corners of my eyes. Ronan’s gaze is transfixed as the tear drops roll down my face.

“You’re hideous like this.” His hand grips my chin as he says this, lifting my face so he can better see the pain. “No one needs you here. No one wants you here. You’ll fade into the background soon enough, just like your family.”

My chest heaves as the tears flow easily now, melding with the moisture that somehow always coats my face.

“Your pain is irrelevant and doesn’t matter to anyone. Least of all me.” He swipes across my cheek, spreading the tear stains.

“Do you remember what you told me that first week? Do you still feel the wave in your stomach at the sight of me?”

I know what he’s about to say and I squint my eyes tight, blacking out the sight of those shameful words. He doesn’t let me hide, as he leans down till his lips are right by my ear.

“You called me your mate. You called me yours, like I’ll ever be linked to a weak little thing like you.”

And there it is – the real reason he cannot stand me. The reason he’s made my life at campus a nightmare ever since that first day. It was my greatest mistake. My greatest shame. And I hated that he won’t let me forget about the incident.

His hand slides up to my throat, gently holding, not squeezing. His thumbs rests against my frantically beating pulse.

“Do you still think I’m yours?”