Nocturne Academy

Delilah

“Look, girls. We have another poor one!” the raven-haired bully loudly announced as I approached the new student orientation table outside the gates of Nocturne Academy.

I’d barely stepped foot on campus with a warning from my parents to grow a thick skin, and I was already a target of bullying.

I stopped at the table and glanced at the heckling girls curiously. They were all so…stunning. They had clear, bright skin, shiny, voluminous hair, straight, white teeth, and facial features fit for high-fashioned magazines, and yet their cruelty made them ugly in my eyes.

I took in the details of their prestigious uniforms that vastly differed from mine. They wore a tailored black blazer that was finely pressed. The blazer had red piping around the collar and cuffs with our school’s crest embroidered on the left breast in gold. Underneath the blazer, they wore white blouses with lace trim around the neck and a deep red satin tie with a gold clip. They wore black pleated skirts with tights underneath them and shiny black shoes.

My uniform was a plain black sweater, a stiff white shirt, and a skirt that stopped at my shins. I was a scholarship student and didn’t have the luxury of wearing Nocturne Academy’s distinguished uniform. My mother attended Nocturne Academy years ago and admitted that the school was rampant with rich snobs and classism. She warned me not to attend, but she was my biggest role model, and I wanted to follow in her footsteps.

My mother grew up in a wealthy family but was cut off from her rightful fortune when she married my father—a rogue who’d finally found a legitimate pack to call home. My family wasn’t poor; however, we couldn’t afford the $50,000 yearly tuition and room and board. Thankfully, I took after my mother intellectually and landed a full-ride scholarship due to my perfect grade point average and testing scores, participation in student government, peer tutoring, various volunteer projects, and my high school’s field hockey team.

“What’s your name, poor girl?” the leader asked, returning me to reality. Her friends snickered around her, and as much as I wanted to ignore them and write them off as mean girls, their actions still stung. Would I have to face this ridicule for the next four years?

Someone snapped their fingers repeatedly.

“Hey! We don’t have all day,” a redhead impatiently exclaimed.

“My name is Delilah Hunt.”

The head bitch in charge rolled her eyes and scrolled through her tablet. She smiled gruesomely, and I wondered what calamity would come my way.

“Delilah Cunt,” she said with a smirk, sending her posse into a fit of laughter. “I’ve found you.”

“Hunt,” I repeated firmly, nearly growling.

"Ooooo," the girls taunted.

The raven-haired girl stood after discarding her tablet to the side. She rifled through a box of lanyards before finding mine.

“Welcome to Nocturne Academy, Delilah Cunt,” she said, emphasizing the word ‘cunt’ before tossing my badge onto the ground like I was a dog.

“Pick it up,” I demanded.

The titters immediately ceased, and the bitch folded her arms over her chest and stuck her hip out to the side.

“What the fuck did you just say?”

“You heard me…pick it up.”

Her cheeks flushed red, and her mouth repeatedly gaped open and shut like a fish out of water.

“Anastasia, are you going to let her talk to you like that?” one of her cronies questioned. The prodding from her friend seemed to snap Anastasia out of her stupor. She sneered and rounded the table to confront me. I didn’t move—I held my ground just like my father taught me.

She got into my face until we were chest to chest.

“If I were you, I’d take a few steps back unless you want to give the student body the impression you have a crush on me.”

“Fuck you, half-breed.”

“You should save some of that anger for the plastic surgeon that did your nose.”

Anastasia reeled her fist back, and I was prepared to dodge her punch when someone caught her arm and jerked her back.

“Are you fucking serious, Anastasia?” he growled, yanking her away from me.

“Let me go! I’ll never let a fucking half-breed disrespect me!” she huffed, wrenching her arm out of his grasp.

“So you’d prefer to be expelled? You’d be packing your bags right now if Professor Grey hadn’t told me to intervene!” he yelled, pointing toward a man I quickly found in a crowd of blustering students.

He stood out like a lighthouse, guiding me at sea. The passerbyers blurred, becoming more and more obsolete as stolen seconds ticked by. He felt so far away yet so near. Despite the distance, I felt I could reach out and touch him.

His brown eyes collided with mine, and a cataclysmic reaction exploded deep within me. He deeply frowned, but that did little to quell the riot inside me. He was gorgeous—tall—maybe 6'4" with dark, neatly styled hair and baby blue eyes that, when the sun hit just right, sparkled like a diamond. He had a strong, straight nose that rested above lips that would haunt me in my dreams, and he hid his muscular physique beneath a black tailored suit that I wouldn’t mind peeling off him like the wrapper of my favorite candy bar. I wouldn’t stop until I reached the sweetness beneath.

I took a step forward but halted when he shook his head. He disappeared into the crowd, leaving me spiraling.

What the hell just happened?

“Here. I’m sorry about that,” the guy who came to my rescue said. I glanced up at him and nearly shaded my eyes from his blinding smile. He was about six feet tall with blonde hair that was messy but styled. He had sparkling green eyes and, like the mean girls, a face that belonged on a billboard.

And while he was objectively attractive. I couldn’t help but think he had nothing on Professor Grey.

“Um…thank you,” I replied mechanically as I accepted my lanyard.

“I’m Julian—Julian Lancaster, Secretary of Gamma Tau Silverclaw and Vice President of Student Affairs. Welcome to Nocturne Academy, Delilah.”

“Thank you for the welcome and for intervening. It probably would’ve gotten messy if you hadn’t.”

“No problem. The last thing I wanted was to spend my afternoon collecting hair extensions from the ground.”

I laughed at the mental picture and how he wagged his brows at me.

“I’m sure that as Vice President of Student Affairs, you have more pressing matters to attend to.”

He smiled devilishly. “You’re right. It’s my job to assist with greeting the incoming freshmen and giving tours. What dorm are you in?”

I retrieved a folded paper from my skirt pocket and scanned the page.

“It looks like I’m in Moonlit Grove Hall.”

“Awesome! That’s right next door to me. I’m in Crimson Moon Hall. I can take you there now,” he said, grabbing the handle of my suitcase.

“Oh, you don’t have to—”

I couldn’t even finish my sentence when he took off for the foreboding gates of Nocturne Academy.

I followed after him, passing the “welcoming committee.” One of the girls called me a whore, and the urge to bite back and say, “Your mother” was strong. Instead, I followed Julian and tried to keep up with his hurried gait while attempting to forget Professor Grey.

I can’t forget the man, even if I tried because there is a sliver of a chance that he is my mate.