Chapter 4 - The Fallout

Rae

By the time I reached my dorm room, the box in my arms felt heavier than its contents could explain.

It carried my forgotten clothes, a few books, and the plush rabbit I had slept beside since childhood. It also carried everything that had happened in the lobby.

Sonya asking whether my necklace had behaved strangely.

Julien joking about becoming my boyfriend.

Grant acting as though he had any right to object.

All four command wolves watching me walk away.

I pushed open the door and found Chrissy sitting cross-legged on her bed with a textbook open in front of her. She took one glance at my face and closed it.

“Well,” she said. “That didn’t take long.”

I set the box on my desk. “What didn’t?”

“You becoming the most discussed person at Ravenwood Academy.”

“I was already the only human here.”

“That was old news.” She gestured toward me. “Now you’re the only human being followed around by Julien Bennett.”

“He wasn’t following me.”

Chrissy’s eyebrows rose.

“He was walking to the leadership dorm. Our paths happened to overlap.”

“For the entire courtyard?”

“Yes.”

“And then he followed you inside?”

“He nearly walked into me.”

“That sounds intimate.”

“It was almost a concussion.”

She grinned, but I turned toward the box before she could see how warm my face had become.

I stacked the books on my desk, then pulled out the rabbit and ran my thumb over its worn ear before placing it against my pillow.

Chrissy’s voice softened. “Are you okay?”

“I’m tired.”

“That wasn’t what I asked.”

The room was small but already lived in. Chrissy’s books covered half her desk, a bright yellow sweater hung over her chair, and candy wrappers had somehow appeared beside her lamp despite our having moved in that morning.

It should have felt safe.

Instead, I could still feel the weight of the lobby following me upstairs.

“I don’t understand why Julien keeps talking to me,” I admitted.

“Maybe he likes you.”

“He doesn’t know me.”

“That’s usually why people talk. To fix that.”

“You know what I mean.”

Chrissy shifted closer to the edge of her bed. “You think there has to be another reason.”

“There always is.”

The answer came too quickly.

People in Ravenwood rarely approached me without wanting something. Sometimes they wanted information about the Alpha household or an easy target. More often, they wanted to remind me that whatever kindness I received belonged to Sonya and Harold, not to me.

Julien’s attention felt different.

That did not make it safer.

“People like Julien don’t become friends with people like me,” I said.

“Why not?”

“Because he’s going to be Ravenwood’s Beta.”

“And?”

“And I’m leaving.”

Chrissy’s expression changed.

“Four years,” I said. “I graduate, move to a human city, and never have to wonder whether I belong in this pack again.”

“You’ve been planning that for years.”

“Yes.”

“So Julien speaking to you changes nothing.”

“It changes how people look at me. I just wanted to get through this quietly.”

Chrissy watched me for a moment. “You didn’t change today. Everything around you did. Julien noticed you. Grant noticed Julien noticing you. Sonya noticed both of them, and by tomorrow everyone will have invented six versions of what happened in that lobby.”

“I don’t care what Grant noticed.”

Chrissy’s silence was deeply unhelpful.

“I don’t,” I repeated.

“You’ve been rubbing your necklace since you said his name.”

My hand froze against my chest.

I hadn’t realized I had reached for the moonstone. It rested cool beneath my sweater, offering no sign of the heat that had pulsed through it when Grant said the word mate.

I dropped my hand.

“The chain is irritating my neck.”

“Of course.”

“It is.”

“I believe you.”

“You’re a terrible liar.”

“I prepare selectively.”

Despite myself, my mouth twitched.

Chrissy’s expression gentled. “You don’t have to decide what any of this means tonight.”

“I’ve already decided. It means I need everyone to forget I exist again.”

“I don’t think that’s an option anymore.”

A knock struck the door.

Both of us went still.

I had barely begun unpacking the box, and I wasn’t expecting anyone.

“Are you expecting someone?” Chrissy asked.

“No.”

The knock came again.

“Maybe Julien forgot something,” she whispered.

“He didn’t bring anything.”

“Maybe he forgot you.”

I gave her a look.

She grinned and opened the door before I could stop her.

Brax Weston stood in the hallway balancing two pizza boxes, four cans of soda, and enough confidence to suggest he had been personally invited.

He looked past Chrissy until he found me.

“Good,” he announced. “You’re alive.”

I stared at him. “What?”

“You looked about three bad thoughts away from joining a convent or committing murder.” He lifted the boxes. “I wasn’t sure which direction things were headed, so I brought pizza.”

“Where did you get pizza?”

His expression became solemn. “Don’t worry about it.”

“That makes me worry more.”

“As it should.”

He stepped into the room before either of us invited him and placed the sodas on my desk.

“This is an elite academy,” he explained. “They feed us rabbit food and sadness. Acquiring real food requires connections.”

“What connections?”

“Pizza connections.”

“That isn’t an answer.”

“If I told you, I’d have to kill you, and we’ve barely spoken. It would make tomorrow’s classes awkward.”

Chrissy snorted.

“You came to the girls’ dorm to bring me illegal food?” I asked.

“The pizza isn’t illegal.”

“You smuggled it in.”

“That makes it exclusive.”

“You’re not supposed to be up here.”

“Which makes me exclusive too.”

He opened one box, releasing the smell of melted cheese and pepperoni.

My stomach betrayed me with an audible growl.

Brax pointed at me. “See? Medical emergency.”

“I ate lunch.”

“So did I. Life continued.”

Chrissy closed the door before anyone in the hallway could see him. “How did you even find our room?”

“Connections.”

“You asked someone, didn’t you?” I said.

“Several people. The first two gave me wrong directions.”

“Probably on purpose.”

“I respect the commitment to dorm security.”

He began setting slices onto paper plates he had apparently brought with him. I still had not agreed to let him stay, but Brax behaved as though permission was an administrative inconvenience.

His gaze wandered across the room and stopped on my bed.

More specifically, on the rabbit.

His entire face lit up.

“Oh, you’re a nerd.”

I frowned. “I’m not a nerd.”

He pointed toward my desk. “Books.”

“I’m at school.”

“Tea.”

“There isn’t any tea.”

“You look like you drink tea.”

“That isn’t evidence.”

“Plush rabbit.”

His grin widened. “Adorable and extremely nerdesque.”

“Nerdesque isn’t a word.”

“Only a nerd would know that.”

“I am not a nerd.”

“Sweetheart, I say it with affection.”

Chrissy was already laughing.

Brax turned toward her. “You know what this calls for?”

“No,” I answered.

“A pizza tea party.”

“Still no.”

“We pour soda into tiny fancy cups and pretend we’re sophisticated.”

“We don’t have tiny fancy cups.”

He froze. “Damn.”

Chrissy laughed harder.

Brax shook his head at me. “Dream killer.”

“I’m sorry my dorm room wasn’t prepared for your uninvited cultural event.”

“What kind of nerd doesn’t own fancy teacups?”

“The kind who isn’t a nerd.”

His eyebrows rose triumphantly. “You just admitted there are kinds of nerds.”

I threw up my hands.

“We’ll drink from the cans like peasants,” he said with a sigh.

“That was clearly your plan from the beginning.”

“Yes, but imagining teacups made this elegant. Now it’s a peasant activity.”

“You are unbelievable.”

“No, I’m adaptable.” He popped open a soda and handed it to me. “Peasant activities are one of my specialties.”

Somehow, five minutes later, Chrissy and Brax were sitting on the floor beside the pizza boxes while I sat on the edge of my bed with a plate balanced on my knee.

I didn’t remember agreeing to any of it.

The strangest part was that I wasn’t annoyed.

I should have wondered whether this was a joke, a dare, or some new way to make me regret drawing attention.

Instead, I listened as he described the route he had taken through the service stairwell to avoid the dorm supervisor.

“You climbed through a laundry window?” Chrissy asked.

“I prefer to say I used an alternate entrance.”

“You crawled through a window.”

“It was dignified.”

“You have dust in your hair.”

Brax brushed at his dirty-blond hair and frowned when white powder fell onto his shoulder.

“Evidence can be misleading.”

A laugh escaped me.

Small, but real.

Brax looked toward me, something satisfied crossing his face before he covered it with another bite of pizza.

The reaction made me uneasy.

“What?”

“What what?”

“You looked at me.”

“I have eyes.”

“Why did you bring this?”

He lowered the slice. “The pizza?”

“All of it. Why are you here?”

Chrissy stopped laughing.

Brax considered the question.

“You looked like you’d had a terrible day.”

“That’s it?”

“Should there be more?”

“There usually is.”

The humor faded from his expression.

“No,” he said. “That’s it.”

Something tightened inside my chest.

“You barely know me.”

“I know you like pizza.”

“You didn’t know that before you came.”

“Then this was an important research mission.”

His grin returned, gentler now, as if he understood I needed somewhere to put the conversation that didn’t leave me exposed.

“Oh,” he added. “Julien wanted to come.”

I nearly inhaled my soda.

“What?”

“He wanted to come.”

“Why?”

Brax shrugged. “You looked sad.”

“That isn’t an answer.”

“It was enough for him.”

Unease returned.

Julien had noticed.

Brax had noticed.

I had spent years around these boys without any of them crossing the distance Grant had created between us. Now two of them had decided my mood mattered before the first day was over.

“What stopped him?” Chrissy asked.

“Grant.”

My hand moved to the moonstone before I caught myself.

Brax noticed but said nothing.

“What did Grant do?” I asked.

“He told us to leave you alone for one damn hour.”

Heat rose beneath my skin.

“He said that?”

Brax straightened his back, lowered his voice, and arranged his face into a severe imitation of Grant.

“Leave her alone for one damn hour. She’s had enough attention.”

Chrissy burst out laughing.

I did not.

“He doesn’t get to decide that.”

“Probably not.”

“He ignored me for six years. He doesn’t get to suddenly choose who talks to me.”

“Also fair.”

“And I don’t care what he thinks.”

“Mm.”

My eyes narrowed. “What does ‘mm’ mean?”

“It means I’m chewing.”

Chrissy covered her mouth, shoulders shaking.

“I mean it.”

Brax swallowed and nodded solemnly. “Absolutely.”

Then he looked toward Chrissy.

“She means it.”

Chrissy immediately became fascinated by her pizza.

“Traitor,” I muttered.

“I do mean it. Grant stopped being my friend years ago. He chose that. He doesn’t get to walk back into my life because someone else spoke to me.”

The moonstone remained trapped beneath my fingers.

Brax’s humor disappeared.

“Sweetheart,” he said gently, “I’ve been talking to you for less than a day, and even I know you’re lying.”

The words silenced me.

He wasn’t smug or teasing. He simply said it as though the truth had been obvious from the moment Grant’s name entered the room.

I looked away first.

The problem wasn’t that Brax was wrong.

The problem was how much I wanted him to be.

A knock struck the door.

Brax’s head lifted, and a delighted grin spread across his face.

“This is perfect.”

I frowned. “What is?”

He stood and brushed crumbs from his jeans.

“Speak of the emotionally constipated devil.”

Before I could stop him, he pulled open the door.

Grant stood in the hallway, looking far too composed to have climbed through the same laundry window as Brax. Apparently, future Alpha heirs were allowed to use the front entrance when retrieving their rule-breaking friends.

His gaze moved over Brax, then past Chrissy sitting on the floor. It lingered on the pizza boxes and the soda in my hand before settling on my face.

Something flickered across his expression.

I realized too late that I was still smiling.

A real smile.

For one suspended moment, I remembered who used to put it there.

Judging by the brief fracture in Grant’s control, he remembered too.

The emotion vanished almost immediately, buried beneath the distance he had worn for years.

Brax remained blissfully unaware of the wreckage surrounding him.

“Perfect timing,” he announced. “Grant, we were discussing peasant activities. Rae destroyed my dream of hosting a sophisticated pizza tea party because she doesn’t own fancy cups. I’m not sure how I’ll recover.”

Grant’s eyes stayed on me for another heartbeat before moving to Brax.

“What are you doing?”

“Hosting a cultural event.” Brax lifted a slice toward him. “Would you like pizza, or are you here to judge us?”

Grant blinked. “A cultural event?”

“A pizza tea party.”

I closed my eyes. “Please stop talking.”

“No.”

Chrissy tried not to laugh while Grant stood in the doorway looking as though he had entered the wrong room and found a version of me he had forgotten existed.

After the longest, strangest day of my life, Ravenwood’s future Alpha stared at me as though he no longer knew what to do with me.