Chapter 6

The next day, I walked into college with a mission. To find the guy responsible for wrecking my chances at a peaceful year, and possibly my grades too.

I had been so disturbed since yesterday that I couldn't focus on anything—let alone sleep. Even the homework I barely managed to finish didn't have half the effort I usually put into it.

All the while, those hurtful, degrading words played in my head like a broken cassette player in a loop.

Last night, I was crushed, but this morning, I was just mad, and it pushed my legs forward as I marched down the hallway, looking for my curly-haired, skinny admirer.

I wasn’t an aggressive person—not really. In fact, there were only a handful of times when I had actually lost my cool. But what that guy did, and the mess it caused? Yeah, I wasn’t letting it slide. I had to do something. At the very least, I had to vent.

Reaching his locker, I found the space empty when another guy walked up to the one beside his—one of the jocks.

"Excuse me. Do you know where Sheldon is?" I asked, stepping up to him.

He glanced over, raising a thick brow as he looked me up and down as though he couldn't believe a girl was actually asking about the campus nerd. "At his usual, of course," he replied. Then he paused, his eyes widening in sudden realization.

But of what?

"Hey, aren't you the girl who tried to go down on Professor Valerious yesterday?"

I stilled, my lips curling with distaste.

As if I wasn't humiliated enough from the said professor, someone had to take a picture of me kneeling before him—too close to him—and spread it like wildfire in the college social media groups. Though it was taken down exactly ten minutes after. But the damage was already done. People saw, and they assumed the worst like they always did.

Tears threatened to make their appearance as I walked away from the guy, biting my cheeks not to cry, my anger spiking.

Storming down the hall, I reached the empty classroom Sheldon used as his hideout and burst through the door. "Look what have you d—"

I stopped short, coming face-to-face with four guys and another slumped on the ground.

Jason's gang.

Two of them lounged on the desks while the other two circled the boy on the ground.

Sheldon. Covered in bruises and blood. One of his glasses cracked. "Ana..." he groaned.

A sharp gasp escaped me, cutting through the heavy silence. I rushed to him, forgetting all about my anger and dropping to my knees. "Sheldon! Oh my God! What are you doing to him?"

His black eye, the bloody nose and the busted lip—I took it all in with horror. New bruises were forming on his wrists.

"Come, baby doll. Look what we have here for you." Danny said lazily, resting an arm over his bent knee. As far as I knew, he was second-in-command to Jason.

"What do you mean for me?" I looked up with confusion.

"We took your revenge, duh. You're welcome," Anton chimed in from beside Danny. He had blue hair and more piercings than I could count.

My brows dipped lower as I slowly stood. "What revenge?"

"Don't act so naive now," Alyx, the geek in their group, drawled, grabbing his tab and snapping a picture of Sheldon like this was all some sick joke.

"Are you insane or just high?" I snapped before I could stop myself.

"Language, doll." Tyson stepped before me, his muscled build blocking my view of the others and instilling back my fear. I didn't know if they would actually hurt me, but considering their reputation, I wouldn't put it past them.

"I never asked you to take revenge," I gasped, backing up two steps.

"So? No one messes with Jason's girl."

"What are you even talking about? I'm not anyone's girl!"

I couldn’t believe this was happening. How could they just...assume things? First that picture, now this? What had I done to deserve any of it? Yesterday was awful, but today? Today was worse.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Sheldon move. Before I could even process what he was doing, he sprang to his feet and bolted for the door. Tyson lunged after him, but Sheldon was already gone, vanishing down the hallway and leaving me behind.

I swallowed, slowly turning around. They could do anything to me now, and no one would know.

Danny laughed, jumping off the desk. "Any girl would kill to be in your shoes right now."

"I'm not any girl," I said, slowly stepping back.

With Sheldon gone, I became the center of their attention, and as if they could sniff my fear like vipers, the gang smirked wickedly, coming at me.

I turned to run only to find Tyson already blocking the doorway.

"Don't be scared, Ana,” Alyx crooned mockingly. “We're just playing with you."

"Are we really?" Anton sneered, and the boys burst into laughter.

"Please... let me go," I whispered, the words trembling off my lips. I cursed myself for coming here alone. I should’ve told someone—anyone. The girls must be looking for me. I prayed Sheldon would inform them or the authorities. I hoped someone would come for me. Soon.

"What were you saying then?" Danny stepped forward, his vile smile hinting at an upcoming danger. "That you deny Jason?"

I stared at them, speechless. If I said yes, I didn't want to imagine what they would do. Sheldon’s bloodied face crossed my mind, and my palms grew clammy. It didn't matter that I was a girl. Or that this was a college campus. These guys were rebels; they didn't care about rules.

But if I said no, that'd be a lie I'd have to bear the consequences of in the foreseeable future, and I did not want to go through that. No way.

I thought that deep down, Jason could be a good person, but I was wrong. He was a coward who sent his minions to threaten a girl into his arms.

"The clock's ticking, doll," Danny reminded, getting impatient.

"Tick tock. Tick tock," Anton mocked.

I shrank back, eyes fluttering shut as I whispered a desperate prayer. Please...someone. Help me.

The answer came like thunder.

A deafening slam burst through the room as the door ricocheted off the wall, making me jolt and snapping every head toward the entrance.

There he stood—Professor Zeus Valerious.

His demeanor was calm and composed, but his eyes were flaming. Not like the wolf's I saw that night, but as though behind the icy exterior, there was a raging wildfire threatening to lash out and leave nothing but piles of ashes behind.

He took one step inside, and the air shifted. Heavy. Dangerous.

"What. Is. Going. On. In. Here?" he clipped, stalking forward as each word rolled out of him slowly and menacingly.

As if the Blazes got the message clear as the day, they stepped back from me.

"Professor Valerious," Danny jumped in quickly. "We were just talking." He glanced at me with a smug smile. "Right, Ana?"

I didn't answer. I couldn’t. Breath caught in my throat, my gaze flicked between the boys and the man who just walked in like a dark knight out of some forbidden dream. I wanted to run to him. I also wanted to run away. After the photo, the rumors, and all those cruel things he said to me, I wasn’t brave enough to face him anymore.

But one thing was certain; in this moment, I was grateful he came.

From behind the professor's imposing frame, Sheldon appeared, cradling his wrist. The look of vulnerability was gone from his bruised face, replaced with anger.

"They did it to me, Professor," he said, pointing not just at the boys but at me too.

I instinctively stepped away, but his accusing finger moved at my direction. "Her too."

I gasped, my eyes widening. "Sheldon! What are you talking about? I didn't—"

"You told them to beat me up!" he snapped. "You could have just said you already had a boyfriend."

"I do-"

"Enough!" the professor boomed. In the blink of an eye, he had Sheldon by the collar, his jaw ticking dangerously. "To the dean's office. All of you."

The words hit like a bucket of ice water. My heart plummeted as I shook my head in disbelief. No... This couldn't be happening.

Not the dean. If my mom found out—and she would—it wouldn’t just ruin me. It would destroy her. I didn’t deserve any of this.

"Profe-" Alyx began, but Mr. Valerious silenced him with a single glare.

"Now," he commanded, shoving the nerd off his grip.

For a brief moment, the gang looked like they might rebel and show the professor exactly who they were. But something kept them from going down that road. Even though the professor was relatively new to the college, surrounded by whispers and mystery, they knew better than to cross him. His presence alone demanded submission, an unspoken threat radiating off him, heavy and sharp like a blade just barely sheathed.

Without another word, they left but not before grabbing Sheldon and dragging him along with them. He did try pleading to the professor for help, but he never once looked his way.

Because his burning focus was fixed solely on me.

Like I was the root of all the chaos in the world.

Like I was the problem he hadn’t yet decided how to solve.

"Mr. Valerious—"

Before I could defend myself, he turned around, starting to walk away.

Panic surged in my chest, and I rushed after him. "Professor, please, don't send me to the dean. I didn't do anything. Trust me. I didn't even know they were hurting him."

His long strides didn't falter nor did he acknowledge my pleas.

"Please, just listen to me."

His hand closed around the doorknob, and my stomach dropped.

Desperate, I cried, "Professor, I’m begging you!"

Before I knew, he spun around, and everything blurred. Then he was right in front of me, towering over my height.

I gasped, stumbling back until my hips hit the edge of a desk. He didn’t touch me, but his presence crowded every inch of space between us, stealing the air from my lungs. I inhaled sharply, and a heady scent rushed in, setting fire to every nerve ending.

His smell. The smell of the woods and the ocean combined.

He was fuming, his chest rising and falling in a slow, heavy rhythm as his icy green eyes cut straight through me. They were like the forest that surrounded this town, deep and ancient. Like they held secrets I wasn’t supposed to know.

"You have been nothing but trouble since the day I arrived. Someone needs to punish you," he growled, voice low and rough, every syllable laced with warning.

My heart pounded so loud, it drowned out everything else.

And yet, heat coiled so low in my belly, I couldn’t stop the words from rolling out of my lips.

"Then you punish me."

His eyes widened by a fraction, just for a moment.

He hadn’t expected that.

Neither had I.

But it was out there now, hanging in the air between us like a charged wire.

His expression shifted, something slow and dangerous curling across his lips. For the first time since he came to the college, I was seeing him wear something close to a smile, and it wasn't anything nice. No. It was everything unholy and dangerous. It was what finally snapped me out of my daze and iced the heat rushing through me with a spark of dread.

"You think my punishment will be easier than the dean's?" he asked, his tone a quiet, terrifying promise.

I swallowed hard. No. Definitely not. But it was too late to take it back now.

Because I had already offered myself to the devil.

And the devil never returned what was willingly given.