All Chapters of Mated To My Stepbrother : Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Novah's POVThe library doors felt heavier today. Like pushing against a wall of damp wool. Inside, the usual sanctuary smelled faintly of dust and desperation, not old paper and quiet. My designated table – tucked away near the forgotten geology section – waited like a witness stand. I’d been here twenty minutes early, a nervous ghost haunting the stacks, rearranging pens that didn’t need rearranging, smoothing the already pristine cover of the genetics textbook Meredith had insisted I borrow. *Be boring. Be invisible. Sell it.* Ashton’s words were a drumbeat against my temples, out of sync with the too-loud thump of my own heart.Every rustle of a page, every scrape of a chair leg, felt amplified. The low thrum of pack awareness, that constant background noise of dominance and submission, felt thicker here. It wasn't the sharp, competitive buzz of the hallways; this was a subtler pressure, a suffocating blanket woven from quiet glances and unspoken hierarchies. Alphas studying nearb

Novah's POVThe walk from the library wasn’t walking. It was drifting. A ghost, just like Loveth said, floating through the too-bright, too-loud hallways of Moon-Star Academy. The pack feeling pressed in, a suffocating blanket woven from sidelong glances, muffled whispers that sliced sharper than any claw, and the heavy, undeniable scent of dominance that clung to the air, marking territory I didn’t belong in. *Weak. Shallow. Omega.* The words pounded in my head with every step, a cruel drumbeat synced to my faltering heartbeat. Ashton’s vacant chair, his cold dismissal – *We’re not getting anywhere* – replayed on a loop, etching deeper the truth Loveth had so gleefully exposed. I was nothing. Less than nothing. A burden he’d shed without a second thought.I didn’t go to my next class. The thought of sitting in a room, exposed, under the weight of knowing stares… it was impossible. My feet carried me on autopilot, away from the bustling main corridors, towards the relative anonymity o

Novah's POVThe silence after Ashton left Jason’s room was thicker than the dust motes dancing in the late afternoon sun slanting through the window. It pressed down on me, a physical weight on my chest, making each breath a shallow, painful gasp. My skin still crawled where Jason’s hands had gripped me, where his unwanted breath had seared my cheek. The phantom scent of his arousal mixed with Ashton’s furious cedarwood and ozone lingered, a nauseating perfume of violation and impossible intervention.*Why?*The question echoed in the hollow chamber of my mind, bouncing off the walls of confusion and raw, throbbing hurt. Why had Jason done that? Why had Ashton *been* there? And why, after radiating that terrifying, protective fury, had his eyes held that raw agony when he looked at me? It didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense. My thoughts felt sluggish, skimming the surface like a stone thrown too weakly to sink. *Pathetic. Omega.* The pack judgment, internalized and amplified, was a

Novah's POVThe click of the door behind Ashton wasn't just a sound; it was the final brick slamming into place, sealing me inside a tomb of my own making. His words hung in the air, heavy and suffocating: *Stop asking questions you don't want the answers to.* What answers? That I was truly nothing? That his kiss was just… *nothing*? That stopping Jason was just pack duty, like breaking up a fight between pups? That the flicker in his eyes last night was pity, or worse, disgust?Tears, the weak omega’s constant companion, welled hot and insistent. I let them fall, silent rivers tracing paths down my cheeks, soaking into the worn cotton of my pajama top. They weren't the wrenching sobs of yesterday’s humiliation; this was a quieter, deeper despair. The kind that seeped into your bones and made the air feel thick and cold. *Mistake.* He’d called the kiss a mistake. Again. That word echoed louder than my father’s threats, sharper than Loveth’s sneers. It carved itself onto my shallow hea

Novah’s POV “Cat got your tongue?” Loveth smirked. She took a step closer, lowering her voice theatrically, ensuring everyone straining to hear could catch her words. “Look, it’s really sad. We all feel bad for you, truly. Being an omega must be hard. Feeling so… insignificant.” She paused, letting the word hang. “But following Ashton? Trying to insert yourself where you clearly don’t belong? That’s just… creepy. And pathetic.” She sighed dramatically. “He feels sorry for you, you know? Having to babysit you because your daddy ordered it. But pity isn’t interest, Novah. Take the hint. Stay away.”Her words were precise, designed to wound. Highlighting my omega status, my father’s indifference, Ashton’s enforced duty, and branding me a creepy, unwanted stalker. The humiliation was complete, a public flaying. I felt dizzy, the hallway tilting. Tears streamed down my face unchecked. I couldn’t stop them. Weak. Shallow. Crying in front of everyone.I risked a glance past Loveth. Ashton w