All Chapters of He Threw Me Away Once, This Time I Choose the Lycan prince: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

FREYA'S POVFourth rank.The number rang in my ears long after the Beta moved on to the rest of the list, after the crowd's murmur settled into something closer to open conversation, after people who'd spent weeks laughing at me in the halls started doing the math on their own faces in real time.Fat, forgettable Freya. Fourth.Ivy stood near the edge of the field, posture gone stiff and brittle, her mouth curved into something that was trying very hard to be a smile and failing at the corners. When our eyes met across the crowd, there was no mistaking what sat underneath it — Fury, carefully bank

FREYA'S POVI was standing by the vending machine when I noticed Ivy walking towards me, holding a paper cup in each hand, grinning at me. I would usually smile back, happy and grateful the famous girl was my friend."I made you something." She held one cup out, careful, proud of herself. "Protein shake. My family's cook does them for competition athletes — I thought, with the Trial behind you and conditioning season starting, it might help keep the momentum going."A small cluster of girls had drifted closer without quite looking like they were drifting, the way an audience always seemed to assemble whenever Ivy decided to perform kindness.I took the cup without drinking from it and brought it close enough to study without anyone noticing.It smelled wrong, not pungent that it would register to anyone not already looking for it — but underneath the vanilla and the protein powder sat something faintly bitter, almost metallic, the same undertone I remembered from a lifetime of being s

FREYA'S POV The field stretched empty before me, save for Ronan's solitary figure moving through the obstacle course. He always seemed to end up alone when participation wasn't mandatory, his movements fluid yet somehow lonely in the twilight. I lingered at the tree line until he noticed me. He dropped from the top of the wall, landing with practiced ease, then crossed the grass without being called. "Your eyes look like you've been crying," he said, which wasn't quite right. My eyes remained dry, but my hands trembled slightly in my lap. "I'm fine." My knees buckled as I sank into the grass, legs folding beneath me before I'd consciously decided to sit. "Long afternoon." He lowered himself across from me, elbows resting on his knees, waiting the way he always waited. Never rushing to fill the silence, without expecting me to either. I picked at a blade of gr

FREYA'S POV"You're not supposed to be in here."Kade filled the doorway before I managed to close the guestbook, arms crossed, still in the clothes he'd worn down to greet the cars earlier. Not Marissa. Not staff. Somehow worse — because Kade, unlike either of them, actually had reason to wonder what I was doing alone in his family's study."I left my sweater in the car and got turned around," I said, setting the guestbook down with deliberate calm, like I hadn't just spent ten minutes combing through it for anything useful. "This house has about four hallways that look exactly the same.""You've been here before. You know exactly where the car is." His tone was cold."It's been years, Kade."He didn't buy it. His eyes moved past me to the study itself — the open drawers I'd been careful to leave only slightly ajar, the stack of old photo albums I'd shifted an inch out of place. He was sharper than I usually gave him credit for being, especially about anything that touched his own fa

FREYA'S POVThe tide came in blue and glassy under a cloudless sky, and if I hadn't known what I knew, I might have called it beautiful.Staff had set up a long table of food on the flat stretch of sand above the waterline, umbrellas staked at intervals, the whole production arranged with the same unhurried luxury as everything else about this family's week. Kade's mother moved through it all in a wide sun hat, directing staff with small, elegant gestures, playing hostess like she hadn't spent the night before, nearly confessing something she couldn't quite name."Isn't it gorgeous?" Ivy appeared at my elbow in a swimsuit that had clearly taken the better part of an hour to choose, surveying the cove with open delight before her eyes slid, almost involuntarily, toward my own suit. "You look so much more comfortable in your skin these days. It's nice to see.""Thank you, Ivy.""I just mean — a few months ago, I don't think you'd have worn something like that in front of everyone." Her s