Chapter 15: ¹⁵: tears make your eyes prettier.

The entire hallway was crowded with students as classes came to an end.

I walked absentmindedly through the sea of people, trying to push the unsettling thoughts Rose had planted in my mind to the back of it.

Speaking of Rose... She was walking beside me with her arm linked through mine, her curious eyes wandering around like an excited rabbit searching for carrots.

"You know..." she sighed dreamily. "I really want to know what’s hiding under that shirt."

I followed her gaze. Louis Dreven was leaning casually against his car with the same blonde girl clinging to his arm while he talked to a few boys from our class.

I shook my head and slowly turned back to Rose. "Do you realise how inappropriate that comment is?" I asked. "You shouldn’t say things like that about anyone."

She immediately gave me her signature puppy eyes.

"Did my mother secretly send you here to kinda lecture me?" she complained dramatically. "Besides, I’m only admiring him! I mean, look at him. He’s built like a Greek god."

I couldn’t help but sigh, thinking that life was beyond the principles I had been taught.

"Do whatever you want," I replied. "It’s just that... I was raised with very strict etiquette. I’m still trying to adjust to such a different environment."

Here...I wasn’t the Alpha’s heir anymore. I was simply another college student. Perhaps I really did need to learn how ordinary people lived, it would be pretty weird if I didn’t have interests like a regular college-going student.

"Strict etiquette?" Rose said looking puzzled. She tilted her head. "Were you raised in an Alpha’s house or something?"

She asked which a smile, genuinely curious about me.

I laughed awkwardly.

"No....I’m just an insignificant omega. It is just that our pack is very small, and everyone grows up in a strict environment to help build a disciplined community. That’s all." It was a believable lie that I hoped she would believe.

If only, I could have saved the home where I was truly raised. Lost in my thoughts, I looked ahead with a blank gaze only to find Louis Dreven staring directly at me.

Those cold blue eyes hadn’t left me.

Confused, I broke eye contact and quickly looked away and the very next second, the blonde girl that is always by his side marched straight toward me like a cannonball ready to explode.

"What exactly do you think you are trying to do, bitch?" she spat. "Do you think just because you got the Dravera, you are someone important?"

The entire hallway fell silent. Dozens of eyes turned toward us. Some looked at me with such contempt as if I was some filth.

I frowned. "I don’t even know you," I said to the blond girl not getting why she had been hostile towards me since the moment she saw me.

She scoffed looking around as if I had just offended her. Without another word, she lunged forward and swung her fist at my face. I tilted my head slightly away, her punch missed by mere inches.

"You bitch!" She screamed now too agitated to see reason and before I could do anything or ask her why she was doing all this, her foot slammed straight into my abdomen.

"Ah!" A cry escaped my lips. The world around me blurred as unbearable pain exploded through the wound hidden beneath my clothes.

My knees gave out instantly. Everything around me faded into a haze while I was trying to contain my brain which was turning foggy with the pain.

"Athena!" Rose hurried to my side, kneeling beside me in panic. "Are you okay?" she asked, trying to know if I was hit near anything vital.

"I..." I struggled to breathe. "I’m fine..."

I tried to stand up with her help but my legs refused to cooperate.

The pain wasn’t from Maria’s kick. It was...

The cursed wound.

"Maria." A cold masculine voice echoed through the hallway. "Violence isn’t allowed on academy grounds."

I forced myself to look up right there standing behind the blonde girl- Maria maybe was Louis Dreven.

Maria turned around in disbelief. "Louis!"

she said looking as if she could not believe what she was hearing.

She grabbed his arm. "Are you seriously taking this mutt’s side? This mutt who dared to steal the Dravera you’ve worked your entire life for!"

Before Louis could say anything she lashed out again. Her foot struck my abdomen a second time.

The pain became so intense that I collapsed completely onto the floor.

Rose cried out as she tried to pull Maria away.

I bit down on my lip until I tasted blood.

Damn it...

If this cursed wound didn’t exist...

Someone like Maria wouldn’t even be able to touch me. I wanted nothing more than to tear that leg from her body.

But through the haze of pain I was feeling from my wound I could not even move. More than the pain I was afraid that

every movement threatened to reopen the wound hidden beneath my clothes.

If I moved rashly and any blood seeped through my wound, what would I do? I didn’t want anyone to know about this treacherous thing - the thing that was making me feel the same vivid pain I had felt when harry first stabbed that goddamn dagger in me.

"Maria." Louis’s voice became noticeably colder. "Control yourself."

She froze, faltering in her steps as she looked at him shocked.

Slowly, Louis walked toward me. He crouched down before me, briefly glancing at Rose who was supporting me to at least sit before his attention returned to me.

Our eyes met. He smiled. Then, without asking for permission, he lifted my chin between his fingers.

My breathing hitched, my eyes widened. His icy blue eyes studied my face with unsettling amusement.

"Your eyes look more beautiful with tears in them." His voice was soft. Almost gentle. He did not break his smile and then...

He leaned closer until his lips brushed the shell of my ear.

"But..."

"I’d rather be the one who puts them there."

For a moment...

My heart started beating so loudly that I could hear it in my bones and my breathing became so frantic that I felt like there was a big lump in my chest stopping all the air from reaching my lungs. I couldn’t move....Couldn’t think.

Couldn’t understand why he was saying something like that to someone he had only met yesterday. Hell, we didn’t even meet, we just saw each other from a distance.

Louis slowly stood up again. Looking down at me as though I were nothing more than an insect beneath his shoe, that he could step on whenever he wanted.

He smiled. "The academy regulations only apply inside the campus." He glanced at Maria. "Outside...We can do whatever we want." Without another glance at me, he turned around and walked away.

Maria hurried after him. Only then did the crowd finally begin to disperse.

"Athena..." Rose helped me sit upright. "Are you alright?"

I nodded weakly. "Yeah... I’ll be fine," I said gritting my teeth as I tried to get up with her help and stand on my own.

Rose looked furious. " That Maria is such a bitch for what she did!"

"And Louis...I never thought he’d be this petty. I take back everything I said. I don’t even think he’s handsome anymore."

Despite everything, hearing her agitated voice...

A small chuckle escaped me and the pain started getting a little bearable.

"Are you sure you’re alright?" she asked worriedly.

I slowly got to my feet, one hand pressed tightly against my abdomen.

"Are you sure?" she asked, still not believing me.

"I’ll just go back to the packhouse and rest." I felt like I had no energy left.

"I’ll come with you." She immediately stepped forward trying to help me walk.

I gently stopped her. "It’s okay. I’ll manage."

"Are you sure?" She still looked unconvinced.

I smiled reassuringly. "I’ll see you tomorrow."

Reluctantly, she nodded. I turned and slowly walked away.

The moment I left the academy grounds...

I bit down hard on my lip to stop myself from crying out. Every step felt like someone was driving the cursed dagger through my stomach all over again.

In the morning I had thought the campus was really near the packhouse but now it felt like miles away.

Nearly thirty minutes later after I had moved like a turtle, I finally saw the Starlight Pack’s packhouse in the distance.

Relief washed over me. Just a few steps more and then I could finally take off the skin coverings on my wound and check what had happened to it. I could just hope that it hadn’t reopened.

Then I would just fall on my soft bed and sleep.

I took one more step.

Suddenly—

A rough hand clamped tightly over my mouth. My eyes widened in shock. Before I could react I was yanked violently into the shadows.