Chapter 2: The Assassin Retaliates

The cafeteria went up in an uproar, and then the doors swung open.

"What in the name of Ravenhollow is happening here?!"

Mr. Vance—a former pack Enforcer reeking of prideful authority—strode through the aisles. A wave of his hand got the uproar settling into hushed, excited whispering that instantly rippled through the surrounding tables.

​"Oh, she is so dead..."

​"Mr. Vance hates Omegas. Did you see how she threw Sarah? She’ll definitely get expelled for this."

​"To think the wolfless would snap. Pft, how embarrassing."

This Mr. Vance looked as cocky as any of the insufferable nobles back then. And I would’ve gladly beheaded him in his sleep.

He didn’t care about the tomato paste in my hair or the red print on my cheek. He simply watched me holding up a fellow student and concluded his verdict.

"Let her go, you useless girl!" Vance barked. "I knew from the start that a lowly thing like you did not belong in this academy." He hissed, venom dripping from his tone. "You’re coming to the Principal’s office right now. We’ll see if your pathetic father can pay for this damage you’ve caused."

But I didn’t move, and I certainly didn’t let down the girl either. I simply stared at him like he was a nuisance, and that got him really mad. Being stared down by the very omega girl he despised... His pride was wounded.

​So, he lunged at me, reaching out with the casual cruelty of a man used to putting weaker wolves in their place.

​I let go of the girl’s collar, stepped inside his reach, and drove my elbow straight into his solar plexus.

Vance wheezed in shock, unable to understand what just happened. Before he could recover, I swept his heel and gripped the back of his hair, forcing his face into the edge of a cafeteria table.

The sound of something on his face cracking echoed off the high ceilings of the cafeteria like a gunshot.

​For three terrifying seconds, no one moved. No one even breathed. Mr. Vance—a grown, two-hundred-pound former Enforcer—was squirming on the tiled floor, blood pooling between his fingers as he clutched his smashed nose, uttering wet, pathetic gasps.

​Then, the dam broke.

​"Holy shit! Did she just—did she just drop Mr. Vance?!"

​"Is he breathing?! Someone call the pack healers!"

​"She broke his face! Look at the blood!"

​Students recoiled, knocking over metal chairs and spilling drinks in their haste to put distance between themselves and the center of the room where I stood.

The whispers were no longer quiet; they were frantic, breathless screams floating over the din of screeching chair legs.

​"She’s dead. No, seriously, they’re going to put her down for this. You can’t attack an Enforcer and get away with it!"

​"Where did she learn to move like that? She didn’t even look at him!"

​"Is that really Brianna? Look at her eyes... she looks like she wants to kill everyone in here."

I swiped yet another stain of tomato paste from my forehead, my expression cold as my eyes darted around the cafeteria and the large space around me.

It seems I’ve been able to establish a safe circle. Good. I thought, still scanning the area for potential threats. Now I don’t have to worry about a sneak attack while I clear my head. This situation... is way too bizarre.

I looked at my hands; they were rough, but not the kind of roughness that came with years of training with a weapon, but years of dirty manual labor. Sure enough, this wasn’t my body. This was... Brianna.

I seemed to have stunned everyone with my performance. The Beta line heirs and wealthy pack scions—remembered from Brianna’s memories—had all stood up. Their smug expressions were entirely gone, replaced by a mixture of deep offense and sudden, instinctual vigilance. An Omega had just committed treason against the hierarchy right in front of them.

​Near the tray return, a group of lower-ranking students huddled together, staring at me in absolute horror—and something faint, almost unrecognizable: awe.

​"She didn’t cower..." one of them whispered, eyes wide as saucers. "She didn’t even hesitate."

​I didn’t care about their whispers, their terror, or the man groaning at my feet. I stood tall in the center of the chaos, wiping a fresh smudge of tomato paste from my jaw with the back of my hand.

​To them, I was a rogue Omega going crazy.

​To me, I was simply establishing room control.

​And then, the double doors at the main entrance crashed open again. But this time, it didn’t seem like a teacher, since this one wore a uniform as well.

​"Step back."

​The command rolled through the room like thunder, thick with a crushing pressure.

​"It’s Kano..." someone whimpered.

​Alpha Kano stepped into the doorway, flanked by two others who seemed to be in an equal position to him, or... below him.

He stopped in front of me, taking in the chaos around and scowling.

This guy was a black-haired pup, still so weak, and yet so arrogant. His posture spoke volumes of his pride, and the look in his eyes spoke volumes of his disgust.

So, this was Alpha Kano.

"Have you no shame, Brianna? Causing such a commotion on school grounds." He barked, but I ignored him, simply marking the face of the boy in front of him, and it ticked him off.

"Brianna finally has her crush talking to her; she must be dancing in her head right now," someone whispered, and the others tittered, quickly forgetting the kind of threat I pose to them now that this Alpha was present.

Then, as if vexed by the comments from the students, Kano acted out. ℴ

Above him, a translucent, shadowy grey wolf materialized, jaws parted in a terrifying, silent roar radiating raw Alpha dominance meant to force any low-ranking wolf to their knees.

​"Kneel, Brianna," Kano commanded, his flashing golden eyes filled with icy detachment. "Know your place."

​The air in the cafeteria thickened instantly, turning heavy and suffocating. Around the room, students gasped, their knees buckling under the suffocating weight of his Alpha aura.

Betas slumped against food trays, clutching their chests, while the tiny number of Omegas near the edge collapsed onto the floor, trembling violently beneath the terrifying shadow of the spectral grey wolf hovering above Kano’s shoulders.

It was an absolute display of dominance—a power meant to force compliance through pure, biological terror.

But ​I didn’t kneel. I didn’t even flinch.

​To the others, his aura was an immovable mountain. To an assassin who had survived poisoned daggers, backstabbing allies, and the literal stench of mass slaughter, his little parlor trick felt like a mild draft on a cold night.

​I tilted my head, slowly looking past the translucent grey wolf, my eyes locking onto Kano’s golden ones with dead, unbothered calm.

​"And who the hell are you to tell me to kneel?"