The bell rang, its metallic echo striking the marble walls of Silverwood like a death knell. I flinched and quickly wiped the remaining water from my face with a rough motion. In front of the restroom mirror, cracked by the pressure of my hand earlier, I stared at my own reflection. My eyes had returned to their dull wood-brown color. A safe color, the color of a clanless Omega destined to submit.
“Don't stand out. Be a meaningless shadow,” I whispered to that fragile-looking reflection.
I stepped outside with my heart still pounding in my throat. I deliberately took the long way around, passing through narrow corridors rarely used by pureblood Alphas so I wouldn't run into Kaelan. The History classroom was in the eastern auditorium, a grand room with suffocating Gothic architecture. The moment I entered, the scent of power greeted me. A mixture of expensive cologne, saddle leather, and clashing dominant pheromones filled the air.
I lowered my head and hurried toward the darkest row in the back. The place sunlight never reached. The place where Omegas and the lower castes were dumped.
“Hey, you're that scholarship student, right? The ‘Charity Case’?”
I flinched as a thin young man with thick glasses shifted over, making room for me in the farthest corner. He had a distinctive scent. Old paper and anxiety. He was a Delta.
“Alea,” I replied shortly, trying to shut myself away.
“I'm Jaka. A Delta from the Northern Pack,” he whispered, his eyes anxiously darting toward the front rows. “Here's my advice, Alea: never look anyone in the eyes in the first three rows. That's predator territory. If you look at them for more than a second, they'll take it as a challenge to rip out your throat.”
I nodded silently. The hierarchy here wasn't just a rule; it was a law of nature written in blood. Alphas in front like the sun, Betas as their guardians, and us... we were only scraps expected to disappear soon.
The auditorium doors swung wide open. In an instant, the room's temperature plunged.
Kaelan Draken entered.
His steps weren't hurried, yet every tap of his shoes against the wooden floor sounded like the pounding of war drums. Beside him, Sesilia clung to his arm coquettishly, her pale blond hair looking like a fake crown beneath the auditorium lights.
Kaelan didn't sit down right away. He stood in the middle of the room, his dark-blue aura sweeping through every corner like poisonous fog. His sharp blue eyes moved slowly, passing over the Alphas bowing respectfully, passing over the adoring Betas... and finally, that gaze stopped directly on my face.
I immediately lowered my head, pretending to be busy taking notes in my battered notebook until my fingers turned white around my pen. Don't look this way. Don't breathe in my scent.
“Kael, come sit down. Professor Thorne hates tardiness,” Sesilia's shrill voice shattered the tense silence.
Kaelan didn't answer, but after a silence that seemed eternal, he finally moved toward the front row. Oxygen seemed to flow back into my lungs as his broad back moved away.
Professor Thorne entered not long afterward. An old man with a horrifying scar across his face. A mark from the war he wore with pride. He dropped a stack of heavy books onto the desk with a hard thud.
“Today, we'll be discussing The Great Purge,” Thorne said, his voice rasping like sharp stones scraping together. “The Great Purge from over a dozen years ago. When the great clans united to eradicate the tumor in this world: the Moonshade Clan. Cursed sorcerers who tried to use the power of the moon to chain our Alpha instincts.”
Lies! I screamed inwardly. My teeth chattered as I held back my anger. You were the ones who burned our home! You were afraid because you couldn't control us!
“The Moonshade Clan,” Thorne continued, his voice filling the room, “possessed an anomaly called the True Luna. A woman rumored to be able to lull the wolf inside an Alpha to sleep with a single touch. It was an aberration! That's why they had to be uprooted completely, so the purity of our blood could be preserved.”
Sesilia raised her hand, her sly smile blooming. “Professor, isn't there a rumor that one of their descendants escaped? Should we be afraid of that piece of trash?”
Thorne snorted contemptuously. “Just a bedtime story, Miss Sesilia. However, if any of them did survive, the council has prepared a special protocol. The blood of a True Luna has a very specific scent when she's cornered or wounded... sweet like night-blooming jasmine opening in the middle of the night, yet deadly. If you smell it, don't hesitate. Kill them on the spot.”
My world spun. I gripped the edge of the wooden desk until it developed fine cracks. Night-blooming jasmine. That was my true scent, hidden behind the odor-eliminating potion my grandmother had made. I felt like prey being skinned alive in front of the entire class.
“Speaking of scents...” Sesilia suddenly turned around, her sharp eyes fixing directly on me. “It seems the back row smells especially awful today. The stench of poverty and cheap soap is making my chest tighten.”
Laughter erupted throughout the room. The Alphas in front sneered contemptuously.
“You, Country Girl,” Sesilia said, pointing at me. “Stand up.”
I froze. Every eye was now on me, including Kaelan's, as he slightly turned his body to look behind him.
“Who are you?” Thorne asked disdainfully. “I don't see your name on the list of elite donors.”
“She’s a scholarship student, Professor. From the ‘Bribe Program,’” one of Sesilia's friends chimed in, drawing even louder laughter.
I rose slowly, my legs feeling as though they were made of lead. “My name is Alea, Professor.”
“Alea,” Thorne repeated my name with disgust. “Since you're new, prove you have a brain. What's the most effective weapon for executing a Moonshade?”
The question stabbed into my heart. The image of my mother drenched in blood beneath the moonlight appeared at once. I saw the dagger... the dagger that had ended her life.
“Pure silver... blessed with wolfsbane poison,” I answered, my voice trembling violently.
“Louder, Omega!” Thorne barked.
“Pure silver, blessed!” I shouted, the anger I'd buried for over a dozen years beginning to boil beneath my skin. I could feel my body temperature rising sharply.
“Good. At least you know how to kill your own kind of clan. I mean, that inferior clan,” Thorne said as he turned back to the blackboard.
Sesilia looked displeased that I'd been able to answer. She signaled to the student beside me. As I was about to sit down, he deliberately kicked over a bottle of black ink, spilling its contents across my notebook and white uniform.
“Whoops. My hand slipped. Looks like the ink refused to touch a dirty desk,” he mocked.
The black ink soaked into the fabric of my uniform, the only decent clothes I owned. My chest tightened. Heat began creeping from my stomach toward my chest. I could feel the pulse in my neck hardening, and for a moment, my vision began to whiten.
Don't... Alea, don't lose control here!
In the midst of my nearly uncontrollable rage, an extraordinary pressure suddenly slammed into the room. It wasn't anger, but a cold dominance that silenced everything. Kaelan Draken rose from his seat. His aura was so dense that the student who had spilled the ink immediately choked and collapsed into a sitting position, trembling with fear.
“Professor,” Kaelan's voice sliced through the air like a razor. “Can we continue without this lower-caste drama? Their voices are hurting my ears.”
Thorne looked startled, but he quickly bowed respectfully. “Of course, Lord Kaelan. Everyone be quiet! Sesilia, sit up straight!”
I collapsed back onto my bench, limp with exhaustion. Kaelan hadn't helped me out of pity. I knew that. He only wanted peace and quiet. Yet when he sat down again, I could see the stiffness in his shoulders, as if he too were holding back something wild inside him.
When class ended, I didn't wait a second. I snatched up my things and ran outside, desperate to disappear from all their sight. But as I passed through the deserted corridor toward the dormitory, a large shadow suddenly blocked my path.
Before I could dodge, a strong, hot hand seized my arm and shoved me backward until my back struck the cold marble wall.
“Ah!” I looked up and found Kaelan's blue eyes only inches from my face.
We were so close that I could feel the heat radiating from his body. His scent of pine forest and storm was now many times stronger, wrapping around me until I felt dizzy.
“What are you hiding, Alea?” he whispered. His voice was low, hoarse, and full of predatory menace.
“I... I don't understand what you mean, sir,” I replied, struggling to control my breathing so my pheromones wouldn't leak out.
Kaelan didn't release me. Instead, he lowered his head, bringing his nose close to the hollow of my neck. I could feel his hot breath against my sensitive skin. My wolf thrashed inside me, wanting to lean against this Alpha, wanting to surrender to this insane fate.
“You're wearing cheap perfume to cover up the foul stench of poverty,” Kaelan whispered directly into my ear, making my entire body shiver. “But just now, in class... when you were angry... I smelled it. A scent that shouldn't exist in this world anymore.”
Kaelan released his grip, but his hand now clenched against the wall beside my head, trapping me inside the cage of his body. He stared sharply into my eyes, as if dissecting my soul.
“The scent of night-blooming jasmine beneath the moon,” he continued dangerously. “Who are you really? And why is the wolf inside me screaming to rip out your throat while kneeling at your feet?”
I couldn't breathe. My secret, my life, and the Moonshade Clan's vengeance were now hanging by a thread.
“Maybe you just smelled wrong,” I whispered bitterly, trying to push against his chest, hard as steel.
Kaelan gave a faint smirk, one that promised ruin. “I never mistake my prey, Alea. Be ready. Because if you really are what I think you are... I'll personally make sure you never leave this school alive.”
He turned away, leaving me trembling violently in the darkness of the corridor. I stared at my palms, smeared with ink and blood. Fate was no longer merely a curse; it was a noose slowly tightening around my neck.