THE ALPHA WHO HATED ME - Chapter 10: Chapter 10

EVANGELINE POINT OF VIEW
Monday morning comes too soon.
I walk through the school doors with my head high for the first time in weeks. The whispers follow me like they always do, but today they sound different. Uncertain.
Students stare as I pass, but not with the cruel satisfaction I'm used to. Their eyes hold something else. Something that looks almost like fear.
Good.
My wolf purrs inside my chest. She's still there, awake and alert. The binding stone's effects are weaker now, like trying to hold back an ocean with a cracked dam.
I can feel Ronan before I see him. The bond between us thrums with tension that makes my skin prickle. He's close. Very close.
The hallway parts around me as I walk toward my locker. Kids who used to shove me out of the way now step aside without being asked. They can sense something different about me, even if they don't understand what.
"Well, well. Look who decided to show up."
His voice stops me in my tracks. Deep. Rich. Carrying that note of authority that used to make me weak in the knees.
I turn slowly, keeping my face blank. Ronan stands ten feet away with his usual group of followers. But there's something wrong with him. Dark circles under his eyes. Skin pale like he hasn't slept in days.
The binding stone around his neck pulses with weak blue light.
"Ronan," I say simply. My voice doesn't shake. Doesn't waver. It sounds strong. Sure of itself.
His jaw tightens at my tone. "You look different."
"Do I?"
"Less pathetic than usual." His friends laugh, but the sound is forced. Empty.
I study his face. Really look at him for the first time since the cafeteria incident. He's beautiful, still. Perfect features that could have been carved from marble. But there's something brittle about him now. Something that wasn't there before.
"You look tired," I observe.
His eyes flash with anger. "I'm fine."
"Of course you are." I turn back to my locker, dismissing him.
"Don't you dare turn your back on me."
The command in his voice would have made the old me crumble. Would have had me spinning around to apologize and beg forgiveness.
But the old me is gone.
I continue opening my locker like he hasn't spoken. My hands are steady as I pull out my books. My heartbeat is calm.
Footsteps. Heavy. Angry. Getting closer.
"I said don't turn your back on me." His hand slams against the locker next to mine. The metal dents under the force.
I close my locker and face him. He's standing so close I can smell his scent. Pine and rain and something darker underneath. Something that speaks to the predator awakening inside me.
"Is there something you need?" I ask politely.
The question seems to catch him off guard. Like he expected me to cower. To show my throat and beg for mercy.
"You've been missing school," he says.
"I had things to take care of."
"What things?"
I tilt my head and study him. "Why do you care?"
His friends have gotten closer now. A half-circle of muscle and teeth meant to intimidate. But they hang back like they're not sure what they're dealing with.
Smart boys.
"I don't care," Ronan snaps. "I just want to make sure you understand your place."
"My place."
"Bottom of the food chain. Where you belong."
The words should hurt. A week ago, they would have destroyed me. But now they bounce off like raindrops against stone.
"Is that what you think?" I ask.
Something flickers in his eyes. Uncertainty, maybe. "I know what you are."
"Do you?"
"A weak little omega who got ideas above her station."
I smile. It's not a nice smile. "If that's what helps you sleep at night."
His face goes dark with rage. The binding stone around his neck flares brighter.
"You think you can talk to me like that? You think you can disrespect me in front of my pack?"
"I'm not disrespecting you," I say calmly. "I'm just existing. If that threatens you, maybe the problem isn't me."
The hallway has gone quiet. Students pretend to be busy with their lockers, but everyone is listening. Watching. Waiting to see what happens when the future Alpha gets challenged by nobody.
Ronan's hands clench into fists. For a moment, I think he might actually hit me. Part of me almost wants him to. Wants an excuse to show him what I've become.
But instead, he steps closer. So close our bodies are almost touching.
"You want to play games?" he whispers. His breath is warm against my ear. "Fine. Let's play."
Before I can react, his hands come up to frame my face. His touch burns against my skin like fire. The bond between us explodes with sensation that makes my knees weak.
And then he kisses me.
My mind screams no. But my heart... traitor that it is... shatters under his touch.
It's not gentle. Not sweet. It's claiming. Possessive. His lips move against mine with desperate hunger that steals my breath.
For one perfect moment, everything else disappears. The hallway. The staring students. The weeks of pain and humiliation.
There's only him and me and this connection that was always meant to be.
My wolf howls with joy. My heart pounds so hard I think it might burst. Every nerve ending comes alive with electricity.
This is what the bond was supposed to feel like. This is what we could have been.
He pulls back just enough to look into my eyes. For a second, his mask slips. I see longing there. Regret. Pain that matches my own.
But then the walls slam back up.
"There," he says loudly enough for everyone to hear. "Consider that charity. The pity kiss every pathetic omega dreams about."
His words hit like ice water. The warmth from his touch freezes in my veins.
"Was it everything you imagined?" he continues, stepping back with a cruel smile. "Did it make you feel special? Important?"
My heart cracks down the middle. The bond between us screams with agony.
"Because that's all you'll ever get," he says. "A moment of pity from someone who could never actually want you."
His friends laugh. The sound echoes off the walls and comes back to cut me again.
"Did you really think I could feel something for you?" he asks. "You're nothing. A mistake. A cosmic joke."
Each word is designed to destroy me. To take the moment of beauty we just shared and twist it into something ugly.
"Because I wanted to see if you'd be stupid enough to believe it," he says. "And you were."
The words hit like physical blows. My chest feels like it's caving in. The bond between us writhes in agony, torn between the memory of his lips and the cruelty of his words.
I want to say something. Want to fight back. But my voice has disappeared along with my newfound confidence.
Because he's right, isn't he? I am nothing. Just a pathetic omega who let herself believe in fairy tales.
"Look at her," one of his friends says with a laugh. "She actually thought it was real."
"Omegas always do," another adds. "They're so desperate for attention they'll take scraps and call it love."
My cheeks burn with shame. Hot tears threaten to spill over, but I blink them back desperately. I won't cry in front of them. Won't give them that satisfaction.
"Aww, is the little omega going to cry?" Ronan asks with mock sympathy. "Did I hurt your feelings?"
I try to speak, but only a broken whisper comes out. "Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why kiss me if I mean nothing?"
For just a second, something flickers across his face. Something that looks almost like guilt. But then it's gone, replaced by cold indifference.
"Because I wanted to see if you'd be stupid enough to believe it," he says. "And you were."
The laughter that follows is like glass in my ears. Sharp. Cutting. Designed to remind me exactly how small I am in their world.
I stagger backward until my shoulders hit the lockers. The metal is cold against my skin, but not as cold as the look in Ronan's eyes.
"Stay away from me," he says, turning to walk away with his pack. "And next time, remember your place."
They disappear around the corner, their laughter echoing behind them like poison.
I slide down the lockers until I'm sitting on the floor. Students step around me like I'm a piece of trash someone forgot to pick up.
My lips still burn from his kiss. My heart still pounds from the moment when everything felt perfect and right.
But none of it was real.
Just another way to break me.
Just another reminder that I don't belong anywhere.
The pain hits without warning.
It starts in my chest where the bond lives, sharp and sudden like a knife between my ribs. But this is different from the ache I've carried for weeks. This burns. This tears through me like fire racing through dry wood.
"You wanted me broken," I think as the agony builds, "but you should've made sure I stayed down."
I may be born omega, but whatever's waking inside me? It doesn't bow to alphas.
I double over, gasping. My hands press against my chest, but the pain only gets worse. It spreads outward from my heart, down my arms, through my stomach, until every nerve ending screams.
Something is happening inside me. Something that has nothing to do with the binding stone's influence.
Heat builds in my core. Not the gentle warmth of my wolf, but something wilder. More dangerous. It pulses with each heartbeat, growing stronger by the second.
I feel fur under my skin. Claws pressing against my fingers. But I bite down the scream building in my throat. Not here. Not now.
The fluorescent lights overhead flicker. Once. Twice. Then they start to hum with a frequency that makes my bones vibrate.
The air goes still. Completely still. Like the world is holding its breath.
A few students in the hallway stop what they're doing. Look around with confused expressions. Someone whispers, "What was that?" But no one looks at me. No one dares.
The lights burst in a shower of sparks and glass.
You should have finished me when you had the chance.