THE ALPHA WHO HATED ME - Chapter 15: Chapter 15

RONAN POINT OF VIEW
I see it happen from across the cafeteria.
Celeste sits at the omega's table, Evangeline's table with that perfectly calculated smile she wears when she's about to destroy someone. Her friends cluster around her like vultures waiting for roadkill.
Evangeline stands there holding her tray, confusion written across her face. Then understanding. Then something that looks like her soul breaking in real time.
I should look away. Should focus on my own lunch. Should care about literally anything else in the world.
But I can't stop watching.
My fingers tighten around my water bottle as Celeste's voice carries across the room. Sweet. Innocent. Completely venomous.
"Oh! I'm sorry. Were you sitting here?"
The fake concern makes my jaw clench. I know that tone. I've heard Celeste use it to tear apart dozens of girls over the years. It's surgical. Precise. Designed to cut deep while making the victim look unreasonable for bleeding.
Marcus nudges my shoulder. "You good, man? You look like you want to murder someone."
I force my expression back to neutral. "I'm fine."
But I'm not fine. Something inside my chest feels like it's being twisted with pliers.
"Really?" Celeste continues, her voice getting louder. Making sure everyone can hear. "But this table was empty when we got here. Wasn't it, girls?"
Each word hits like a hammer. I watch Evangeline's face crumple a little more with every syllable.
My wolf starts pacing inside my mind. Agitated. Angry. He doesn't understand why we're sitting here doing nothing while our—
I cut the thought off before it can finish. She's not our anything.
"Maybe there's been a mistake," Celeste says with mock sympathy. "I mean, surely someone would have left their things here? Some kind of sign that the table was taken?"
The humiliation is exquisite. Public. Thorough. Celeste has turned what should be a simple social interaction into a performance. Theater designed to remind everyone exactly where Evangeline stands in the hierarchy.
At the bottom. Always at the bottom.
I should be proud. Should be satisfied that someone is finally teaching the omega her place.
So why does my chest feel like it's caving in?
The binding stone against my neck starts to burn. Hot enough to make me wince. Hot enough to remind me why I'm wearing it.
"Since when?" Celeste asks when Evangeline tries to defend herself. "Do you have some kind of reservation? Did you pay for this table?"
Laughter ripples through the cafeteria. Students turn in their seats to watch the show. Some pull out their phones to record.
My wolf snarls inside my skull. Low and vicious and completely involuntary.
*Stop this,* he growls. *Protect her.*
My hands curl into fists under the table. My nails dig into my palms hard enough to draw blood. The pain helps me focus. Helps me shove him down hard and force him back into the corner of my mind where he belongs.
"Then I'm afraid it's first come, first served," Celeste says with that razor-sharp smile. "And we were here first."
Evangeline's hands start shaking. I can see it from here. The way her tray trembles in her grip. The way her whole body seems to be falling apart one piece at a time.
My wolf claws at my consciousness. Desperate. Frantic.
*She's in pain. Our mate is in pain. DO SOMETHING.*
The binding stone around my neck grows warm against my skin. Its magic pushes back against my wolf's protests. Reminds me why I'm wearing it in the first place.
To keep this exact thing from happening.
"You okay?" Jake asks from across the table. "You look weird."
"I'm fine," I lie again.
But I'm not fine. I'm watching someone get destroyed and every instinct I have is screaming at me to intervene.
A senior girl, Jessica something, stands up from a nearby table. "This is getting ridiculous. Everyone knows that's Evangeline's table. She's been sitting there all semester."
For a moment, I think someone might actually help. Might do what I can't do.
What I won't do.
But Celeste just laughs. Cold and sharp and full of promises.
"How sweet. Someone wants to play hero."
She stands up slowly. Predatory. Every movement calculated to intimidate.
My wolf goes completely still. Watching. Waiting to see what happens to the woman who dared defend our mate.
Not our mate. Not our anything.
But my wolf doesn't understand logic. Doesn't care about politics or pack alliances or the fact that I'm wearing a binding stone specifically to keep him quiet.
All he knows is that his female is being hurt. And someone tried to help her.
"Tell me, Jessica," Celeste continues, stepping closer to the girl who defended Evangeline. "Are you sure you want to get involved in this? Are you sure you want to make this your problem?"
The temperature in the cafeteria drops. Students shiver and pull their jackets tighter. Even from here, I can feel Celeste's power radiating outward like ice.
My fiancé is dangerous. I've always known that. It's part of what makes her perfect for me. Perfect for the role she'll play as my Luna.
So why does watching her use that danger against a defenseless omega make me feel sick?
"Right?" Celeste's voice drops to a whisper that somehow carries to every corner of the room. "And who decides what's right? You?"
Jessica's face goes pale. She knows she's outmatched. Knows she can't win this fight.
My wolf whines low in my throat. He wants to help. Wants to stand up and tell Celeste to back down. Wants to wrap our body around Evangeline and shield her from all of this.
The binding stone pulses against my chest. Hot. Insistent. Pushing back against every protective instinct I have.
"Because last I checked," Celeste continues, "I'm the Beta's daughter. Future mate to the next Alpha. And you're... what exactly?"
The words are designed to destroy. To remind Jessica—and everyone watching—exactly how powerless they are against real authority.
It works. Jessica sits down without another word. Abandons Evangeline to face this alone.
Just like I'm doing.
My wolf's anguish floods through me like acid. He doesn't understand why I'm letting this happen. Why I'm sitting here like a statue while our mate gets torn apart.
My lips part. I don't even know what I was going to say. "Stop" maybe. "Enough." But the binding stone flares white-hot against my chest, burning the words back down my throat.
Because she's not our mate. Because this is what she deserves for trying to force a bond that should never have existed.
Because I made the right choice weeks ago and I'm not going to second-guess myself now.
But watching Evangeline stand there shaking, watching her try so hard not to cry makes something deep in my chest crack.
"Unless, of course, you'd like to join us?" Celeste adds with mock generosity. "I'm sure we could make room. If you don't mind sitting on the floor."
The suggestion sends laughter through the watching crowd. The image is too perfect. Too degrading. The omega kneeling at the feet of her betters.
Evangeline's hands shake so badly that her tray rattles. Soup sloshes over the edge and splashes onto her shoes.
My wolf howls inside my mind. Actually howls with grief and rage and helplessness.
The sound almost makes me stand up. Almost makes me cross the cafeteria and put myself between Celeste and the girl who's looking more broken by the second.
A headache builds behind my eyes. Sharp. Stabbing. Like my skull might crack from the pressure of holding back what my wolf wants to do.
Almost.
But the binding stone burns against my skin like a brand. Reminds me who I am. What I owe. Where my loyalties should lie.
With Celeste. With my pack. With the future we've planned together.
Not with some pathetic omega who can't even defend herself.
"Careful there," Madison says with fake concern as Evangeline's soup spills. "You're making a mess."
Each cruel comment is another knife. Another wound. Another reason for my wolf to thrash against the magical chains holding him back.
I can feel him bleeding inside my mind. Feel his desperate need to comfort and protect warring against my stubborn refusal to acknowledge what he wants.
What part of me wants.
Evangeline turns and walks away.
Leaves her tray behind. Leaves her dignity scattered on the cafeteria floor. Leaves everything except the weight of her humiliation.
My wolf goes quiet. Not peaceful quiet. The terrible quiet of something dying.
I watch her retreating figure until she disappears through the exit. Watch the way her shoulders shake with suppressed sobs.
"Poor thing," Celeste says loud enough for everyone to hear. "I hope she finds somewhere to sit. It would be such a shame if she had to eat standing up."
More laughter. More cruelty. More reasons for my wolf to hate me.
Celeste sits back down at the stolen table like nothing happened. Like she didn't just destroy someone for sport.
She catches my eye across the cafeteria and smiles. Brilliant. Satisfied. Completely unrepentant.
Then she picks up Evangeline's abandoned tray and dumps the entire thing in the trash. Soup. Sandwich. Everything. Like it's garbage that needs to be disposed of.
"You're lucky I'm here to handle your mistakes," she says quietly, her voice carrying just to our table.
This is my fiancé. The woman I'm supposed to love. The future mother of my children.
So why do I feel like I just watched her kick a puppy?
"That was brutal," Marcus says with obvious admiration. "Remind me never to get on Celeste's bad side."
"She deserved it," I say automatically. The words taste like ash in my mouth.
"Totally," Jake agrees. "Omega needed to learn her place."
They're right. She did need to learn. This is how the world works. How it's always worked.
Strong wolves rise. Weak wolves fall. Natural selection in action.
But my wolf doesn't care about natural selection. Doesn't understand pack politics or social hierarchies.
All he knows is that his mate just got crushed. And he did nothing to stop it.
*Coward,* he whispers in my mind. *Failure.*
I drain my water bottle in one long gulp. Try to wash away the taste of self-loathing that's building in my throat.
The binding stone settles against my chest. Warm. Satisfied. Doing exactly what it's supposed to do.
Keeping me from making the biggest mistake of my life.
Keeping me from choosing her over everything I've been raised to value.
But as I watch Celeste laugh with her friends, as I listen to them dissect every moment of Evangeline's humiliation, something inside me whispers that maybe the mistake isn't choosing her.
Maybe the mistake is choosing this.
The thought is dangerous. Treasonous. Everything I've been taught says it's wrong.
So I bury it deep. Lock it away with my wolf's protests and my own guilty conscience.
But it doesn't disappear.
It waits.... clawing at the edge of my soul. And when that seed finally breaks through the surface, she won't be the one left bleeding.