THE ALPHA WHO HATED ME - Chapter 22: Chapter 22

RONAN POINT OF VIEW
The lunch table goes quiet when Celeste approaches.
She moves with purpose, her designer heels clicking against the cafeteria floor like a countdown timer. Madison, Sarah, and Emma trail behind her, their faces set with the kind of determination that means someone is about to get destroyed.
I look up from my half-eaten sandwich as she reaches our table. Something in her expression makes my wolf stir uneasily.
"We need to talk," she says to the group. But her eyes stay fixed on me.
Marcus and Jake exchange glances. They know that tone. Everyone at school knows that tone.
"About what?" I ask, though I already suspect the answer.
"About sending a clear message," Celeste says, settling into the chair next to mine. "About making sure everyone understands what happens when someone forgets their place."
She doesn't say Evangeline's name. She doesn't need to.
"The assembly wasn't enough?" Marcus asks.
"The assembly was just the beginning." Celeste's voice drops lower, taking on the planning tone she uses when she's about to wage war. "Words fade. People forget speeches. But isolation? That cuts deeper."
My wolf starts pacing inside my mind. He doesn't like where this conversation is heading.
"What exactly are you proposing?" Jake asks.
"A complete social freeze," Celeste says simply. "No one talks to her. No one sits near her. No one acknowledges her existence."
"For how long?" Emma asks.
"Until she transfers schools. Or has a complete breakdown. Whichever comes first."
The casual cruelty in her voice makes my stomach turn. But I keep my expression neutral. Show nothing of the war happening inside my chest.
"That seems extreme," Marcus says carefully.
"Extreme?" Celeste's voice sharpens. "She hit me. In front of half the school. And you think isolating her is extreme?"
"I'm just saying..."
"I'm not asking for opinions," Celeste cuts him off. "I'm giving instructions. This is how we handle threats to the natural order."
Natural order. The phrase tastes like ash in my mouth.
"Ronan?" She turns to me expectantly. "You understand, don't you? Why this needs to happen?"
I meet her blue eyes and nod. Because what else can I do? Defend the omega who tried to force a bond on me? Argue for mercy toward someone who's already caused enough trouble?
"Of course," I say. The words feel like swallowing glass.
"Good." Celeste's smile returns, bright and satisfied. "I knew I could count on you."
She launches into the details of her plan. Which students to recruit. Which teachers might need reminding about where their loyalties should lie. How to make the isolation so complete that Evangeline will have nowhere to turn.
I listen because I have to. Nod at the right moments. Act like the supportive fiancé everyone expects me to be.
But my wolf gets more agitated with every word. By the time Celeste finishes outlining her campaign of psychological warfare, he's clawing at my consciousness like a caged animal.
*This is wrong,* he whispers. *This is torture.*
I push him down. Force him back into the corner of my mind where he belongs.
*She's our mate,* he continues desperately. *You can't let them do this to her.*
She's not our mate. She's nothing to us.
But even as I think it, the words feel hollow.
The rest of the day passes in a haze of guilt and determination. I watch from a distance as Celeste's plan goes into effect with military precision.
In Biology, three students who usually sit near Evangeline suddenly find other seats. She ends up alone at her lab table while everyone else works in pairs.
In the hallway between classes, conversations die when she approaches. Students step aside like she carries some contagious disease.
At her locker, someone has scrawled "FREAK" across the metal in permanent marker. She stares at it for a long moment before opening the door and pretending she doesn't see it.
Each small cruelty hits my wolf like a physical blow. But I do nothing. Say nothing. Act like I don't notice the systematic destruction of another student's social life.
Because that's what leaders do. They make hard choices for the greater good.
Even when those choices feel like they're killing something inside them.
The final bell rings, and I watch from across the parking lot as Evangeline walks home alone. Her shoulders are hunched against more than just the cold wind. She looks smaller somehow. More fragile.
My wolf whines in my mind. A sound of pure grief.
That night, sleep refuses to come.
I lie in my bed staring at the ceiling, but every time I close my eyes, I see her face. The way she looked when Celeste's speech ended. The careful blankness that couldn't hide the pain underneath.
My wolf paces inside my skull like he's trying to wear a path through my brain. Back and forth. Back and forth. Never stopping. Never quiet.
*She's alone,* he whispers. *Completely alone. And it's our fault.*
It's not our fault. We didn't start this. She brought it on herself when she tried to claim something that was never hers.
*She's crying,* my wolf says suddenly. *Can't you feel it? She's crying and there's no one to comfort her.*
I sit up in bed, my heart racing. The bond between us is so weak now, suppressed by the binding stone and my own determination to ignore it. But sometimes, in moments like this, something leaks through.
Something that feels like absolute despair.
I get up and pace my room, but it doesn't help. Nothing helps. The restlessness in my chest grows stronger with every passing minute.
By 2 AM, I give up trying to sleep.
I find myself walking through the empty streets, my feet carrying me without conscious direction. The night air is cold against my face, but it does nothing to cool the fire burning in my chest.
I end up at the school.
The building looks different in the darkness. Less imposing. More like a prison than a place of learning.
I don't know why I came here. Don't know what I hoped to accomplish by wandering the empty campus at 2 in the morning.
But then I see the light.
It comes from the library windows on the second floor. A soft, warm glow that shouldn't be there at this hour.
Someone is inside.
My wolf goes completely still. Listening. Hoping.
Before I can stop myself, I'm moving toward the building. The side door that's supposed to be locked clicks open under my hand. Perks of being the future Alpha's son, they trust me with access codes.
The hallways echo with my footsteps as I make my way to the library. Each step feels like walking toward something I shouldn't want to see.
But I can't stop myself.
The library door is cracked open. Light spills through the gap into the dark hallway.
I push it open slowly. Quietly.
And there she is.
Evangeline sits alone at a table in the back corner, surrounded by books and papers. But she's not studying. She's crying.
Silent tears stream down her face as she stares at an open textbook. Her shoulders shake with the effort of keeping her sobs quiet, even though there's no one around to hear them.
Except me.
My wolf lets out a howl of pure anguish that only I can hear.
She looks so small. So broken. Nothing like the fierce girl who stood up to Celeste yesterday. Nothing like the omega who slapped the most powerful student in school.
She looks like a child who's lost everything and doesn't know how to find her way home.
She's crying again. And I realize... I don't even know what her laugh sounds like.
Has she ever smiled around me? Not the tight, careful smiles she wears like armor, I mean a real one. One that reaches her eyes.
Probably not. Why would she? I've never given her a reason to feel safe enough to laugh.
All this time, I've looked at her like a problem to be fixed. An inconvenience to be erased.
But she's a person.
And I've treated her like a ghost in a room full of noise.
I should leave. Should turn around and walk away and pretend I never saw this.
But I can't move. Can't breathe. Can't do anything but watch the girl who's supposed to mean nothing to me fall apart in the darkness.
She reaches up to wipe her eyes with the back of her hand. The movement is so tired. So defeated.
My heart cracks in my chest.
This is what leadership looks like, I tell myself. This is the cost of maintaining order. Of keeping the natural hierarchy intact.
But watching her cry alone in an empty library at 2 AM doesn't feel like leadership.
It feels like cruelty.
Pure, unnecessary cruelty that serves no purpose except to feed Celeste's wounded pride.
*Go to her,* my wolf begs. *Comfort her. Tell her she's not alone.*
I can't. Won't.
But I don't leave either.
I stand in the doorway like a coward, watching the girl I'm supposed to protect destroy herself with grief.
She closes the textbook with shaking hands. Gathers her papers into a messy pile. Stands up on unsteady legs.
As she moves toward the library door, I step back into the shadows of the hallway. Hide like the pathetic excuse for a man I've become.
She passes within three feet of me without knowing I'm there. I catch a glimpse of her face in the dim light.
Red eyes. Tear-stained cheeks. The look of someone who's given up hope.
The sound of her footsteps fades as she heads for the exit. I wait until I hear the side door close before I move.
When I finally make it home, the sun is starting to rise.
I lie down in my bed and stare at the ceiling again. But this time, I'm not thinking about sleep.
I'm thinking about the way she looked in that library. About the tears she cried when she thought no one was watching.
About the fact that I stood there and did nothing while my mate fell apart.
My wolf has gone quiet. Not peaceful quiet. The terrible quiet of something that's been beaten into submission.
But in that silence, a single thought echoes through my mind:
What kind of man watches his mate cry and does nothing to help her?
She's cried more in my presence than she's ever smiled. And that's on me.
I don't know how I became this version of myself... but I hate him.