THE ALPHA WHO HATED ME - Chapter 38: Chapter 38

**Evangeline's POV**
I scrub my skin until it bleeds.
Blood .... not mine, not really .... clogs the drain, mixes with cheap shampoo, turns the water rust-red. The stench clings to me, to the mirror, to the silence. No matter how hard I scrub, I can't get tonight off me.
But the worst part isn't the blood. It's the thing I felt rising inside me as it fell. The thing that didn't cry, didn't cower .... it howled.
And it's still awake.
My limbs tremble. My jaw aches like I've been grinding my teeth for hours. My nails are sharper, thicker. I feel like I'm splitting open from the inside out.
My wolf paces under my skin like a caged animal, restless and angry. She wants blood. She wants revenge. She wants to hunt down every person who laughed tonight and show them what real fear feels like.
The charm around my neck pulses with warmth, but even Maeve's magic can't calm what's building inside me.
A soft knock on my front door makes me freeze. It's past three in the morning. Nobody should be here. Nobody except...
"Evangeline." Maeve's voice drifts through the thin wood. "Let me in."
I stumble to the door on shaking legs. When I open it, Maeve stands on my doorstep wearing a long dark coat, her eyes filled with something that looks like grief.
"I felt it," she says quietly. "From miles away. Your power breaking free. What happened tonight .... that surge .... others might have felt it too."
"Others?" Fear claws at my throat. "Like who?"
"People who have been waiting for someone like you to emerge. People who might want to use your power for their own purposes." Her expression grows darker. "You're not the only one who's awakening, Evangeline. The world is shifting. And you're not safe anymore."
"I don't know what happened to me," I whisper. "At the party. I almost... I almost changed. In front of everyone."
"I know." She steps inside and closes the door behind her. "That's why I'm here. We need to go somewhere safe. Somewhere I can teach you how to control what's awakening inside you."
"Control it?" A bitter laugh escapes my throat. "I don't want to control it. I want to use it. I want to make them pay for what they did to me."
Maeve's expression grows serious. "That's exactly why you need training. Power without control is destruction. And destruction without purpose is just chaos."
She looks me up and down, taking in my red-rimmed eyes and the way my hands shake.
"Get dressed," she says. "Something warm. We're going for a walk."
"Now? It's the middle of the night."
"The best magic happens in darkness. And what you need to learn can't wait until morning."
I change into jeans and a sweater, my movements clumsy from exhaustion and emotional overload. The events of the night replay in my head on endless loop. Celeste's fake kindness. The crowd's cruel laughter. The feeling of pig's blood soaking through my dress.
But underneath the humiliation, something else burns. Something that feels like coming home.
Maeve leads me through the empty streets toward the forest. We don't talk. There's too much to say and no words big enough to hold it all.
The trees close around us like protective arms, blocking out the streetlights and the houses where normal people sleep normal lives. Here in the darkness, with the smell of earth and growing things filling my lungs, some of the tension leaves my shoulders.
We walk deeper than I've ever gone before. Past the cottage where Maeve first helped me. Past the familiar paths and into territory that feels older, wilder. Ancient.
The air itself changes as we go deeper. It becomes thicker, more alive. Like it's full of electricity waiting to strike.
"Where are we going?" I ask, my voice barely above a whisper.
"To a place where your kind have been coming for centuries," Maeve replies. "A place where the veil between worlds is thin. Where magic flows like water."
The path winds through trees so old their trunks are wider than cars. Moss hangs from their branches like curtains, and strange flowers glow faintly in the darkness. This isn't just a forest anymore. It's something else. Something that shouldn't exist in the modern world.
Then the trees part, and I see it.
A circular clearing surrounded by standing stones that reach toward the sky like fingers. The stones are covered in symbols I don't recognize, but somehow my soul knows them. In the center of the circle, a spring bubbles up from the earth, creating a small pool that reflects the moon like a mirror.
"What is this place?" I breathe.
"A sacred grove," Maeve says, stepping between two of the stones. "One of the last ones left. Your ancestors used to come here to connect with their wolves, to learn balance between human and animal, light and dark."
The moment I cross into the circle, power hits me like a physical force. My wolf immediately calms, no longer pacing but settling into watchful alertness. The rage that's been eating at me since the party doesn't disappear, but it transforms into something focused. Purposeful.
"Do you feel it?" Maeve asks.
"Yes." The word comes out strangled. "It's like... like the earth is alive."
"It is alive. And it recognizes you." Maeve walks to the center of the clearing and kneels beside the spring. "Come here. Sit with me."
I follow her on unsteady legs. The closer I get to the water, the stronger the feeling becomes. Like something is calling to me from deep underground.
"Put your hands in the water," Maeve instructs.
The spring is surprisingly warm against my palms. The moment my skin touches the surface, images flash through my mind. Women who look like me, standing in this same spot. Learning the same lessons. Fighting the same battles.
"Your bloodline is older than you know," Maeve says softly. "And tonight, when your power broke free, you connected to something that's been waiting for you your whole life."
"What am I?" The question tears out of me like a sob. "What's happening to me?"
"You're awakening to your true nature. But awakening without guidance is dangerous. That's why we're here."
She stands and moves to one of the stones, pressing her palm against the ancient symbols. They begin to glow with soft silver light, casting dancing shadows across the clearing.
"The first lesson is grounding," she says. "Learning to anchor yourself when the power threatens to sweep you away. And learning to breathe through the chaos. Close your eyes."
I obey, though every instinct screams at me to stay alert. To watch for threats.
"Feel the earth beneath you," Maeve's voice becomes hypnotic, flowing like water. "Feel its age, its strength, its patience. Let it hold you. And breathe. In through your nose for four counts. Hold for four. Out through your mouth for four."
I follow her instructions, and with each breath, I begin to sense something vast and solid underneath me. Not just dirt and rock, but consciousness. Ancient and enduring and utterly calm.
"Now feel your wolf," Maeve continues. "Don't fight her. Don't try to control her. Just acknowledge her presence."
My wolf stirs, but gently this time. Like she's waking from a peaceful sleep instead of exploding from a cage.
"Good. Now imagine roots growing from your body into the earth. Connecting you to that eternal strength. Let it flow up through you, balancing the fire in your blood."
The visualization comes easily here, in this place where magic lives. I picture silver roots spreading from my hands and feet, sinking deep into the ground and drawing up power that feels completely different from the rage that consumed me at the party.
This power is steady. Patient. Strong enough to level mountains, but controlled enough to nurture a flower.
"What if I don't want to choose?" The words slip out before I can stop them. "What if I want to let her loose? What if I want to make them all pay?"
Maeve is quiet for a long moment. When she speaks again, her voice is sad.
"Revenge feels like justice when you're hurting. But it's not. It's just another kind of destruction. And destruction has a way of consuming everything around it, including the people you care about."
"I don't care about anyone," I lie.
"Don't you?" She kneels beside me again. "What about the students who looked uncomfortable tonight? The ones who didn't laugh? What about Luna, who used to sit with you sometimes before tonight?"
She trails off, and I know she's thinking about how even Luna laughed at me tonight.
"Nobody defended me," I say quietly. "Nobody cared."
"Maybe not. But the choice of who you become does matter. You can let tonight turn you into something just as cruel as Celeste. Or you can let it teach you compassion for others who are hurting."
"Maybe not. But the choice of who you become does matter. You can let tonight turn you into something just as cruel as Celeste. Or you can let it teach you compassion for others who are hurting."
The words hit deeper than they should. Because part of me does want to become something cruel. Part of me wants to watch Celeste and Madison and Sarah cower the way they made me cower.
"I don't know how to forgive them," I whisper.
"You don't have to forgive them. But you don't have to become them either."
She reaches into her coat and pulls out a small cloth bag. "This is moonstone dust from this very grove. When you feel the wolf rising uncontrollably, sprinkle a pinch on your tongue. It will remind your body of this moment, of this balance."
I take the bag with trembling fingers. It feels warm, like it's alive.
"How long will the training take?" I ask.
"That depends on you. On how quickly you learn to work with your wolf instead of against her." She pauses, looking around the grove nervously. "But we don't have much time. The full moon is in ten days. And when it rises, every supernatural being in a hundred miles will be able to sense your power. Including those who might want to use it for their own purposes."
"What kind of purposes?"
"The kind that don't care whether you survive the process. The kind that would rather see you dead than let you reach your full potential."
Fear claws at my throat, but underneath it, something else stirs. Determination. Anger that's not wild and chaotic anymore, but focused like a laser.
"Then we better make sure I'm ready," I say.
Maeve smiles for the first time since she arrived at my door. "That's exactly what I was hoping you'd say."
The spring bubbles beside us, and the ancient stones stand guard around our small circle of light. Here in this sacred place, surrounded by the power of generations of women like me, I finally understand what I need to do.
I need to stop being afraid of what I'm becoming.
And I need to start becoming someone worth being afraid of.
Not for revenge. Not for cruelty.
But for survival. And for everyone else who needs someone strong enough to stand between them and the darkness.
The full moon is coming. And when it rises, I'll be ready.