The mark hadn’t faded. It throbbed under my skin like a bruise I couldn’t stop touching.

Every step through the academy hallways felt heavier, like eyes were dragging across my back. I kept my head down, my hoodie pulled tight, hair masking the glow that still hadn’t fully faded from the curve of my collarbone. But they knew.

They all knew.

Girls stared like I’d slept my way into power. Boys whispered and snickered like I was some kind of fantasy made real. And when I passed the trophy case near the East Wing, someone had scratched three words into the silver beneath Kael’s face:

OMEGA. CLAIMED. USED.

I clenched my jaw and kept walking.

In the girls’ bathroom, two she-wolves didn’t bother lowering their voices.

“She must’ve begged for it.”

“He probably didn’t even finish before getting bored. You know how they get.”

Their laughter echoed across the tile.

My hands shook as I adjusted my sleeves. I didn’t say anything. Not yet.

Kael hadn’t spoken to me since that night. He hadn’t looked at me either.

And that made it worse.

It wasn’t just that he’d taken what he wanted — it was that afterward, he’d walked away like it meant nothing.

But I wasn’t going to let that go.

Not this time.

I waited until after combat drills, when he was alone in the locker hallway, dripping sweat, shirt clinging to his body as he wrapped his hands with fresh tape. He looked up once and then turned away like I wasn’t even there.

Coward.

I stepped in front of his locker, forcing him to stop. His eyes flicked down my body, then back to his wraps.

“What do you want?” he muttered.

“You don’t get to act like this.”

“Like what?”

“Like you didn’t mark me.”

His hands stilled. His jaw tightened. But he didn’t speak.

“You ate me out like I belonged to you,” I said, my voice low, precise. "Like I was yours. Then you left. Didn’t talk to me. Didn’t even look at me.”

Still, nothing.

“I’m walking around smelling like you. Do you know what that’s like for an omega in a school like this?”

“I warned you,” he said, quiet but dangerous.

“No. You touched me. You took what you wanted and vanished.”

Kael dropped the tape. His chest rose and fell like he was holding back something violent.

“I didn’t ask for this bond either,” he said.

“That’s not the point.”

“I’m trying to protect you.”

“By humiliating me?”

He stepped in closer, eyes darkening. “By staying away before I take more.”

I didn’t back down. “You don’t get to make that decision for me.”

He stared at me for a long moment. Then his voice dropped.

“You think I regret it?”

“Do you?”

“No.” His nostrils flared. “I regret not finishing.”

That silenced me.

He leaned in. “I regret not tying your legs apart and making you scream until your voice cracked. I regret not biting down and leaving more than just a mark. I regret stopping.”

My mouth parted, but nothing came out.

He moved past me without another word, the locker slamming shut behind him.

Outside, the air felt colder than it should’ve been. The sky was smeared in overcast haze, and the grass reeked of damp leaves and dried blood from training. I pulled my hoodie tighter around me and sat under the hollow tree near the back of the school. No one ever came here. Too exposed. Too far from Wi-Fi. Too quiet.

Perfect for breaking down.

I didn’t cry. Not fully. But my body curled in like it wanted to. Like the ache in my chest had decided today was the day it wanted out.

“He shouldn’t have done that to you.”

I looked up sharply.

Elias stood a few feet away, hands in his pockets, hair messily windswept like he hadn’t slept. There was no smirk on his face. No teasing in his eyes.

He looked serious. Almost angry.

I didn’t say anything.

He stepped closer and sat beside me without asking.

“He’s a bastard,” he said. “Everyone thinks it. He just hides it behind Alpha blood.”

“You’re his brother.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m blind.”

Silence stretched between us. The wind stirred the edge of my sleeve, and my skin prickled where the bond mark pulsed faintly beneath.

“I didn’t know it would feel like this,” I admitted.

Elias looked at me sideways. “Like what?”

“Like I’m not mine anymore.”

His expression flickered. “You still are.”

I shook my head. “I don’t feel like it.”

He turned to face me fully.

“You’re not some little omega he gets to toy with. I don’t care what Kael thinks the bond means.”

I looked at him.

“I don’t want to be pitied.”

“I’m not pitying you.” He leaned in slightly. “I’m angry for you.”

I wanted to believe him. But part of me wondered if he was just another wolf circling for scraps.

Still, I let him brush my hair back. Let him look at me like I was something soft and breakable.

His hand hovered at my jaw, his thumb grazing my cheek. He leaned in, slower than last time.

I let him.

His lips brushed mine. Gentle. Hesitant.

Then firmer.

It wasn’t Kael’s kiss. It didn’t burn through my skin or leave me gasping. But it was warm. And kind. And it made something in my chest ache in a different way.

I didn’t kiss him back, not fully.

But I didn’t stop him either.

When he finally pulled away, he rested his forehead against mine.

“You deserve better.”

Maybe I did.

But as he held me, the bond mark pulsed again, harder, hotter, like Kael could feel it from wherever he was. And I hated how much I wished he’d come stop this.

Later that night, the academy hallways buzzed with tension. Students whispered in corners, phones were passed around under desks, and the security patrol doubled near the dorms.

Someone had submitted an anonymous tip to the student board:

“An omega has been sleeping with the Alpha heir. A bond has formed. If the Luna Trials are rigged, we deserve to know.”

Attached was a blurred photo of me walking away from Kael’s car, shirt collar pushed down, the mark faintly visible on my neck.

I stared at it, heart racing, hands cold.

The message was clear: someone wanted me out of the academy. Publicly.

A slip of paper appeared in my mailbox before dawn.

You’ve been summoned by the Council. Attendance is mandatory.