I seized Annie by the wrist, squeezing so hard she flinched, her wild eyes finally locking onto mine. I pulled her toward the exit before the situation spiraled into complete catastrophe.
"Annie, please, calm down!" I gasped, dragging her down the corridor while every nerve in my body trembled.
"I’m sick of her!" Annie spat, trying to pull away, but I held on for dear life. "She acts like she’s above everyone else while drooling over other people’s mates! She doesn’t give a damn whose fated mate someone is—she throws herself at them like a bitch in heat! You hear me, Lina?! Everyone knows what you do! Everyone knows you sleep around with any wolf who looks your way! You think you’re subtle?! I only kept my mouth shut out of pity!"
Down the hall, Lina wiped the blood from her nose with the back of her hand, smearing it across her cheek. Her face drained of all color, her lips turning a sickly gray.
I didn’t wait a second longer. Dragging Annie down the hall, I pulled her far away from the gym, out into the quiet corridors away from those horrified stares.
Inside, my soul felt utterly shattered. It felt as though a dark void was tearing me apart from the inside out—crushed by the truth about Magnus, and sickened by the fact that Annie had just brutalized someone to protect me.
"Annie," I stopped dead in the middle of the empty hallway, spinning her around to face me. I seized her shoulders, forcing her to look me in the eyes. "Is it true? Was she really his true mate?"
Annie fell silent. She stared down at her bruised hands, her knuckles scraped and bleeding. Reaching down, she pulled a long strand of Lina’s dark hair from beneath her fingernail, letting out a heavy, shuddering breath.
"Yeah," her voice dropped—quiet, exhausted, and completely stripped of emotion. "She studied here at the academy. She was supposed to be a year ahead of us. When we enrolled... she had already been dead for about six months. The news articles said they grew up together. Their families were extremely close, and both packs were thrilled when her bond mark finally appeared."
Annie didn’t say another word. She turned away and pressed her back against the wall, burying her face in her hands.
Inside, I was falling apart. Shattered into a million tiny pieces. The pain was so agonizing it felt as if I had been turned inside out and gutted. It hurt so deeply I wanted to vanish into thin air—to be anywhere else, to just be alone with the wreckage of my heart.
My thoughts were cut short as footsteps echoed down the hall.
Walking briskly toward us was the Principal—the very man Annie had crashed into earlier. Beside him, the thin blonde girl from our gym class was practically sprinting, gesturing frantically with her hands as she babbled out an excited, panicked account of the bloodbath in the locker room.
***
"Are you aware that brawling among breeders on campus is completely prohibited, Miss Laurent?"
"Yes, I understand that. But she brought it on herself."
The Principal had been lecturing us for at least twenty minutes, his eyes fixed on Annie, practically devouring her with a heavy, intense gaze. His expression was a volatile mix of deep irritation and a dangerous, primal hunger—a wolfish authority that made my instincts recoil, even if it wasn’t directed at me.
Annie acted as though she couldn’t care less. Slouched in the leather armchair with one leg crossed casually over the other, she inspected her nails as if we were discussing the weather rather than the bloody crime scene she had left in the gym locker room.
Yet, I knew her too well. Beneath her white hair, the tips of her ears burned a telltale crimson, and her fingers trembled ever so slightly despite her efforts to hide it. It wasn’t remorse making her heartbeat spike; it was sheer flustered tension in the presence of the towering male studying her so intently.
"Be that as it may, you had no right to beat her so severely," the Principal said, leaning back into his heavy leather chair, which creaked softly under his weight. "The girl has a broken nose, a split lip, and almost certainly a concussion. Are you prepared to accept full responsibility for her condition and cover her medical expenses?"
Annie shifted her glare toward him, her eyes flashing with stubborn, defiant sparks. She crossed her arms tightly over her chest, her chin tilting upward.
"Yes, I am," she said, her voice dripping with ice. "I’m even ready to pay for her psychiatrist, considering she lacks basic comprehension skills. And if she opens her mouth like that again, I’ll be paying for her dentist next."
The Principal’s gaze narrowed. On the polished oak desk, his large hands slowly curled into fists, his knuckles turning white. A sudden, suffocating chill settled over the room—the crushing weight of a dominant wolf’s scent sharpening with dark threat. It was so intense it made my stomach twist in dread.
"In other words... you feel no remorse?" His voice dropped into a low, gravelly rumble laced with unspoken danger.
"None," Annie snapped back without flinching.
Realizing he was on the absolute brink of losing his temper—and terrified that Annie would get instantly expelled or worse—I scrambled to intervene.
"Please, forgive us!" I pleaded, leaning forward on my chair and wringing my hands together tightly. "It will never happen again! It was all my fault!"
"Shut up, Jane! You didn’t do anything wrong!" Annie growled at me, throwing a sharp, icy warning glance my way.
"But it’s the truth! If it weren’t for me, none of this would have happened..." My voice cracked, and I quickly averted my gaze to the floor, unable to bear the heavy atmosphere in the room.
The Principal sighed deeply, leaning back against his chair and pinching the bridge of his nose with two fingers. Closing his eyes for a moment, he let out a long, weary breath.
"I take it you stepped in to defend your friend because...?" He paused, opening his dark eyes and waiting for the rest of the story.
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