Chapter 8

"Ah......!"

I took a step back and fell on my ass. It was fleshy enough that I wouldn't be injured, but I still had tears in my eyes from the pain.

"Bastard...too bad!"

I was so angry that I couldn't help but hammer the ground in a venting manner. As a result, my knuckles hit the cold ground, and I groaned in pain.

"Ouch..."

I sniffed, and tears were just about to fall when I saw Cheney poking his head out of the car window with a look of excitement on his face.

I immediately controlled myself and didn't allow myself to cry.

"Hahaha..." Cheney laughed, then pulled his head back.

I didn't get it, was I being funny?

What annoying little men. “I don’t want to be their mate,” I thought, staring at the rear of their car as they pulled out of the driveway.

After a few minutes, the taillights dwindled in the distance, and I was left alone with nothing but the sound of my own heart pounding. My backpack slumped off my shoulder and thudded against the pavement as my feet shuffled nervously.

Of course, they would abandon me. It was par for the course with how they'd been treating me so far.

Anxiety gnawed at my stomach like a rabid animal, and I struggled to keep tears of frustration from streaming down my cheeks. They didn't deserve my tears no matter what emotion was driving them.

Suddenly, I heard the crunch of gravel behind me and whirled around to see Armand approaching.

"You must have missed them," Armand called out.

My lips thinned into a tight line and I forced myself to nod in agreement. Surely he had heard the tires of his son's cars squealing as they had pulled out of the driveway just moments before, but I didn't have the courage to say it aloud. I had been abandoned.

He gestured for me to follow him into the garage and opened a panel in the wall filled with keys belonging to his collection of cars. His finger ran across them until he picked one off. "Take this," he handed them to me. "Consider it a loan."

I was surprised by his generosity, and even more grateful that he was giving me back my independence to come and go at will today. I clicked the lock button twice and watched as a pair of headlights flashed back in response from two rows over.

A glossy black SUV loomed before me. I thanked Armand and climbed into the car. He surprised me by getting into the passenger seat. He plugged my destination into the built-in GPS with a few taps on the screen before sitting back and sending me off with a wave.

The private ferry glided across the harbor as I watched a cavalcade of oversized mansions rise from the water's edge. I gawked at their beauty and questioned how much money was behind these massive walls.

When I rolled up to the solid black, wrought iron gates dripping with green ivy, I didn't know what to expect.

The academy resembled a divine garden, a harmony of modern architecture and antiquated Gothic styles. Turrets of dark gray and white speckled the grounds, with ivy snaking around them like winding arms.

Each building was a miniature castle, but the most grandiose one stood at the end of the circular driveway. It was an intimidatingly massive structure that featured three or four stories and a towering spire atop its center piercing the sky. The sun’s light shone through a rose window set at its center, painting a picture of a white wolf howling to the night.

The imposing building towered above me like a giant, intimidating sentinel. As I approached the entrance, my heart raced with anticipation and I felt a chill rush

through my body. I clutched my backpack tightly and slowly made my way up the ancient stone steps to the yawning entrance.

Inside, the grand marble floors sparkled beneath the light of the chandeliers and echoed with every step I took. Portraits of former faculty members stared down from their ornate frames along the walls, and a roaring fire blazed in an enormous hearth at one end of the room.

At the far end was an ornate wooden desk, manned by a stern-looking woman wearing wire-rimmed glasses. She glanced up when I approached her desk, her eyes widening slightly in surprise when she saw me.

"You must be Ms. White," she said, giving me a friendly smile. "Welcome to The Academy." She handed over a folder with my schedule inside it and explained a little about how the school worked.

The classes listed on my schedule were exactly what I had expected: math, English, history, and science—but there were also some unique additions such as “special ability training” and “fight training for self-defense.” I heard that Nicholas is the teacher of the self-defense combat training class because his ability in this area even surpasses his father Armand.

I thanked the woman for my schedule before heading off to find my first class.

As I navigated through the unfamiliar building, I felt like a spotlight was following me. Eyes seemed to be glued to me all around; the whispers and stares made me feel incredibly uneasy but I held my head high, determined to make a positive impression.

My first class was mathematics, and it was surprisingly easy—almost boring! I was much more excited for my music class after lunch.

I took a place in the front row, my heart thrumming with anticipation as I watched the instructor delicately draw her bow across the strings of her violin. The gentle notes that followed were like a balm to my soul.

Afterward, she asked each student to take turns performing whatever piece they had been working on.

When it was my turn, I chose a song from a musical that had been running in London at the time: "Uptown Girl". As I sang, the room became still and all eyes were

fixated on me. The teacher herself seemed taken aback by the level of emotion and control I exhibited as I sang.

At the end of class, a girl with bright cherry-red hair came up to me and introduced herself as Lily. She said she had been captivated by me during class, admiring how effortlessly I commanded attention when I sang.

Lily and I talked for what felt like hours, getting to know each other better. She didn't seem to realize who I was – the daughter of the Alpha King and his sons. I kept my mouth shut, happy to just have a friend.

As our conversation progressed, she mentioned the brothers. Her voice lowered to a whisper, her eyes scanning the hallways furtively as if checking to make sure nobody was listening.

“Don't mess with them," she said, her body tense with fear. "They are...just don't mess with them. They have power here, a lot of it. You won't believe how much."

The rest of the day passed slowly due to all of our classes being terribly dull and slow-paced, but by the end of it all I'd made friends with Lily, learned some exciting new things about our abilities, and gained an understanding of what life will be like here at the academy!

When Elaine informed me that Armand wouldn’t be home for dinner, a wave of loneliness rolled over me. I knew what it felt like to eat dinner alone; my own mother had died long ago, and my father seemed to be perpetually busy.

I imagined the triplets sitting at an empty dining table, night after night — despite my sympathy for them, however, my opinion of them hadn’t changed. They had done nothing to make me feel welcomed or accepted, so I turned away from their plight and hardened my heart.

I ate dinner entirely alone, the triplets never having arrived home after school. The loneliness and the weight of everything over the past couple of weeks—hell, the past two days—hit me full in the chest.

I imagined they had a colorful nightlife. While I may be lonely, I would rather go through this alone than deal with them again.

I ate a solitary dinner before heading back up to my room and succumbing to the loneliness of it all. Just as I pulled my covers up around me and tears pooled in my eyes, I heard a strange noise outside my room.

A low moan quickly escalated into a cacophony of passionate cries as the door to the room next door slammed open and thumps from the bed’s headboard rocked the walls with their intensity.

“Ah, fuck! Nicholas! Yes! Harder!” reverberated from within.