Chapter 22

Lyra

“This one is even worse,” Bianca sighed, scrolling through the comments under the pictures. “‘She got drunk for attention? Well, she’s certainly getting it now—and not from her foster brother, who she has a creepy crush on! Dumb bitch had it coming.’”

Bianca had been reading the comments out loud to me for ten minutes now. I knew exactly what she was doing—pretending to be angry on my behalf while she was really just mocking me.

In my past life, it might have worked. I might have even cried over the pictures and the horrible things people were saying about me.

But not now. Now, Bianca’s words didn’t hurt me, and neither did those nasty comments. It was humiliating that the pictures of that awful night had been posted, of course, but I had already died once. Nothing could be worse than that feeling.

“Don’t you worry. I’m going to stand up for you.” Bianca was already typing out a reply under one of the comments.

I shook my head and took her phone away before she could post the comment. “It’s fine,” I said, shutting off her phone and tossing it back to her. “I’m not bothered by it.”

Bianca caught her phone in both hands and shot me a confused look. “These posts don’t bother you?” she asked, tilting her head. “But they’re saying such cruel things about you.”

I simply shrugged and returned my attention to my laptop. “They can say whatever they want. I’m not going to feel humiliated over what happened. I made a mistake in getting that drunk, yes, but the people who attacked me and whoever posted these pictures are the ones who should be ashamed.”

Bianca blinked, clearly not having expected that kind of calm response. And truthfully, I couldn’t blame her. It wasn’t as if I had a reputation for being a confident person or anything.

Not yet, anyway.

Curious, though, I clicked on the original post with the pictures just to see if I could pinpoint whoever had posted it. The account had been anonymous, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if Cassidy had been behind it.

But when I opened the post, I was led to a 404 link. “Huh,” I muttered. “Must have been taken down.”

Bianca leaned over my shoulder and furrowed her brow. “What the fuck?”

I shrugged again and snapped my laptop shut, abruptly pushing my chair back. This had Kael written all over it; I had a feeling he would pull some strings to get the post taken down before it could embarrass him further.

A few minutes later, I found myself walking into my third class of the day—freshman mathematics. I was just about to search for a seat in the back, keeping my head down to avoid the stares and laughter, when I heard a snicker up front.

I lifted my head to find that someone had printed the pictures of me and posted them all over the blackboard. The student in question, a freshman male with a nasty look about him, was leaning against the professor’s podium with his arms folded.

Anger washed over me. Posting such things online was one thing, but bringing them into the classroom? That was too far.

“Well, well. If it isn’t Lyra,” he said, sneering as I stormed across the room and began to rip down the photos. “Hey, before you take those down, why don’t you recreate one for us? Lay there on the ground and puke on yourself. Who wants to volunteer to grab her hair?”

The students in the front laughed and murmured. I curled my lip and whirled on him, prepared to give him an earful of choice words that would make the Moon Goddess herself recoil in disgust, when the door slammed open with a crash that shook the walls.

Before anyone could react, a blur had shot across the room and slammed the student into the blackboard, cracking the slate around him. Kael’s hand curled into a fist in the student’s shirt, fangs flashing in the light. His eyes were no longer onyx, but rather red with fury.

“You’re lucky I don’t rip your throat out right now, prick,” Kael growled, leaning so close that the student shuddered visibly. “But unfortunately I’m very patient, so I’ll let you live this time. If you do anything—anything—like this again, I won’t hesitate. Do I make myself clear?”

The student’s throat bobbed. He nodded quickly and scampered away the moment Kael released him.

Kael turned then and swept his eyes over the stunned students. No one dared speak. No one even moved a muscle.

I swallowed hard and clutched the rumpled photos to my chest. “Kael—”

“Come with me.” Kael grabbed my wrist and pulled me from the room. Only once we were completely alone in the corridor, the door firmly shut behind us, did he turn to look at me. His eyes were still glowing faintly.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this?” he asked, snatching one of the photos from my hand and waving it in my face.

I resisted the urge to wince at the image of myself sprawled across the grass, covered in vomit, and held his gaze. “Why should I?”

Red eyes narrowed. “Now everyone thinks I’m negligent—what kind of an Alpha does that make me? One who can’t even protect his own adopted sister?”

My jaw ticked. Of course he only thought of himself. “Even if I did tell you, it’s not as if you would believe me. You never do.”

Kael blinked. For a moment, neither of us spoke. The red in his eyes slowly dimmed, and his irises returned to their usual onyx color.

“Lyra…” Kael looked away as if he were struggling with what to say. Finally, he managed in a rough voice, “I’m… sorry. I know it’s a problem of mine.”

I stared at him in shock. Kael never apologized unless he absolutely had to, and especially not to me. I almost expected him to burst out laughing and his friends to come out from hiding somewhere with their phones in hand, but neither of those things happened.

My silly little heart fluttered in my chest. Something warm unfurled inside of me, a feeling I knew all too well. A feeling I’d shoved down before and thought I’d killed: hope.

But in an instant, it all shattered.

“Just… don’t tell Mom,” Kael added, running a hand through his hair. “She’ll be pissed.”

My heart stopped again, and the hope I’d felt for a moment quickly withered and turned to ash in the wind like a phoenix burning out its last life.

Of course. Of course he only cared about not getting in trouble with his mother. He didn’t actually care about me—he only thought of himself. As fucking always.

Whatever softness I’d briefly felt for him was quickly squashed. I looked away and muttered, “Don’t worry. I won’t tell her. And besides, I don’t need your apology. You already deleted the post, so I guess we’re even now.”

Kael’s mouth twitched downward. My calm response clearly irked him, but I didn’t care. I turned to leave, but just then, his phone dinged with an incoming message. He pulled it out and frowned even more deeply when he read what it said.

“It was Cassidy,” he said. “She’s the one who posted those pictures.”

“I figured.” I went to leave, but Kael caught my wrist again. “What is it? I have to go to class.”

“Not until Cassidy gets here,” Kael replied. “She needs to apologize.”