Chapter 2

2.

Seven years is enough time for a child to become a teenager. It was also enough time for me to heal from the trauma Kaelan Frost had inflicted on me.

I had buried it all so deep that the name of my first child had almost faded from my mind.

Kaelan and I should never have crossed paths. Our packs had a business alliance, and we both attended the same private elite academy for the wealthy.

I was in the arts program, considered the “wolf-less” soft zone. Kaelan was in the business school, a fighting pit where Alphas used testosterone and tactics to battle for future dominance.

It was a typical high-school hierarchy―Kaelan and Vivienne were the king and queen, reigning from on high. A Royal Blood Alpha and a high-ranking Beta, from equal families, childhood sweethearts.

My entanglement with Kaelan began with an unexpected heat.

My suppressants failed in the gym equipment room that day. The sweet scent of strawberries and vanilla flooded the small space, an Omega’s most primal mating call.

Kaelan opened the door.

I thought he was going to get the nurse. But all he brought was savage predation.

He lost his mind and forced his mark on me. The searing pain of his fangs sinking into my scent gland made my vision go white. It was the violence of having my soul invaded.

Afterward, as he buttoned his shirt, he looked at me with the disgust you’d reserve for trash. The arrogance of a top predator was etched into every syllable.

“This is how you Omegas do it, right? Releasing that damn scent to make an Alpha lose control.”

He wiped my lips with his thumb, as if trying to scrub away the memory of his own kiss.

And I, with the bloody bite mark on my neck, just curled up on the floor, trembling in pain.

Looking back, I was so naive to think he was a victim of his instincts. It was just classic gaslighting.

His so-called “inability to resist” was nothing but an abuser’s excuse.