Jenny said something. I didn't hear it.
The scent hit me a half-second later.
Something sweet and deep and completely, devastatingly right. It bypassed every rational thought I had and went straight to the part of me that was a wolf before it was anything else. My body turned toward it before my brain authorised the movement.
And I walked directly into a wall.
The impact sent me straight to the marble floor. My bag split, books flying everywhere, cellphone skidding somewhere under someone's boot. I sat there blinking for a full, stupid second, hair in my face, hands flat on cold stone.
Then I looked up.
Dark green eyes.
Almost black, actually. The kind of green that existed at the bottom of very deep water. Blonde hair was trimmed shorter on the sides, and the longer pieces on top were messy in that, "I just rolled out of bed" kind of way. A jaw that had a cleft in it. Dark denim jeans that hugged powerful thighs. A black t-shirt that showed off thick muscular arms and matching dark boots.
Cole Hayes looked down at me.
He was standing with Tucker Reeves and Reid Calloway, the Beta's and Gamma's son, and Lana was at his side, his fingers stroking her bare stomach.
They'd been together since they were fourteen.
Everyone knew they'd end up mated and create beautiful, blonde, cruel babies together. It was inevitable. The Braxtons were the most powerful family after the Hayes and had been pushing for Regina to be Luna, but Regina was a wild, uncontrollable card and would never be told what to do with her life.
Lana, however, was ambitious and had been working to be Luna since before she ever understood what the word meant.
But Cole's nostrils flared. He blinked, as though confused.
He took one step toward me. One step away from Lana.
And the scent slammed into me again, so strong this time that my wolf threw herself at the surface of my mind with an urgency that was almost painful.
Goddess, please, not him. Anyone in the world who has ever existed or will exist. Not him.
My wolf didn't care that I hated Cole Hayes vehemently, or that he was the reason I hid behind baggy clothes. That he had made me hate my body so much, I stopped looking in the mirror and nearly killed myself.
She thought he was ours.
Cole crouched in front of me.
Realization crashed over Lana's face, panic and fear leaping into her eyes as he reached out, breathing hard, and touched my cheek, eyes heavy-lidded with such corrosive lust and hunger that I began trembling.
But at that moment, I could not control my synapses. My body wanted him like it needed warmth. I wanted things that I didn't yet know existed. I wanted to stake my claim on him. I wanted to bury my nose in his neck and run my tongue up and down his pulse. To arch my neck and let him mark me.
His soft touch turned cruel, something like claws began digging into my chin. "Maisie Adams," he said softly. His gaze ran down my body. "The goddess must have lost her mind if she thought we belonged together. I'd sooner jam my dick through a grinder than stick it in your fat ass."
The hall quietened. He wasn't exactly being discreet.
My wolf whined petulantly, wanting me to throw myself into his arms, but his words had dropped like a cold bucket of water onto my head. I scrambled back, chest heaving as I fought the pull.
Goddess, but it felt like I would die if he didn't touch me.
Someone grabbed my shoulder–Regina or Jenny maybe, pulling me up. "Stay away from her."
Stay away? How? My world was reconstructing around him. I could smell him and feel his heart beat pulsing with mine. My heart, my very body was aching for him.
But Cole smirked, rising to his feet as if completely unaffected. "By the next full moon, I will be the Alpha of the Night Shade Pack. I have no use for a maid, a weakling Omega like you who can't even shift."
My head went very quiet and my gaze swung to Lana's, stinging with betrayal.
She had told him.
And now, the entire hall knew it too. It rippled across the space in waves, whispers, gasps and mocking laughter. They called me a freak. Wolfless. A runt.
"The Pack needs a stronger Luna." He pulled Lana closer to him. "Lana Braxton is much more deserving of being my mate and would make a better Luna than you ever could."
I suddenly realized what was happening.
My heart began to slam against my ribcage like a battle ram.
He was going to reject me.
I suddenly recalled Professor Halven's words.
Goddess, I'm going to die. And if I don't, I might go insane. And in the event that I somehow survived both, I would be faced with the stigma of being rejected for the rest of my life.
Because no he-wolf wanted to be stuck with another man's reject.
I tried to speak, but I didn't get a chance.
"I, Cole Hayes, future Alpha of the Night Shade pack, reject you, Maisie Adams, as my mate and future Luna of my pack," he declared coldly.
Agony split through my chest like a blade of fire. I screamed, loud, raw and guttural. My wolf howled in pain. It was like nothing I'd ever heard before and it split my head in two as she wept for him. It tore into me like a knife being plunged deep to cut my heart right out, piece by piece.
They said I howled like a banshee, cried like a child, threw up and collapsed like a ragged doll in my own vomit.
All I knew was pain.