Chapter 2

Isla’s POV~

The moment I walked through the school gates, I already knew it was going to be a bad day.

The walk from the gate to the main doors was three hundred steps.

Yes, I counted them because if I didn't count, I would focus on the burning coursing through my skin.

My father had hit me hard with the belt buckle last night. He hit the same spot on my thigh until my skin broke there. The cotton of my underwear was sticking to it, and every time I took a step, the fabric of my skirt pulled the scab open again.

I just didn’t know how to explain the pains further.

I didn't limp. I couldn't. If I limped, the lecturers would ask "Isla, are you okay?" and then I would have to lie, and if I lied badly, they would call him.

So I locked my knees. I put one foot in front of the other. I’ve been doing this for three years now.

I was ten steps away from the awning.

I didn't hear her coming.

I just heard the plastic rattle, and then the crash.

A bucket hit me right in the side. It was full of dirty mop water.

The impact knocked the wind out of me. I didn't even fall gracefully. My knees hit the concrete hard and then my hip slammed down. And I heard a crack. I had no idea if it was from my bones.

When the water hit my face, it went up my nose. I choked, but I didn't cough. I swallowed the cough because coughing makes noise. The water tasted like I had licked the inside of a clogged bathtub drain. It was thick and slimy. I felt something wet and stringy slide between my teeth, it was a clump of wet hair and lint from the mop head.

The dirty water soaked through my shirt instantly. It touched the open wounds on my ribs and thighs. The pain was so blinding that it made my eyes water, but I squeezed them shut.

"Well, well, well. If it isn’t the mutt."

The voice was cheerful. It was the type of voice that belongs to someone who has never been hungry in their life.

I opened my eyes. The water was dripping off my eyelashes.

Bella was standing over me.

She was holding one of the buckets she had thrown me. She looked... perfect. It hurt to look at her. She had blonde curls that bounced when she moved. Her skin was clear and pink. She was wearing a cheerleader jacket that was white and clean, with a big 'B' on the chest. She smelled like vanilla body spray . She looked like a princess, everything I wasn’t supposed to be.

"Oh, relax," she said, looking down at me. She wrinkled her nose, like I was a bad smell she couldn't get rid of. "I was doing you a favour. You smelled like a garbage can. I was just making sure everyone around you could breathe properly."

Behind her, three girls laughed. I heard the click of their phones. They were recording.

Bella didn't look at the camera. She looked at me. She stepped closer. Her white sneakers were right next to my hand.

"Look at the floor," she said, pointing with her toe. "You're making a mess, Isla. The janitor is going to be mad."

I tried to push myself up. My arms were shaking. The water made my skin slippery. I slipped twice.

"Pathetic," she said.

Right at the hallway, students had slowed around us. Nobody said anything and nobody stepped forward. They just watched us.

I didn't try to get up. I knew that if I stood up without her saying the words, it would be seen as a challenge. It meant broken fingers or a ripped uniform, things I couldn't explain to the teachers. So I stayed down. I let the cold, dirty water soak into my skin. It burned where the wolfsbane had scratched me last night. I kept my face blank. I stared at a crack in the concrete and waited for her to get bored.

Bella was the Beta’s daughter. In a werewolf school, blood is law. Her father ran the Crystal Moon Pack. He held the leases on half the territory my father wanted. If Bella complained, my father would beat me worse than usual. He told me this morning to make sure I get on their good books. Bella was one of the werewolves he wanted to have a good relationship with.

I didn't know how to make her like me. I didn't even know how to exist without her hating me. So I thought, maybe if I just took it, if I sat in the filth and didn't fight back, she would see I was harmless. Maybe she would think I was a good dog.

"Look at her," Bella said,. "She's actually staying put. Good girl."

She kicked a little water toward me with her white sneaker. It splashed on my cheek. I didn't wipe it off. I just blinked the dirty water out of my eyes.

Then the air suddenly changed.

The laughter of the girls behind Bella cut off instantly. The hallway went quiet.

I felt them instantly.

My body reacted before my brain did. A shiver started at the base of my spine and rattled my teeth. My hands, which were resting on the wet concrete, started to shake. It was a small tremor at first, then it got bigger. I couldn't stop it. My wolf knew they were there before I even saw them.

Brock. Maddox. Colt. Slade.

Blood drained out of my face. I knew those voices. I knew the way they walked.

The quadruplets. The Black Star heirs. The boys who made my life a living hell for three years. They were standing right behind Bella. I could see their shadows stretching over me, covering me completely.

I squeezed my eyes shut for a second, trying to breathe, but the air felt too thick. I opened them and looked up.

They were there.

Brock was on the left, looking down at me with eyes like black glass. Maddox was next to him, cracking his knuckles. Colt was smirking, that cruel, twisted smile I saw in my nightmares. And Slade... Slade was looking at my wet uniform with a look of pure disgust.

They were huge. They were powerful and popular on campus. And they were all looking at me like I was something they needed to scrape off their shoes. And they were my worst nightmare since high school.

It wasn't always like this. I have to remember that so I don't go crazy. Three years ago, Maddox was in love with me. He was my first love. My first kiss. Then he found out that I was a whore to my father’s friend.

Maddox didn't just stop loving me. He turned into a monster. He roared right in my face, a sound that vibrated in my chest and made my wolf cower. He looked at me like he wanted to tear my throat out. That was the moment the bullying started.

Bella giggled. She stepped closer to Maddox, her shoulder bumping his arm. She looked at me, then up at him, her eyes sparkling with malice.

"Aw, look at him," she cooed. "Maddox, are you going to be mad seeing your little prom date covered in toilet water?"

Maddox’s jaw flexed. He didn't look at Bella. He stared at me with eyes that were completely dead.

"I'm not mad," he snarled. "I'm disgusted."

He took a step toward me. I flinched. I couldn't help it. My body remembered the pain he caused last week when he twisted my arm.

"Don't you dare," he yelled, spitting the words at me. "Don't you ever step into a classroom where I am. If I see you near me, I won't just ignore you. I will lose control. I will kill you right there. Do you understand me, mutt?"

My heart didn't just break. It shattered into dust. I could feel the pieces cutting me up inside.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to grab his shirt and shake him and tell him the truth. I wanted to tell him not to hate me. The words were burning the back of my throat. They were right there.

But I didn't tell them. I couldn't. My father made me swear not to or he’d hurt me. So I swallowed the truth.

I lowered my head. I stared at his boots. My eyes burned with hot tears but I refused to let them fall.

I whispered. "I won't go near you."

I turned around. My legs were shaking so bad I could barely stand. I dragged my body toward the bathroom. I just needed to hide. I needed to be invisible.

I stayed there for ten minutes. I thought they were gone. I thought I was safe.

Then I heard the door open.

"I'm telling you, she ran in here like a wet rat," a girl’s voice said.

It was Bella. And she wasn't alone.

I froze. I stopped breathing. I pressed my hand over my mouth.

"So, wait," another girl giggled. "Is it true what they say? About you and Colt?”

Bella laughed.

"But you know the funniest part?" Bella lowered her voice. "The first time I fucked with Colt... he didn't even know."

My eyes snapped open in the dark stall.

"Know what?" the girl asked.

"That I wasn't a virgin.," Bella said, emphasizing the words with a cruel laugh. "He thought I was experienced. He was all rough and dominant, and I just had to sit there and take it and pretend I knew what I was doing. Can you believe it? The big playboy didn't even check."

I felt sick. Colt was a player. He slept with everyone. For him not to know... it meant something was wrong with Bella, or... or shit this was a very bad secret.

I shifted my weight. My sneaker squeaked on the tile floor.

The talking stopped instantly.

"What was that?" a girl hissed.

"The stall," Bella said. Her voice changed. It wasn't playful anymore.. "Someone's in there."

I heard footsteps.

Before I could lock the door properly, it was ripped open.

Bella stood there. Her face was twisted in rage. Behind her were three girls.

"You," she spat. "You were listening."

"I wasn't," I stammered, scrambling back against the toilet paper dispenser. "I just got here. I didn't hear anything."

"Liar," she snapped. She reached in and grabbed a handful of my hair. She yanked me forward. My head slammed against the door frame. Pain exploded behind my eyes.

"She heard us," one of the girls said. "She heard about Colt."

"I didn't!" I cried out, grabbing her wrist, trying to pull my hair free. "I swear I didn't!"

Bella’s eyes went dark. She didn't care if I heard or not. She just wanted to punish me for existing.

"Get her," she ordered.

Two girls grabbed my arms. They were strong. They twisted my wrists behind my back until I gasped. They dragged me out of the stall and threw me toward the sinks.

"Since you like water so much," Bella said, picking up a bucket from the cleaning cart in the corner. It was half-full of dirty mop slimy water.

"Hold her head down," Bella commanded.

They shoved my face toward the basin. The cold porcelain pressed against my cheek. I thrashed. I kicked. I screamed, "No! Please! I won't tell anyone!"

"Shut up," Bella hissed.

She grabbed the back of my neck with one hand. With the other, she tipped the bucket.

The water hit the back of my head and poured over my face. It went up my nose. It filled my ears. It was freezing and it tasted like chemicals. I gagged. I choked. My lungs burned. I was drowning in a sink.

I couldn't breathe. My vision started to spot with black dots. I was going to pass out. I was going to die right here, face down in a toilet sink.

Just as my knees buckled and darkness started to close in, a hand grabbed the back of Bella’s jacket and yanked her backward with terrifying force.

The pressure on my neck vanished. I gasped, choking on water, and fell to the floor, coughing up bile and dirty water. I rolled onto my back, my chest heaving, water streaming out of my nose.

I wiped the water from my eyes with a shaking hand and looked up.

Bella was stumbling back, looking furious. "Who the hell—"

She stopped.

Standing in the doorway wasn't a teacher.

It was Maddox.

He looked big. Bigger than I remembered. His chest was heaving, like he’d run here. His eyes were dark, and focused entirely on me, lying on the wet tile, coughing up water. Then he looked at Bella, and the look on his face was pure murder.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Maddox’s voice was low. It was a growl that rattled the mirrors.

Bella’s face went pale, then red. "She was spying on us! She—"

"I didn't ask you," Maddox snapped. He took a step into the bathroom. The air pressure dropped. The other girls scrambled back, pressing themselves against the wall. They were terrified of him. Everyone was.

He looked down at me. I was curled in a ball, shivering. I waited for him to kick me. I waited for him to finish what he started outside.

But he didn't look at me with hate. He looked at the bucket. Then he looked at the bruise forming on my cheek where Bella had hit me against the door frame.

His jaw clenched so hard I heard his teeth grind.

"I told you," Maddox said, his voice shaking with a rage I didn't understand. He wasn't looking at me. He was looking at Bella. "I told you not to touch her."

Bella laughed nervously. "Since when do you care, Maddox?."

Maddox took another step. He was towering over Bella now. He looked dangerous. Unstable. Like a bomb about to go off.