The Campus Alpha’s Broken Mate

Four

~Nora~

By the time I got to school, I was ready for fresh hell. Phones out. Smirks. Somebody replaying my worst night before first period like it was morning content.

Instead, I got whispers. Looks. That specific kind of silence that breaks the second you walk past it.

I slowed near the main steps and checked my phone anyway, just to be sure I hadn't imagined it.

The hallway clip was gone. The breakup video too. Every link I checked led nowhere.

My stomach twisted, not even from relief but suspicion.

Jace didn't have a conscience. Sienna didn't wake up kind. Which left exactly one person reckless enough to bulldoze through a mess like this and call it help.

"Of course," I muttered.

“He protected us.” My wolf, Nalia stated.

"He made it worse first."

A group of girls near the entrance glanced at me, looked away, then looked right back. One of them whispered, "That's her."

Another added, "I heard Alpha Callum made them take it down." The third one looked me over like I'd turned into something contagious.

I didn't want pity or fear. I definitely didn't want to look like the girl who got claimed so hard the whole school had to adjust its tone around her.

I kept walking.

I caught a whiff of his cedar wood and dark musk before he saw me. Or he'd already seen me and was pretending otherwise because he liked being irritating.

Callum stood by the windows at the far end of the corridor. Hands in pockets. Posture loose. Expression completely dead calm, like last night hadn't happened, like he hadn't gone through Jace's frat house, punched a golden boy in the face, and then apparently cleaned up my humiliation before breakfast.

I changed direction immediately. He noticed.

"Running from me already?" he asked.

I stopped then turned. "You took them down."

"Yes."

"Who told you to do that?"

"Nobody."

"You had no right."

His mouth shifted, not quite a smile. "They lost the right to keep them up."

"That was my problem to handle."

"It stopped being just yours the second they turned it into entertainment."

I stepped closer. "You don't get to decide that for me."

He pushed off the wall, slow and easy, which only made him more aggravating. "You're right. Next time I'll let them keep passing you around."

"Go to hell."

"After you."

The heat in my chest sharpened from something that had no business being there.

My wolf lifted her head. “I want him.”

I shoved it back mentally. "Stop taking his side."

"Deleting those videos isn’t going to change my mind about rejecting you."

“Oh, you won’t.”

"I just got tired of seeing what belongs to me treated like public property."

There it was. That possessive, infuriating, chest-tightening line.

"I'm not yours."

His head tilted. "Your wolf disagrees."

For one horrible second I forgot how to breathe. Then fury fixed that.

"You delusional bastard."

He moved before I could step back. One second, there was space between us. The next, he had his hands tightly snaked around my waist.

“Let go of me.”

“When you learn how to talk to me.”

“Is that supposed to scare me?”

“It should.”

“I’m only calmer than I should be with you but don’t confuse that with harmless.”

“You’re really proving every disgusting rumor I have heard about you.”

“But go on,” I charged. “Snap! Lose that famous self control everybody’s so scared of.”

He pulled away slowly, his eyes still on me and the distance felt more dangerous than his touch.

A humorless smile touched his face, “Not today, little mate.”

People were watching now. Not openly, nobody was that brave but I could feel attention pulling at the edges of the hallway.

"Has anybody told you how controlling you are? I know they don’t have the balls to do it." I snapped. "You interfere, you threaten people, and then you act like I should be grateful."

His eyes went colder. "I didn't ask for gratitude."

"You clearly want something."

"I do."

I crossed my arms. "Say it."

"Stop treating this like it's only your pride on the line."

I laughed. "My pride is literally all I have left after this week."

"And whose fault is that?"

"You went to Jace's house alone after what happened."

"That was my boyfriend."

"Ex. You are mine now."

I laughed in his face.

“I would rather crawl back to hell than belong to you.”

His eyes darkened, but his voice stayed level. “Hell is exactly where I live, little mate. I’ll take you there myself.”

My pulse jumped. Anger. Nothing else.

“Try it.”

Something shifted in his face, then vanished just as quickly.

“Go to class. I’ll deal with you later.”

He stepped back before I could say something worse, and somehow that annoyed me more. Like he had decided the argument was over because he said so.

It wasn’t.

I spun on my heel and left him there.

***

By lunch, I stormed back to my dorm ready to throw myself on my bed and hate everybody in peace.

The bed was bare.

So was the desk and closet.

I stopped in the doorway. “What the f**k?”

One of the girls from down the hall looked up from her phone. “Your stuff got moved.”

I turned slowly. “Moved where?”

She shrugged like this was normal. “Callum’s house.”

I stared at her in utter disbelief.

Then at the boxes stacked by the common room door and the resident assistant standing there pretending not to look nervous.

“You let him what?”

She cleared her throat. “The housing board approved it.”

“Approved what? Me getting kidnapped?”

“Nora, please lower your voice.”

“No.”

The resident assistant glanced around, then said quietly, “You’re not safe here right now. There were complaints. Threats. His family..”

“Owns half the school,” I finished. “Yeah. I know.”

Callum appeared behind me like the devil answering his cue.

“You’re leaving with me.”

I turned so fast my neck hurt. “I’m doing no such thing.”

He looked at the boxes, then back at me. “Jace was planning something with his boys. Sienna was in on it. The girls here already hate you. You’re not staying.”

“I can fight my own battles.”

“I won’t let you fight this one alone.”

“I’m not scared.”

He stepped closer, voice low. “That doesn’t make you safe.”

“I’m not moving in with you.”

“You won’t have to share a room because I’ve a lot in my house.”

I wanted to slap him.

Instead, I shoved past him, grabbed the smallest box, dropped it right back down out of spite, and stormed off.

***

That night, I don’t remember leaving my room.

I remember darkness, cold air with male voices.

I blinked, disoriented, and found myself outside behind the dorms, far from the lights, in nothing but my thin night blouse and shorts. My bare feet were freezing.

Jace stood in front of me.

Two of his boys were behind him.

And Sienna was off to the side, smiling.

“Well,” Jace said, looking me over slowly. “Look who came wandering.”

My stomach dropped.

One of the boys lifted his phone.

Another grabbed my arm when I tried to step back.

The neckline of my blouse tore, nearly exposing my chest.

Sienna’s smile widened.

“Do it,”

And that was when I realized nobody was close enough to hear me scream.