Willow's Quadru-plights

Chapter 5

The morning felt extremely long for some people.

Chloe moved across the training grounds with the stiff, brittle grace of porcelain about to shatter. She had spent the last forty-eight hours vibrating with a rage so hot it was turning her insides to ash.

Tristan had told her to Stay calm and Ignore the noise.

"You are mine, that is all the protection you need. I'll handle her" He said it like he made all the sense in the whole world.

But Tristan wasn’t the one walking the halls, hearing the whispers and seeing the mocking glances people cast at her.

The school was like a hive, buzzing with gossip of her. The Queen! that has never happened and a mere nobody wanted to break the record

"Again," Chloe spat, her voice tight enough to snap.

Before her, a younger student named Elara who had been unlucky enough to be paired with her cringed, wiping sweat and dirt from her cheek.

Chloe didn't even wait for her to recover. She lunged, a blur of practiced cruelty, sweeping the girl’s legs out from under her.

With a thud, Elara hit the packed earth.

the next second Chloe stood over her, breathing hard, her knuckles white.

"Pathetic," giving her another kick she flipped her hair and strutted away

Elara, eyes swimming with tears and humiliation, glared at her retreating figure.

A twisted, jagged smile broke across her face and she whispered, yet it was loud enough for people with heightened senses like them to hear.

"You're fast today huh? but you weren't as fast as the girl who put you in your place."

The training ground went silent.

"What did you say?" Chloe asked turning around sharply and walking towards the girl exuding pure authority and rage.

Elara didn't back down. she knew she was already in for it so there was no need to cower anymore.

"It's the truth Chloe. everybody is tired of you carrying yourself like youre the embodiment of Nyx just because you managed to get into Tristan's bed. look around you. who hasn't? if you were any more special than the rest of us then that girl would definitely be six feet under. You're just a crude." Then as if remembering something she let out a muffled mocking laugh

"Heard the b*tch that slapped you didn't even break a sweat"

Chloe felt a sound start in the back of her throat. it was a low, distorted animal whine that she hadn't given permission to exist.

The girl’s laughter rippled through the onlookers, a mocking, high-pitched chorus.

"You're Comparing me?" Chloe whispered, her vision narrowing into a blood-red tunnel. "To that?"

She erupted.

Chloe dropped, her hand grabbing a fistful of Elara’s hair, and dragged her face-first through the grit. Elara let out a growl but she couldn't get Chloe off her despite her struggle. Chloe was after all ahead of her in training and rank.

She wiggled now, blood spewing from the scratch marks Chloe left on her.

"Know your place you weakling. Alpha blood runs through my veins. I will not be disrespected by one beneath me. Twice!"

A senior trainer had to physically drag her off, his hands sinking into her shoulders to keep her from doing permanent damage.

Recovering from her rage and seeing the judgemental eyes of everyone, She finally let go.

She shoved past him, chest heaving, lungs burning.

She needed to find Tristan.

He was the only one who could fix this, the only one who could burn the rest of the school to the ground until they stopped looking at her with that pitying, hateful glee.

storming into the Spire, she slammed the heavy doors against the stone walls with a c***k like a gunshot.

Derek grunted in annoyance. People really needed to learn how to knock in this godforsaken academy

Tristan was at his window, arms folded, staring out at the academy with a brooding, statuesque stillness.

Seeing her enter, he noticed the blood on her hand and a tired look flashed across his face.

"Chloe," he called "I told you to keep your head down."

"I am sick of the head-down routine!" she screamed.

"Everyone is talking, Tristan! They’re laughing! Do something! End her! Make an example of her so no one ever dares to utter her name in the same sentence as mine again!"

Tristan's face turned into a mask of cold, unbothered marble.

He walked toward her, trying to reach out, his hand hovering near her shoulder to coax her into silence.

Levi who had been silent let out a snort earning a glare from Chloe

"You are letting a nobody dictate your worth. Stop that."

"I am not a toy!" she shrieked, swatting his hand away.

Tristan’s gaze hardened. He let out a sigh "Leave, Chloe. Come back when you're clear headed I don't have time for this."

The dismissal was the final straw.

He didn't care about her humiliation. He didn't care about the gossip.

"Fine." She said with a smile

Chloe turned, her heart a frozen lump of ice in her chest. She didn't walk to her dorm room.

She walked straight to the archive room she knew the Alphas used to store their tactical intelligence. the place where Derek spent his endless, boring hours.

She slipped inside like a ghost. The room was Filled with proof of Derek's obsession with geography and war.

She didn't care about the maps themselves, but she knew what mattered.

She found the central planning table, where a complex map of the northern territory lay spread out, covered in wax seals and strategic ink markings.

She immediately began manhandling it to make it look like it was tampered with by some curios person who didn't know the dangers of trespassing.

It was the perfect kind of petty trick a nobody like Willow deserved.

And then she poured ink on it, ruining the weeks of work Derek had obsessed over.

It felt good. Derek was going to be beyond pissed and definitely finish off the fool who dared to touch it.

Then, she reached into her pocket. Her fingers brushed against the small, silver necklace she had swiped from Willow’s locker days ago. it was a cheap, trinket-like thing she had kept for a moment like this, just in case Tristan didn't act fast enough or to her satisfaction. she giggled to herself. She really has a great sixth sense

She dropped it on the floor, so it would seem the culprit had accidentally dropped it in their hurry to escape

"There"

she said. her lips curling into a trembling smile.

Then just as she came, She vanished into the shadows.

Few minutes later, the heavy thud of footsteps approached the door.

Derek entered, his brow furrowed as he sensed something wasn't right.

approaching the table, he immediately knew what was wrong.

He stopped dead.

His kind of rage was silent. But the person who dared this was going to die. Even if it was Chloe in her stupid bid for revenge, She would not be spared.

then his eyes began searching for clues and before long, they spotted the little necklace on the floor.

It was silver, catching the dim light of the room, looking impossibly fragile against the c*****e of the maps.

A sudden, sharp jolt hit his chest leaving him breathless.

He reached out, his fingers trembling as they hovered just inches above the metal. The room suddenly felt very cold, and for the first time in his life, the tactical genius of the pack didn't know what his next move was.

He just stared, his chest tight, his lungs refusing to draw air, as the memory of a girl who was supposed to be a nobody, settled over him like a suffocating shroud.