Chapter Three
1159 Words
The halls of Valen Academy had never known silence so thick.
Students pressed against the lockers and stairwells, eyes wide, mouths barely breathing, as the storm they never saw coming finally touched down.
“Stop following me.” Luana’s voice thundered through the hallways.
Her words were aimed at the three boys standing a few feet behind her. Damien, David, and Dominick, once the gods of the school, now stood frozen, their expressions flickering between shock, frustration, and something dangerously close to desperation.
David took a step forward. “Luana, listen—”
“No,” she snapped, her tone icy. “I’m not interested in excuses from three spoiled, overgrown toddlers with dominance issues.”
Gasps rippled through the crowd. Someone dropped a book. Another stifled a laugh.
Damien tried again, his voice strained, “We're not following you to bother you, our wolves…” he exhaled sharply. “They recognize you. You’re our mate.”
Dominick, usually silent, nodded once. “That’s why we act this way. We didn’t mean to—”
Luana turned on her heel to face them fully. Her voice raised just enough to be heard by every single student nearby.
“Is that supposed to justify you stalking me? Cornering me between classes? Touching my things? That’s harassment.”
A stunned hush fell over the hallway.
She looked each of them dead in the eye, letting the weight of her next words crush whatever pride they had left.
“Let me make this very clear: You don’t own me. I don’t care what your wolves think or feel. You don’t get to act like saviors when all you know how to do is ruin people. Stop following me.”
A murmur started to rise, low at first, then steadily louder.
"Didn’t they do the same thing to Jessica?"
"Yeah, they harassed her till she couldn't take it anymore. Did they approach her to be their bed mate and she refused? Remember how she disappeared? And then—"
"This is just like last year."
Luana didn’t smile but her chest thrummed with satisfaction as the boys shifted uncomfortably, sensing the tide turning.
“You’ll regret this,” David muttered.
She raised a brow. “No, you will.”
She turned her back on them and walked off without another word. The students parted for her like the Red Sea, whispering behind their hands, stealing glances at the once untouchable triplets.
---
Later that night, Damien lay on his bed, his face buried in a pillow his heart was racing and his chest felt tight. The mate bond was screaming. Without her nearby, his wolf clawed at his insides like it was trying to escape. Every breath felt painful.
He reached for water. It slipped from his fingers and shattered.
In the next room, David paced like a rabid animal. His skin itched, his mind raced. He kept hearing her voice harassment over and over. The word struck harder than any punch he'd ever taken.
Dominick sat in the dark. Eyes wide open without blinking.
And then the nightmares began.
---
It started with Damien.
In the dream, he stood in the hallway, just like earlier that day. But this time, the students didn’t whisper. They pointed. Laughed. His pants were soaked with blood. Jessica’s blood. No matter how many times he wiped his hands, it never came off.
He turned, and there she was.
Luana. Standing in moonlight and smiling wickedly at him.
“Damien,” she whispered, voice echoing like wind through broken glass. “You killed me.”
He screamed himself awake, drenched in sweat.
---
David’s nightmare came next.
He was on stage during assembly, microphone in hand. He was confident and charismatic and the school adored him.
Until his voice cracked and he suddenly went mute.
He tried to speak, but the only thing that came out was Jessica’s death report.
“Cause of death: blunt trauma. Possible assault. No suspects.”
His voice kept looping it. Louder and louder. Until he dropped the mic and vomited in front of everyone.
When he looked up, the crowd was laughing.
Luana stood at the back of the auditorium, applauding.
He woke up shaking.
---
And Dominick?
He didn’t speak of his dream.
But the next morning, he had claw marks down his arms, self-inflicted.
---
Luana, of course, was just getting started.
She didn’t need to lift a finger to begin her campaign of humiliation. All she had to do… was watch them unravel.
In Combat Class, she “accidentally” landed her elbow in Damien’s gut, making him double over and vomit in front of the whole class.
“Oops,” she said sweetly.
David tripped on the sparring mats the next day when he tried to impress the instructor. He landed flat on his face. The video was on the school’s group chat within the hour. Someone edited in a fart noise.
“Whoops,” Luana whispered to Alex, barely hiding her grin.
And Dominick?
She asked him to help carry books to the library in front of a dozen students, something no girl had ever asked of him. When he agreed, cheeks red, she turned and said, “Wow, didn’t think you knew how to lift anything besides your ego.”
The hallway roared.
---
The triplets were losing it.
The mate bond tortured them. Every second away from Luana felt like agony. Yet every second near her was worse, because she never let them forget what they’d done.
She haunted their dreams. Their minds. Their reputations.
Students no longer treated them like royalty. They were memes now. Jokes. Damien the crier. David the floor-kisser. Dominick the book-boy.
And Luana?
She enjoyed every second of their torture.
They couldn't prove she was doing anything. Not really.
But they knew. And it was driving them mad.
---
One evening, Damien found her alone near the old greenhouse. He looked half-wild. His shirt was wrinkled, his lips dry, his voice hoarse.
“Please… just talk to us. I don’t care if you hate us—just… stop.”
Luana didn’t even blink. “I told you I’d make you suffer. And this?” She stepped closer, her voice dripping with venom. “This is only the beginning.”
“Why?” he whispered. “We didn’t kill her. We swear.”
“I know,” she said simply.
That confused him.
“But you made her life a nightmare. You helped crush her spirit until someone else finished the job. And now…”
She leaned in.
“I’m here to return the favour.”
---
Later, in their dorm room, the triplets sat in silence.
Damien stared at the wall. David sat on the floor, legs shaking. Dominick stared at his claw-marked hands.
“Who is she?” David muttered.
Damien didn’t answer.
He was too busy remembering Jessica’s eyes.
And now… Luana’s?
They burned with fiery confidence.
- Writer
