Revenge on Ice

Lyra I woke up early because this morning was different from every other morning. Actually I hadn't even slept since last night A smile spread across my face as I sat up. Today was going to be a great day. I dressed quickly, choosing my favorite lavender sweater over my school uniform. I bounced down to the kitchen humming. My family was already seated and Cole, my elder brother was almost halfway through his food. "Well, good morning, Lyra," my mother said, sipping her coffee. "You're up early. Should I be worried?" I slid into my chair and grabbed a piece of toast. "Nope," I said. "No reason to worry." My father looked up from his tablet. He never missed details about his daughter. "You're practically vibrating," he said. "It's nothing." I said, biting into the toast. Cole scoffed with his mouth still stuffed with food, "She probably had a dream about Darian." My smile sharpened. "Maybe." Marcus Hale frowned. "I told you to reject him, Birdy. That Graham boy is not the kind of wolf a girl should bond herself to. Especially not you." I rolled my eyes. Because I couldn't shift and everyone saw me as half a wolf, and my father was ten times more protective than any other fathers but I could protect myself. "You don't need to worry about him," I said, standing up abruptly. "Really. You don't." "Lyra..." I grabbed my backpack from the hook by the door and was gone before my father could say another word. The driver drove me to school without Cole and I walked through the front doors of Luna Noctis High, humming. "Okay, what is wrong with you?" Mira fell into step beside me. She had managed to tame her red hair today and she was as astute as always. "Nothing's wrong," I said as I continued humming. Mira took a sip of coffee, "Okay, spill." We rounded the corner into the main corridor, and I lowered my voice still smiling. "Darian's going to accept me today as his mate." Mira stopped walking, "Say that again." "Darian's going to.." "I heard you. I just wanted to make sure my ears hadn't betrayed me." Mira's expression had gone flat. "By the moon, Lyra! No." "What do you mean by no?" "I mean no. As in absolutely not. As in have you lost your entire mind?" Mira grabbed my arm and pulled me to the side of the hallway, near the water fountains. "That guy is not good for you." "He is my mate." I said. "The moon goddess won't have chosen him to be mine if it wasn't fate." "Lyra." Mira said exasperatedly. "Just trust me on this," I said. "Please." Mira sighed, "Fine, but I'm going to say 'I told you so' later. And I'm going to enjoy it." "Whatever." We started walking towards our class and that was when I noticed the stares. Which was weird because Mira and I were at the bottom class of this school. A group of first years giggled as I passed, and one of them held up her phone like she was comparing something. "Why is everyone looking at us?" I asked. Mira who had already pulled out her phone, frowned before blanching. "Mira? What is it?" Mira just turned the phone around and held it up. There I was, in my pale pink set underwear. A picture I had taken yesterday because Darian had wanted to see me. The post had two hundred and forty-seven comments and four thousand shares with the caption, "Lyra Hale, desperate enough to send these to anyone who asks #w***e#fakebitch." I began to shake. "No. No, no, no." I grabbed Mira's phone and scrolled through the comments. With a wolf that weak, what else is she good for? Honestly, doing the pack a favor by showing what she really is. Send more. Her dad must be so proud. "Stop reading," Mira said, trying to pull the phone back. "Lyra, stop. Don't look at them. They are fake." Only they weren't. It was me, right there exposed for the whole school to see. I felt like I was standing outside myself, watching a nightmare happen to someone else. "How..." I whispered. "How did they..." "We need to go to the principal's office," Mira said. She grabbed my hand and started pulling me down the hall. "We need to report this. It's illegal. They can trace who posted it and..." We rounded the corner toward the lockers, and my locker row was covered with my pictures. Someone had written words across them. SLUT. w***e. BEGGAR. DESPERATE. WEAK. "f**k," Mira breathed. The crowd parted around us to let us get to the locker. A group of boys from the Wolfpuck team leaned against the opposite lockers. Their captain, a bulky guy named Trent, whistled. "Nice body, Hale," he called out. "Think you can give me some...." He grunted in a suggestive way and his friends howled with laughter. Mira spun on them fast. "Shut your f*****g mouth, Trent, or I'll tear it off you." I told myself I wasn't looking for him but I was looking. Even then, even with my pictures plastered across every locker, some stupid desperate part of me thought, if Darian sees how broken I was by this, he'll fix it. I actually thought that. I looked to see him walking towards me. "Darian," I breathed, stumbling forward to grab the sleeve of his jacket. "Darian, thank the goddess. Someone hacked your phone and got the picture I sent you. They...they put it everywhere, and I don't know how, but you have to explain, you have to tell everyone it wasn't.." He began to laugh. "Wait," Mira said. "You sent these pictures to him?" He looked down at me with so much contempt that I flinched. "You actually think someone hacked my phone?" He shook his head. "No, Lyra. I posted them." "And you know what's funny? I can't believe you actually sent them. I asked as a joke. I didn't think even you were that desperate." Students were already gathering with their phones out. "But there you were," Darian continued, spreading his hands. "Sending me pictures in your little pink underwear like some kind of slut." He stepped closer, and I stepped back. "You've been throwing yourself at me for years. Following me around. Texting me a hundred times a day. Sending me those." He gestured to the locker. "What did you think was going to happen? That I'd fall in love with you? That I'd mate someone like you?" I didn't say a word. "I, Darian Graham, reject you Lyra Hale as my mate." I felt the pull from the center of my chest and then it was like someone had dug their hands into my chest and ripped it out. I screamed as my knees buckled because my wolf couldn't handle the pain of the rejection. "Lyra!" Someone's voice came from somewhere far away. Blood spilled out from my mouth and the remaining students just watched. Just then, from the corner of my eyes, I saw Rosa Vane emerge from the crowd and run into Darian's arms. "Babe," she said, loud enough for everyone to hear, "what's going on?" Darian kissed her forehead. "Nothing. Lyra was just trying to force herself on me, again." Rosa's eyes went wide with concern. "Can she handle the rejection? You know she is weak." Darian scoffed, "I can't believe you still care for her." I tried to stand up by myself but instead fell forward. I was on fours when a pair of black expensive shoes stopped in front of me. A drop of my blood landed on the right shoe. "Clean that filth off my shoe," said a familiar voice above me. I looked up to see the prince of Frostfang kingdom looking down on me coldly. I quickly bent my head back to clean the blood with my sweater but he interrupted me. "With your tongue."