She wasn’t the type to judge, but she wondered if anyone else on this cursed campus knew.
"Good morning, Principal Stan," a few passing students greeted as they entered the dining hall.
Stan offered them a lazy nod, but his eyes never wavered. They were locked entirely on Nyx.
Lena felt a wave of nausea hit her. How could no one else see that? So much for minding her own business.
She had better things to worry about. Like her last bottle of Beta spray. Maybe she should come clean to her roommates. And when it finishes, they could be willing to mark her with their scent.
Besides, Khloe seemed to care about her.
"I just know he’s fucking a student," Khloe whispered, leaning her head closer to Lena as they joined the cafeteria line. "Or multiple students."
"How would you even know that?" Lena asked quietly, keeping her eyes scanned for the croissant rack.
"Gemma once told me he was coming on to her," Khloe murmured, her voice dropping into a grave, serious register. "But she rejected him. Over and over. And that’s exactly why he stopped the official search for her when she went missing."
Lena narrowed her eyes. "So you’re saying the temporary principal might have taken her?"
Khloe shrugged, a flash of genuine fear crossing her features before she masked it. "Maybe. Which means..."
"Which means Lena is next," Julian cut in smoothly, popping up right behind them in line, his fuchsia hair perfectly styled despite the rush.
"I am not next," Lena said flatly, her hand instinctively tightening around the strap of her bag.
"You’re not," Khloe agreed fiercely, her jaw setting. "Not if I can find a way to expose him first. If I can just catch him in the act with whoever he’s seeing in this school—"
"If you want to play detective, Khloe, do it outside the cafeteria. Some of us actually want to eat in peace." Nyx said aggressively, forcing the trio into stunned silence.
Without waiting for a response, Nyx turned her back on them, grabbed her tray, and moved ahead in line.
Lena watched the rigid posture of Nyx’s back before slowly cutting her eyes to Khloe. The sudden shift in the air was palpable.
Khloe wasn’t snapping back with her usual dramatic flair. Instead, her cheerful, bubbly energy had completely drained, leaving her looking small and deeply uncomfortable.
"Are you okay?" Lena asked, her brow furrowing slightly. "You don’t look as cheerful as you usually do."
The question only made things worse.
Khloe bit her lower lip, staring hard at the glass pastry display as her cheeks burned with a lingering flush.
"She’s not okay because Nyx thoroughly hates her guts," Julian chimed in, dropping his voice to a low, scandalous whisper as he leaned into Lena’s space. "And honestly? Can you blame her? Khloe completely ruined her life at that school party last term."
"Julian, shut up," Khloe hissed, blinking rapidly as her eyes welled with fresh frustration. "I was totally wasted! I didn’t know what I was saying. I didn’t mean to leak it."
"Well, you did," Julian countered deadpan, entirely unbothered by her distress. He looked at Lena, his eyes widening to emphasize the gravity of the gossip. "Khloe got completely hammered on beer and announced to the entire room that Nyx was the school’s biggest whore."
Lena’s gaze automatically drifted back to the back of Nyx’s head.
"It wasn’t just the insult, Lena," Julian added, his voice dropping into a chilling, serious register that made the hairs on Lena’s arms stand up. "It was who she was doing it with. Khloe exposed that Nyx was secretly hooking up with Prince Maximus."
The name hit like a physical weight. Prince Maximus. The isolated, dangerous fourth member of the Quad that Kaelen Cross had warned her to never even think about.
"To think that someone like Prince Maximus will stoop so low was... depressing on campus for Nyx."
The way those words were constructed, Lena for a fact knew only Julian thought that. He had a knack for looking down on others. Perhaps it was more about the fact that Nyx trusted her?
But it gave her a cold realization. She absolutely could not tell Khloe her secret. One drunk encounter, and the whole school would know she was wolfless. Did that mean she was doomed?
"Julian, shut up!" Khloe frantically slapped his arm, her voice dropping into a terrified, breathless whisper as she looked around the crowded cafeteria. "We don’t talk about Maximus. You know the rules. Do you want to get us thrown into isolation too?"
Julian snapped his mouth shut, his playful expression instantly vanishing as he swallowed hard, giving a stiff nod. "Right. Sorry. Slipped out."
Lena looked between them, her jaw tightening. First Kaelen Cross in the office, and now her own roommates. The sheer amount of fear surrounding a single name was getting ridiculous.
"What is up with that?" Lena asked flatly, crossing her arms. "Seriously. No one on this entire campus wants to say a single damn thing about him."
"Because it’s safer if you don’t even think about it," Khloe whispered, her thumbs nervously tapping against her phone case. She leaned closer to Lena, her eyes wide with a hyper-vivid intensity. "I heard a rumor from a Prime senior last term. They said his telepathic manipulation is so intense that if you even whisper his name three times anywhere on this mountain... his wolf will hear it. He’ll find you."
Julian let out a dry, forced chuckle, though his eyes remained completely dead. "No, honey. That’s Beetlejuice. But in this academy? Prince Maximus is a hundred times worse. He doesn’t just scare you. He will make you think it’s your idea to drink acid."
A cold chill raced straight down Lena’s spine.
However, the chill turned to heat when her heightened senses instantly picked up on the dozens of eyes locking onto her. But they weren’t looking at her face.
They weren’t looking at her identical "Gemma" features.
Every single male wolf in the vicinity had their eyes glued strictly below her neck.