Chapter 111
Ellie POV
Karina slams into me, fingers tangling in my hair as we go down together.
She didn’t take that slap well, but with how I was feeling, I was itching for a fight.
The ground bites into my shoulder, Karina straddles me, fury twisting.
“You bitch,” she snarls.
Her fist comes down once, hard enough to rattle my teeth. Then again. My blood scraying the gravel. I twist, bringing my arms up, but she’s heavier.
Her knee slams into my leg.
My bad leg.
Pain detonates white-hot.She knows exactly what she’s doing. She kicks again, sharp.
I scream and swing an elbow.
My bone connects with her cheekbone.
There’s a wet sound.
Blood sprays across my arm and her face. She howls, rearing back, clutching her cheek.
I’m crawling after her, grabbing for her hair.
But I don’t get the chance.
Strong hands grab me from behind, hauling me up so fast my feet barely touch the ground.
“That’s enough!” Dominic snaps low. “What the hell-”
Karina tries to come for me again, our arms clawing, but he shoves Karina back with one arm, separating us. Then turns and lifts me clean off the ground.
“What-put me down!” I yell, kicking uselessly.
He doesn’t.
He throws me over his shoulder like I weigh nothing and starts moving,boots pounding against pavement.
“Dominic!” I scream, pounding against his back. “Let me go!”
“Shut it!” He snaps, glancing back at Bren and Tamsin over Karina. “Take her to the infirmary. I’ll contact in thirty.”
The noise of the yard fades as he turns sharply into a narrow alley beside the school. The walls close in, brick and shadow swallowing us whole.
He drops me.
I stumble but stay upright against the wall, chest heaving, hands shaking, rage vibrating through every nerve in my body.
I spin on him.
“What the hell—”
His hands slam over me. “What are you doing?!” His bark is loud, commanding. “What was that, El?! You’re pissed oft because you keep fucking up so you go and punch someone?!”
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I shove him back. He doesn’t move.
“Screw you!” I spat. “You’re not one to talk! Stomping around like some tough guy torturing me cause you have authority! Wow, what a big strong guy you are!”
“You deserve it!” He snarled. “You let your team down!”
“You didn’t let me go! I would have crawled back!”
“No!” He bites. “They are valid to feel disappointed, that you deserve to do most of the work, and not die trying to get back. What are you not getting?!!”
“OH RIGHT!” I press back, nose to nose. “So this has NOTHING to do with Lucas, Nothing to do with us! You are just Mr. Noble, Mr. Fair! Admit it! You’re punishing me! Come on, your a big boy, right?! Someone is pissy!”
He snarled, his sharped K9’s flashing, forehead pressing into mine against the wall with a thud. “So?! Both can be true! You fucking piss me off! Now you’re gonna go back, appologize, and-”
“I’m not apologizing! She tried to get me kicked out before! I hate her!”
He scoffed, his breath puffing my skin. “You’re just angry.”
“And who’s fault is that!?” I snapped.
“You’re own.” He growled.
“No,” I press. “It’s you! It’s always you! You are the worst thing that’s ever happened to me! I just-”
His hand clasps over my mouth in an instant, face pulling back.
“Oh, trust me,” he fires back, eyes blazing. “I’m sick of you too.”
I freeze.
“Sick of the back and forth,” he continues, voice rising now, controlled composure completely gone. “Sick of the contradictions. One minute you’re pulling me close, the next you’re acting like I’m your enemy.”
“Do you like me?” he demands. “Do you hate me? Or are you just using me-stringing me along because it suits you?”
I yank his hand down. “I never-”
“I don’t know anymore,” he cuts in viciously. “And not knowing makes me furious.”
My hands curl into fists.
“You think I could ever love someone like you?” I shout. “Someone so heartless they let people tear me apart in public, let me work for hours in pain and call it discipline? You humiliated me,” I continue, voice cracking with rage. “You let them turn me into a spectacle. We aren’t even friends, Dominic. Don’t pretend we were anything more!”
That’s when he snaps.
He slams me back against the brick wall, forearm braced beside my head, the impact rattling through my bones. His face is inches from mine, eyes dark and wild, breath hot against my cheek.
“Then what was it?” he growls, voice low and shaking with fury. “The closeness. The touching. The warmth. The tie between us.”
My heart pounds so hard it hurts.
“If you hate me so much,” he demands, “why hold onto me at all? Why use me like that? Kiss me?! For what?!”
My hand moves before my mind catches up.
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The slap cracks across his face, echoing down the alley.
Dominic freezes
“I was never using you?” I scream, tears burning now, everything spilling over. “I just wanted to be my own person away from your shadow, away from expectations!”
I shove at his chest. He doesn’t move. Again.
“I wasn’t manipulating you. I wasn’t playing games,” I continue, voice breaking. “All of this! This stupid photo! You never even let me explain! And you were stupid enough not to not even question who built the pit in the first place!”
His eyes flicker
“It was staged!” I say, shaking “All of it. Everything. And what happened with Lucas-it wasn’t about you! He hugged me, as a friend It was about me ”
Silence crashes down.
Dominic’s expression goes utterly blank.
Then cold
“It doesn’t matter,” he says quietly.
I stare at him, chest heaving
“Because now, I don’t believe you either.”
He steps back
Turns
And stalks away without another word.
I slide down the wall as soon as he’s gone, legs giving out beneath me, the alley spinning as the echo of everything we just destroyed rings in my ears.
Dominic POV
I don’t look back
If I do, I might do something irreversible.
My hand runs through my hair, mind racing.
I didn’t even know who she was right there. Didn’t recognize her.
I cut straight for the fountain behind the school, the one tucked away from the yard where no one bothers to linger. The water’s already running when I lean over it, scrubbing my hands down my face like I can rinse the heat out of my skin.
It doesn’t work.
My hands scubbed harder.
I let her talk to me like that. Scream.
I’m an Alpha. I don’t get dragged around by emotions like some lovesick idiot. I make calls. I enforce order. I don’t lose control because one girl knows exactly how to press every fault line I have.
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Except I have been. And it’s been making me weak. Now, everyone is laughing. Questioning. Like Lucas has something I don’t.
The anger won’t settle. It coils tighter the more I try to contain it.
Always the villain.
I growl under my breath and straighten-
–and nearly collide with Lucas.
We froze, staring like either of us expected the other.
“Get lost,” I snap immediately.
“Listen, I don’t like you either. But, we need to talk,” he says, calmly.
I lean over the fountain with scoff. “If this is about Ellie, save it. I’m not in the mood to play mediator over her. You wanna see her, go.”
“She’s furious at both of us,” Lucas says back calm. “And this-” he gestures vaguely toward the school, the chaos we left behind, “-isn’t helping anyone.”
“Funny,” I mutter, moving past him. “Looks like it’s helping you just fine.”
I go to leave, he steps in front of me again.
“I’m not letting you walk away from this,” he says.
That finally gets my attention.
I stop. Slowly turning to facehim.
“Don’t block my path,” I say coldly. “Ever.”
Lucas holds my gaze anyway. “Why didn’t you just hear her out?”
“I’m always hearing her out,” I snap. “I hear everyone out. That’s my job.”
“There’s a rumor tearing through the school,” he continues. “That Ellie tried to humiliate you. That she used me to make a fool of you.”
My jaw tightens.
“And that rumor,” Lucas says, “isn’t true.”
I study him.
“All I saw,” I say carefully, “was you with your hand on her leg, a hug. You taking her to lunch. Sneaking around.”
He exhales sharply. “Yeah. And it looked wrong. It always looks wrong.”
“But here’s the part you don’t want to hear,” he adds. “I was jealous.”
I blink once.
Not…expected.
“Jealous of you,” Lucas says. “Because you and Ellie spent the night together. Because she came back hurt and shaken and still somehow thinking about you.”
My anger shifts. Thins.
“I crossed a line,” he continues. “And that was on me. Not her.”
4.5
I don’t speak.
Slowly, I shift my anger. Maybe Ellie was right. “Do you know anything about the pit?”
Lucas frowns, like he didn’t expect that question. “No.”
Then, after a beat, “But if you’re looking for answers… stop asking who was closest to Ellie when it happened. Ask who benefited most from her image being spread everywhere.”
Vivian.
I nod once, slow.
“Don’t misunderstand,” I say flatly. “This doesn’t make us friends.”
Lucas scoffs. “It never was going to.”
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