Chapter 76
Dominic POV
Karina’s words hadn’t even finished echoing down the hallway before something hot and violent snapped in my
chest.
Expelled.
She said it like it was a favor, like I should be thanking her, and she had just solved some minor inconvenience in my schedule.
I turned toward her fully.
She flinched.
“You wanna explain,” I said, my voice low enough that even the fluorescent lights seemed to buzz quieter. “What the hell you’re talking about?”
Karina’s smile wobbled, but she straightened her shoulders, trying to regain her earlier confidence. “I- I thought you’d be relieved. You’ve seemed… stressed since she enrolled. I thought if we got rid of her, not just from the Healer academy but from the whole school in general you’d be…happy again. Like you used to be.”
My jaw tightened. “Karina. What did you do?”
She blinked up at me with wide, eager eyes, like she expected praise. “I made the midterm, like, impossible. Extra sections, off-syllabus content not from her year-just hard enough so she would fail, and since she is on academic watch, she’ll be expelled. Problem solved, right?”
The world tunneled.
‘Acedmic watch?” My eyes narrowed. “For?”
Her lips pulled between her teeth, eyeing me up and down. “Involved in obscene actions on campus…reported anonymously.”
Me. It was the night she spent with me in the men’s dorms. Someone saw her leaving.
My hand raked through my hair.
Shit. Shit.
I’d assumed-stupidly-that failure of this stupid test just meant Ellie transferring back to Pack Management. A
reset.
Not this.
Not expulsion from the entire school.
My stomach dropped, slowly locking back on her. “You-did what?”
Karina’s brows knit, confused by my reaction. “Dominic… you said she wasn’t meant for the Healer Academy, everyone knows it. You told her to quit!”
“How do you know that?” I mumbled but she kept going.
“I was just helping you. She’s-she’s a distraction. A liability. I thought-”
1/2
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“You thought wrong.”
The words scraped out of me like a bark. Her mouth snapped shut.
“I never asked you to sabotage her,” I said. “I never asked anyone to stick there nose in my business. My fated mate. Or any of my affairs. And I sure as hell never asked you to get her expelled.” 1
Karina paled. “But-I did it for you-‘
“No.”
My voice cracked like a whip. “You did it because you wanted her gone, an order I never gave.
She opened her mouth, then closed it.
“Fix it,” I ordered. “Now.”
“I-I can’t.” Her voice trembled. “Dominic, the exam’s already submitted to the faculty board. They approved it this morning. I can’t change anything now. The only way she stays is if she passes.”
My hands curled into fists, claws threatening to push through the skin.
This is why Ellie had been killing herself studying. Gods, I’m an idiot. I wanted her back with me. At management. Not gone, not like this.
I stepped closer. She shrank into the lockers.
“Listen to me carefully,” I said, keeping my voice barely above a growl. “You don’t act for me. You don’t decide for me. And you never-” my jaw locked “-interfere with her or I again or I will strip your family of everythign they hold dear and own. Is that clear?.”
Karina swallowed, tears welling. “I-I’m sorry- I didn’t know-”
“Exactly,” I snapped. “You didn’t know. You just assumed.”
She looked up at me with trembling lips, finally realizing the ground she was standing on was made of thin, cracking ice.
“If Ellie gets expelled because of you,” I said quietly, “you’re the one who’ll answer for it, little rat.”
Her breath hitched.
I stepped back, disgust churning through me-at her, at myself, at the entire mess spiraling out of control.
I turned away, jaw clenched, pulse pounding in my temples.
Karina’s voice croaked behind me, small and scared. “Dominic…I’m sorry! Dominic! Where are you going?”
I didn’t look back.
Because it was out of my hands now. Only Ellie could do this now and…just like she keeps telling me, she works best when I leave her alone.
P
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