POV: Maya

I should have known Monday morning would be terrible when I woke up to find our hot water wasn't working again. Cold showers in October were never fun, but I didn't have time to complain. Mom had already left for her early shift at the diner, and I had exactly twenty minutes to get ready for school.

I pulled on my nicest outfit, a pale blue sweater Mom had saved up to buy me last Christmas and my only pair of jeans without holes. It wasn't much, but it was clean and it made me feel a little less invisible.

The walk to school was cold. Fall had settled over Millfield like a heavy blanket, turning the leaves orange and red. Normally I loved this time of year, but today everything felt off. My chest had this weird ache that wouldn't go away, like something was pulling at my ribs from the inside.

I'd been feeling it since Friday, since Liam had declared I was under his protection and then disappeared. He hadn't been at school. He hadn't answered the one text I'd nervously sent asking if he was okay. Nothing.

The mate bond, that's what he'd called it. Some werewolf thing that tied us together. Except it didn't feel like we were tied together when one end of the rope had vanished completely.

"Stop thinking about him," I muttered to myself, adjusting my backpack as I walked through the front doors of Millfield High.

The hallway was packed with the usual Monday morning chaos. Students clustered around lockers, comparing notes about weekend parties I'd never been invited to. I kept my head down and headed for my locker, just wanting to grab my books and disappear into first period.

That's when I heard it.

"Oh my God, is that her?"

"No way. Sophia Whitmore goes to Riverside Academy. What's she doing here?"

"She transferred! My mom told me. Her dad made some huge business deals with Liam's father."

My stomach twisted. I didn't know who Sophia Whitmore was, but something about the excited whispers made my skin crawl. Then the crowd parted, and I saw her.

Sophia Whitmore looked like she'd stepped out of a fashion magazine. Long blonde hair that caught the light perfectly, flawless makeup, and a designer outfit that probably cost more than my mom made in a month. She walked down the hallway like she owned it, a small smile on her perfect lips.

Behind her, Jessica Martinez and her entire crew followed like ladies-in-waiting attending a queen.

"Sophia, your outfit is amazing," Jessica gushed.

"Thank you." Sophia's voice was smooth and confident. "It's nothing really. Just something I picked up in Milan last summer."

Milan. Of course.

I turned back to my locker, hoping to avoid notice. But the universe had other plans.

"Everyone, this is Millfield High, your new kingdom," Jessica announced loudly. "And that's the cafeteria, where Liam usually sits with us at lunch. Speaking of Liam.."

"I've known Liam since we were children," Sophia interrupted, and something in her tone made me freeze. "Our families are very close. Very... close."

The way she said it made my chest hurt worse. I slammed my locker shut and tried to slip away, but I wasn't fast enough.

"Oh, wait." Sophia's voice cut through the hallway noise. "Who's that?"

I felt every eye turn toward me. My face burned as I gripped my books tighter and kept walking.

"That's Maya Carter," Jessica said, and I could hear the smirk in her voice. "Nobody important. Just some scholarship girl."

"I see."

Those two words made me walk faster. I didn't know why, but something about Sophia Whitmore scared me more than Jessica ever had. Jessica was a bully, but she was predictable. Sophia felt dangerous in a different way.

I made it to first period without incident and spent the next few hours trying to focus on class instead of the weird ache in my chest. By lunch, I'd almost convinced myself I was overreacting. Then I walked into the cafeteria.

The room went quiet for just a second—that weird pause that happens when something important is about to go down. I saw Sophia sitting at Liam's usual table, surrounded by Jessica and the popular crowd. But Liam wasn't there. Relief and disappointment washed through me at the same time. Part of me had been terrified to see him. Part of me desperately wanted to.

I grabbed my tray from the lunch line, mystery meat and overcooked vegetables and headed for my usual spot in the far corner. Alone, invisible, safe. I was halfway across the cafeteria when Sophia stood up.

"Oh no, wait!" Her voice carried across the entire room. "I'm so clumsy today!"

Everything happened in slow motion. Sophia's hand "slipped," sending her coffee cup flying. The hot latte arced through the air, spinning end over end, and splashed directly onto my chest. I gasped as the scalding liquid soaked through my sweater, burning my skin. My tray clattered to the floor, sending food everywhere. The entire cafeteria erupted in laughter.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" Sophia rushed over, but there was nothing sorry in her eyes. They were cold, calculating. "I didn't see you there. You're so quiet, like a little mouse."

I stood frozen, coffee dripping down my front, my favorite sweater, my only nice sweater, completely ruined. My eyes burned with tears, but I refused to let them fall. Not here. Not in front of everyone.

"It's fine," I managed to whisper.

"No, it's not fine!" Sophia grabbed napkins from a nearby table and made a show of trying to dab at the stain, even though we both knew it was pointless. "This sweater is... well, it's seen better days, hasn't it? But don't worry, I can help."

She leaned in closer, and her voice dropped just low enough that only I could hear.

"I'll buy you something from the thrift store since that's more your style anyway."

The laughter got louder. Jessica and her friends were nearly crying with glee. Other students had their phones out, recording everything.

"I have to go," I choked out.

I didn't wait for a response. I ran out of the cafeteria, my shoes slipping on the spilled food, my chest burning from both the hot coffee and the humiliation crushing my lungs.

The bathroom was empty, thank God for small miracles. I locked myself in a stall and let the tears fall, muffling my sobs with my hand. The sweater was ruined. Mom had worked double shifts to afford it, and now it was destroyed because some rich girl wanted to prove a point.

After a few minutes, I forced myself to breathe slowly. Crying wouldn't fix anything. I needed to wash my face, maybe try to rinse out the sweater, and survive the rest of the day.

I stepped out of the stall and walked to the sink. My reflection looked back at me, red eyes, coffee-stained sweater, hair falling out of its ponytail. I looked exactly like what Sophia had called me: a mouse. I turned on the water and splashed my face, trying to pull myself together. The cold helped a little. I reached for paper towels, and that's when I saw it in the mirror.

Movement in the hallway beyond the bathroom door. My heart stopped. Liam stood in the corridor, his back against the lockers. And Sophia was with him, pressed close, her perfectly manicured hands on his chest.

I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. I could only watch through the mirror as Sophia rose up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to Liam's neck.

The mate bond screamed in my chest, a sharp pain that made me gasp out loud. When Sophia pulled back, I saw it clearly. A dark red mark on Liam's neck, right above his collar. A hickey. She'd marked him like he was her property.

Sophia smiled up at Liam, saying something I couldn't hear. Then she spotted me in the mirror's reflection, our eyes meeting through the glass.

Her smile widened. She knew I was watching. She'd wanted me to see. I stumbled backward, my hip hitting the sink hard enough to bruise. My chest felt like it was caving in, that invisible rope between Liam and me pulled so tight it might snap completely.

Through the mirror, I saw Liam's expression. He looked miserable, his jaw clenched, his hands balled into fists at his sides. But he wasn't pushing Sophia away. He wasn't stopping her.

The bathroom door swung open. I whirled around, expecting Sophia to come in and finish what she'd started in the cafeteria. But it was just a freshman, looking at me nervously.

"Um, are you okay? You look really pale."

"I'm fine," I lied, grabbing my backpack. "I'm fine."

I pushed past her and out into the hallway, keeping my head down. I didn't look at Liam. I didn't look at Sophia. I just walked as fast as I could toward the exit.

The mate bond throbbed with every step, and I could feel Liam's attention snap to me the moment I appeared. Feel his emotions crash into mine, guilt, anger, desperation. But I didn't stop. I couldn't.

Because the hickey on his neck told me everything I needed to know. Whatever the mate bond was supposed to mean, whatever connection we were supposed to have, it didn't matter. Liam Black had made his choice.

And it wasn't me. I pushed through the front doors and out into the cold October air, coffee-stained and broken, with the image of that mark on Liam's neck burned into my brain.

What I didn't know, what I couldn't know, was that Sophia had forced herself on Liam minutes ago. That he'd stood there frozen, thinking of his father's threat, of the eviction notice that would destroy my life if he pushed her away.

I didn't know that the hickey on his neck was a brand he'd never wanted, from a girl he'd never chosen. All I knew was the pain in my chest and the image I couldn't unsee.

Liam Black belonged to Sophia Whitmore now. And I was just the nobody scholarship girl who'd been stupid enough to think the mate bond meant something..