Claimed by the Alpha I Hate – Episode 24
Returning to class should have restored something ordinary to Daisy’s life. Instead, conversation stopped when she entered. Every student had heard a different version of the training hall incident, and each stare asked whether fangs would appear if someone came too close.
Daisy chose a seat near the window and opened her notebook. She refused to hide in Nolan’s mansion while rumors decided what she was. If Eastwind wanted a monster, they would have to invent one while she sat calmly in front of them.
Mila arrived surrounded by friends and made a show of selecting a desk far away. “Careful,” she whispered loudly. “She might get hungry.” The cruelty had changed shape, but its purpose remained the same.
Daisy ignored her. She had survived being called defective; she could survive being feared. Yet the whispers about her mother and unknown father struck places she could not armor so easily.
The instructor began the lesson, only for the classroom door to open minutes later. Nolan stepped inside with Gemma behind him. His presence brought every student to attention before he spoke.
“Alpha Nolan,” the instructor said, visibly surprised. “Is there a problem?” Daisy closed her eyes briefly. She had wanted one hour in which the Alpha did not control the room around her.
“No problem. I want to observe a lesson today.” Nolan’s explanation was delivered as though Alphas regularly attended classes filled with younger pack members. His gaze found Daisy before he chose a place.
Mila immediately moved her bag from the empty chair beside her. “You can sit here, Alpha.” Her smile suggested she had forgotten Scott completely now that a stronger leader stood within reach.
Nolan regarded the offered seat with open indifference. “No.” The single word erased Mila’s smile. He walked past her and took the empty chair behind Daisy instead.
Daisy turned halfway around. “Are you serious?” she whispered. Nolan opened a notebook he clearly did not need and nodded toward the instructor, reminding her that class had resumed.
His proximity made concentration nearly impossible. She could feel him through the mate bond, attentive not to the lesson but to every shift in the room. When a student stared too long, Nolan’s gaze sent him back to his notes.
Daisy began to understand why he had come. Guards in the hallway would identify her as a threat or prisoner. Nolan’s presence told the school that harming or provoking her meant challenging the Alpha himself.
The protection was effective and infuriating. No one whispered about fangs while Nolan sat behind her, but Daisy could not prove she belonged if the entire class behaved only because they feared him.
The instructor asked a question about pack treaties. Daisy answered correctly, drawing a few surprised looks. Nolan did not praise her or interfere. His silence allowed the achievement to remain hers.
Mila raised her hand and redirected the discussion toward traditional laws excluding vampires from wolf territory. The question was too pointed to be academic. Daisy felt the room waiting for her reaction.
Nolan answered before the instructor could. “Laws exist to protect the pack from hostile acts, not to punish bloodlines no one chose.” His tone warned Mila that the subject was closed.
Daisy looked back at him. The statement was not a declaration of her innocence, but it was the first public line Nolan had drawn between what she might be and what she had done.
When class ended, students filed out quickly. Mila lingered only long enough to glare at Daisy, humiliated by Nolan’s rejection and his defense of the person she hated.
Daisy gathered her books and headed for the lockers. She heard Nolan follow almost immediately. Apparently observing one lesson had not satisfied whatever protective obsession brought him to school.
She quickened her pace, determined to confront him away from the classroom. The notorious Beast of Blackwood might terrify everyone else, but Daisy had reached the limit of being watched by a man who occupied her house, her school, and increasingly her thoughts.