"Could Have Been Me- The Struts" I love this song and basically wrote this chapter listening to it on replay.

Drake wasn't at school today.

His mate wasn't here either, he was probably trying to apologize. He wouldn't need to apologize to her for sleeping with me because she wouldn't know. If they completed the mating process, the she would feel pain, but they didn't. So he was probably apologizing for not pushing me off of him at the ball or something else stupid like that.

"How was the ball? I saw you went upstairs with a man, but it was so dark. It was the Alpha, wasn't it?" Hillary wiggled her eyebrows at me as she sat at the end of my bed. I told my mom that we were working on a project for school, but she knew I was lying. I have not done school projects at home in a very long time. I just didn't seem to care about my grades. Sidney couldn't come over because apparently she found her mate and wanted to spend as much time with him as she could before he had to go back on patrol: he was a guard. I didn't mind, but I still wished she was here.

"Yeah, it was Drake." I tried to boast out my chest to show that I was the one in control. "He took me to bed and everything." Usually my heart would flutter at the thought, but now my hands instinctively went to my waist as if she had x-ray goggles and could see through my shirt to the scars Drake's claws left behind. Usually werewolf's had fast healing skills, but the cuts were so deep, and when they closed up he would just claw at the same spot, so a scar took the place of blood.

"That's how you do it!" She put out her hand for a high five. We hit hands together as she fell on the bed laughing.

I didn't laugh with her.

When she looked at me though I gave her a small smile.

The next day Drake was back at school and Claire was still absent. He really pissed her off. If I wasn't still hurt from the other night, I would say I was happy, but with Claire missing it put Drake in a really bad mood.

For the first time since the beginning of the year I sat by myself in the seat that Claire occupied the first day she arrived. Drake didn't look over at me once. I didn't take notes either and instead just looked at him all class period. In my mind tracing over his perfectly sculpted nose and each curl on his head that was wet from the rain outside.

The bell rang and I put back my notebook back into my purse, there still was nothing written inside. The teacher excused himself to the restroom and Drake stormed out of the room. I went to follow him, but an arm grabbed me by my wrist and pulled me back.

Lips were pressed to mine. I leaned back, but the person's grip was too strong holding their face to mine. I didn't have enough power to push them away, but I did have a purse. With one swing they dropped their hands and I stepped back.

I should have left the classroom, but instead I was catching my breath as I looked at the person that just attacked me. He was one of Drake's friend in the pack, if I remembered correctly his name was Frip.

I made my breathing go back to normal. "What the hell was that for!"

He only smirked at me, "You are no longer with the Alpha anymore. You are now free to open your legs to anyone. I hope I make the list." He winked at me before leaving the classroom.

I stayed in the empty room for as long as I could before the teacher came back and kicked me out and told me to go to my next class. My brain was on a whirlwind trying to figured out how Frip knew that Drake and I broke up. I thought he had only told me, I didn't know that he spread it around school.

I walked into my next period class late and continued to think about what Frip said about making the list. Did he think I would willingly sleep with him? Is that what Drake thought? That I slept around?

I walked into the cafeteria and went to sit right next to Drake, but my seat was taken by Hillary. "Hey Hillary, that's my seat," I said as I tapped her on the shoulder and she turned towards me.

"Not anymore." Did I hear her correctly?

"What did you say?"

"You heard me." She lifted her salad to her lips and took a bite.

"I don't think I did." Yesterday she was talking to me and laughing on my bed. What did I do wrong?

"Since you don't know what you did. I guess I will just have to explain it to you like you are a preschooler." She turned around to fully face me. "You didn't sleep with Drake the night of the Ball. You slept with Bronny, his beta! You lied to me. How could you do something like that? How could you cheat on the Alpha?"

I never did that. I looked at Bronny to convince him with my eyes to tell her that it was a lie, but he only lifted the corner of his lips slyly. Everyone knew he liked his one night stands. This wasn't a big deal to him. He wasn't going to help me.

"Who told you this?" I asked.

"Are you upset that the whole pack now knows that you cheated on your boyfriend?" That is not what I meant at all. I had to watch what I said next so she wouldn't take it the wrong way.

"No, because I didn't cheat on him. I would never--"

"So what was that kiss then?" Frip was sitting across the table from Sidney. Sidney hadn't said a word since I walked up to the table. I wish she would say something to back me up, but I know she couldn't. She didn't have any proof that I did or didn't sleep with Bronny. Her silence was better than Hillary's blame.

The table went quiet as everyone's attention everted to Frip. He was practically bathing in the attention he was getting. "You don't need to look at me like that. I know you said to keep it a secret, but it feels so much better to tell somebody about it." He whispered it like he was trying to only tell me, but everyone clearly heard him. He wanted them to.

Drake even looked intrigued by this new news.

"I--"

Frip looked away from me and back to the table. "After class she dragged me into the classroom and kissed me. I knew she must have been really horny as she reached for my--"

"STOP!" I looked back around the whole table and my eyes briefly met Drakes before landing landed on Hillary's, "You don't seriously believe him. Do you?"

"So what you are saying is I'm suppose to believe you?"

"Yes."

She laughed. "You're exactly like your mother. A liar and a whore."

Rage filled me up as I could feel my defense mechanism coming in. My mother wasn't the best mom, but she was my mom. I buried down my feeling of being hurt by her words and instead could feel my hand start to bleed from my claws starting to come out and my eyes turning into slits. I bent my knees and pounced on her. My claws outstretched in front of me as they buried themselves into her shoulders. Her screams echoed around me, but I didn't care.

Roughly I felt my hair being pulled back and a whimper escaped my lips. I hit my head roughly against the wall and fell to the ground. Why did our table have to be so close to a wall?

"You are not welcome at this table." I looked up at Drake as he stood in front of me with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

The bell rang for lunch to be over, but my table still was hanging around watching me sit on the floor. I saw some people leaving the cafeteria, glancing in my direction, but no one said anything with the Alpha standing in front of me.

"I--" I didn't know what I was going to say, but I felt like I needed to say something, but he cut me off.

"Save it slut." He almost looked proud of himself for coming up with that as he left. Hillary was the last of the bunch to leave as she held a napkin on her bleeding shoulder. Sidney walked slightly in front of her, and didn't look back.

Now that all my rage was starting to vanish I could feel my heart start to sink into my stomach. I lifted my foot from under my butt. I had landed on it wrong as I landed on the ground. It was slightly throbbing as I wrapped my hands around it to make it heal normally.

I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on standing up, but instead my nose picked up the smell of peaches.

I watched as the boy with the name tag walked toward me; Nash. He held out a bag full of ice and lifted my hands from my ankle and placed it where the bruise was starting to show.

I could feel his eyes on me as I looked up. "Thank you." He just nodded his head and started to rise up from his knees. "You can talk can't you?"

He started to laugh, but it didn't have the bitterness that Hillary's did. It was a gentler. "Yes, I can talk." He started to walk away again.

"Where are you going?" I continued to hold the ice on my ankle.

"I'll be right back," he said. I don't know how I could have forgotten about my mate, or how I didn't notice that he was here, but it was this strong food smell in the cafeteria that was blocking me of his scent, and since he was an Omega he most likely worked in the kitchen where the food smell was the strongest. At least that's what I told myself.

He did come back to me, but not empty handed. In his one hand he held a plate with two pizza slices on it. I had skipped heading for the cafeteria line today because I wasn't in the mood to eat, and I'm glad I didn't, because it would have probably been poured over my head by Hillary. I also wasn't in the mood for salad today.

The two slices that were now placed on my lap made my mouth water. "How did you know I liked pizza?"

"I saw you staring at it a couple days ago, and I don't know a girl that doesn't like pizza, unless they are allergic." I smiled.

I pushed my mother's words out of my head about grease on pizza and took a bite feeling my taste buds explode with happiness.

His words registered in my head when I was taking my second bite. "You knew I was your mate last week?" He must have noticed I was upset when picked salad instead of pizza. Was he standing behind the counter and I hadn't even look up?

"Yeah, I thought you knew, but were just ignoring me, but then I saw the way you looked at me at the ball." He paused. "You looked at me like it was the first time you had seen me. So I knew then and there that you didn't know." I was almost finished my second slice. I didn't know what to say as I just thanked him again for the pizza.

His name was called from the kitchen. He turned and gave me a small wave, he didn't even say, "see you later." Both slices were finished by this point as I through the plate in the trash.

I headed for the bathroom to fix my makeup when it occurred to me that he never questioned me about getting taken by the Alpha at the ball. He must have saw me walk upstairs with him too. I thought about him being my ally about that night to Hillary so she would believe me, but I shook my head against it. She wouldn't believe him.

I also thought about what happened in the cafeteria and if he heard what my table group was talking about, but even if he didn't hear, he must have saw because he brought me ice. He witnessed what was happening and didn't do anything.

"He's weak," my mother would say. "Omegas have no money and no strength, practically useless."

I shook my head as if I could make the words vanish from my mind. I made my way to my next class, knowing that I was again going to be late, but I didn't care.

This is a fairly long chapter. So thank you for reading!