CHAPTER 161: _ PILING TROUBLES

Heidi isn’t listening to her friends anymore. Her stomach sinks.

An interview? Public, recorded, and probably aired?

Oh, perfect. Just perfect. Because what she really needs right now is to smile for the cameras while half the school calls her a porn-star werewolf behind her back.

Her wolf laughs in her head, wickedly amused. "We could always show them what we truly are. Let them film that."

Not helping, Heidi mutters internally.

Helena nudges her arm, her cheerful energy dimming when she finally notices Heidi’s expression. "Why do you look like someone just told you detention’s forever?"

Heidi sighs. "I’m not sure the school still wants me in that interview."

"Why not?" Helena frowns. "We all risked our lives in the labyrinth. You especially—you saved a whole lot of us. You fought bravely. Your strength, bravery, leadership, and fighting skills are unmatched. Why would they exclude you?"

Andre, who has a keen eye for observation shifts his weight and tilts his head, eyes narrowing slightly. He’s perceptive, too perceptive sometimes. His gaze scans the courtyard, noticing the subtle shift in the air, the way students pause mid-step to whisper as they pass, the quick glances aimed at Heidi like darts.

He folds his arms. "Why’s everyone staring at you?"

The group falls silent. Val turns, following his line of sight and that’s when she notices it too. The smirks, the pointed fingers, the murmurs that follow them like shadows.

Val’s voice softens. "Heidi... what’s going on?"

Oh, great.

Heidi swallows. "It’s nothing. Just rumors."

"Rumors?" Andre’s brows furrow. "What kind of rumors?"

Heidi gives a humorless laugh. "The usual. The kind people make up when they’re bored and can’t fight their own battles."

Val doesn’t buy it. She reaches out again, taking Heidi’s hand gently. "You got in a fight, didn’t you?"

Heidi hesitates. "Yeah. Something like that."

Helena gasps. "Not with seniors, I hope."

Heidi’s lips twist into a dry smile. "Actually... yeah. With the Gamma’s daughters. And the Delta’s. And one of the high council families’ girls for good measure."

The silence that follows is priceless. If awkward silence had a sound, it’d be this exact moment. The sharp, stunned, and filled with disbelief.

Helena looks like she’s about to faint. Jia’s mouth opens and closes like a fish struggling for air. Andre just exhales slowly, muttering something that sounds like "Of course she did."

Val squeezes her hand tighter, her voice shaking between worry and exasperation. "Heidi, why? You should’ve stayed out of trouble! After everything that happened in the labyrinth, we can’t afford another incident."

Heidi jerks her hand back, unable to believe her ears. "You think I wanted this? You think I woke up and thought, ’Hey, let’s start a brawl with a bunch of spoiled elites today’? They came for me. Again."

The others exchange uneasy glances. The recovering Moon Blessed, who is still pale with his leg halfway healed, shifts awkwardly, still supported by his two friends. "Not after what we just went through," he murmurs. "We barely made it out alive. We don’t need this kind of drama now."

That word drama snaps something inside her. These kids have no idea what she’s been through. Drama?

Her wolf growls. "They do not understand what it is to be hunted even among your own."

Heidi exhales, feeling her patience thinning. "You guys can’t understand, okay? I don’t appreciate being bullied and threatened too, do I?!"

Her wolf snarls approvingly. "Tell them, Moonfire."

But the others don’t meet her eyes. They exchange uncertain glances, as if she’s something fragile or dangerous. Fuck this. She doesn’t want pity.

Val reaches for her again, softer now. "Heidi..."

But Heidi steps back. "Just go, okay? Go to the interview. I need to change first. I’ll catch up."

Val blinks. "Wait..."

"I’ll be fine," she cuts in, forcing her tone calm. "Go. You don’t want to be late."

She turns, walking toward the dorm. The sound of her boots hitting the cobblestones fills the silence behind her.

"You walk away from allies. Again. Like you walk away from our mates."

They’re not allies, she answers silently. They’re just... tired survivors like me.

At the mention of her mate, Heidi’s anxiety rises even higher. What would they think of her now? She already hates them, is it time to feel what it means to be hated by them too. What would the NAY boys feel and say when they find out she stripped and beat their sisters up?

Would Lucan still treat her specially after discovering what she did to Sierra?

Most importantly, what would all of them—The Bellamys and the NAY Boys think of her after hearing Sierra’s fabricated story? That she’s a slut?

Amias already thinks she’s tainted for sleeping with Darien and making out with him. Now, if he knows she’s slept with the twins who have marked her...

Her hands trail to the marks on her neck which are still covered by her turtle neck. It’s pulsing as she recalls the moment when Grayson’s teeth first sank into her before Morgan’s follow. The euphoria, the sense of belonging for a lost girl like her, the...

Oh, Jesus. What the hell is she thinking about right now when she’s got a pile of junk on her plate? Heidi shakes the sinful thoughts of her mates off and continues to walk faster. She’s halfway up the stairs when Val’s voice calls again,

"Wait up!"

Heidi doesn’t.

Her chest is tight, her vision blurry at the edges, and her wolf is pacing inside her mind like a caged storm.

"They don’t understand," the wolf growls. "Not sure they will, but you shouldn’t run from them. You’re not meant to follow them. You’re meant to lead."

"Yeah?" Heidi whispers, her throat aching. "Then why does it feel like I’m falling apart?"

"Because fire hurts before it forges."

That line lingers in her mind as she pushes open the dorm doors, stepping into the echoing hallway. The air smells faintly of soap, coffee, and girl perfume. The chatter fades as she walks past groups of students who instantly hush when they see her.

Her fingers twitch with the urge to punch something, anything.

It’s not fair. None of it ever is.

She saved people in that labyrinth. She bled for this academy. And still—they call her cursed, dirty, trouble.

Her wolf whispers. "They’ll see. They’ll all see what happens when they try to burn a girl who was born of wildfire."

And Heidi, despite the ache in her chest, almost smiles.