CHAPTER 162: _ ASK FOR HELP

"Heidi!" Val calls over the noise again.

Sighing, Heidi turns halfway, catching her friend still jogging after her.

The latter skids to a stop, panting. "Wait up, damn it! You can’t just walk off like that!"

Heidi crosses her arms, trying to keep her tone light even though her insides feel like melting lead. "I’m fine, Val. Really. Just need five minutes to breathe and maybe not punch someone today."

Val narrows her eyes. "You promise you’ll come to the interview?"

Heidi nods, though it feels like a lie even as she says it.

"I promise."

Val studies her for a second longer, searching for the truth, maybe, or the old spark Heidi had before the world turned her into a rumor. Then she sighs, shoulders slumping. "You’re one difficult girl."

Heidi smirks faintly. "You’re just realizing that?"

Val groans, turns, and jogs back toward the others. Heidi watches her go, feeling a strange twist in her chest that she doesn’t have the energy to name.

Her wolf murmurs almost fondly. "That one would follow us into the fire if we asked."

Heidi exhales. "Yeah. Which is why I can’t drag her into mine."

She turns back toward the dorm and proceeds toward the room she now shares with only Val when it’s supposed to hold three. The emptiness follows her footsteps.

Oh, how much she misses Junie. Her heart aches even worse at the thought of what she could be going through in the labyrinth at the moment. Or if her arm is now fully grown and the portal is the only obstacle in the way of her freedom. Junie needs to be saved.

However, Heidi knows that even if she survives this scandal, even if she walks into that interview later and smiles for the cameras—she knows one thing for sure.

The entire school might never stop coming for her, not with a target painted on her back already. And next time... the Moon Goddess help her, she might not hold back.

The door clicks softly behind her, sealing her into the half-empty dorm. For a moment, Heidi just stands there, gripping the knob, shoulders shaking under the weight of everything she’s been pretending not to feel.

The room smells faintly of Val’s vanilla shampoo and the lemon-scented cleaner the janitor uses on Fridays. Her own side of the room looks the same as always with all the neat bed, folded blankets, and the little stack of books she swears she’ll finish someday. But today, everything feels off-balance, like the world shifted slightly to the left and forgot to tell her.

She walks in and sinks onto her bed, burying her face in her hands. The silence is too loud. It presses on her ears until she can hear her own heartbeat which sounds like panic trying to claw its way out.

She tells herself she’s fine. She tells herself to breathe.

But when she exhales, an embarrassingly human sob escapes instead.

Tears come faster than she expects, blurring her vision until the world looks like a watercolor left out in the rain. She hates crying. It makes her feel weak, like she’s letting them win—all the disdainful faces, all the whispers, all the "Did you hear what Heidi did?"

And maybe that’s what breaks her more than anything is the sheer unfairness of it all.

"How is this my life?" she whispers, voice cracking.

Her wolf stirs inside her, the presence always there beneath her skin.

"You cry too easily," the wolf says gently, and Heidi can hear the unarticulated scoff.

Heidi laughs wetly, dragging the back of her sleeve across her cheeks. "Thanks. That helps."

"They don’t deserve your tears."

"I know," she murmurs. "But it’s not just them. It’s... everything. I didn’t even do anything wrong, and still, it feels like the whole world’s stacked against me. Like even breathing too loud will make someone point and say, ’See? She’s guilty.’"

The wolf hums. "The world likes villains more than victims. Villains make better stories."

"Then I guess I’m the best story they’ve got," Heidi sighs.

She lies back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. Her tears dry in itchy streaks on her cheeks, but the heaviness remains, pressing down on her chest until her lungs ache.

She can’t help but wonder what the Alphas think of her now. The memory of their faces flashes in her mind. Did they believe her? Or did they just see what everyone else saw; a slutty girl too much trouble to be worth saving?

The thought stabs at her chest. She curls her knees to her chest, hugging them tightly as if she could physically hold herself together.

"I don’t want to cry. Crying’s for people who—who can fix things by crying."

Her wolf chuckles – if wolves can chuckle. "And yet here we are."

"Don’t," she warns, though a tiny, strangled laugh slips past her. "I hate that you’re funny sometimes."

"You love that I’m funny. Without me, you’d drown in your own head." Her wolf counters.

Heidi sighs and collapses backward on the bed, staring at the cracked ceiling. "Probably true. But seriously, what am I supposed to do now? They all think I lied. Even if I make it through the interview, I’m done for unless I find proof."

She bites her fingers.

"What happens if I don’t find proof?" she whispers.

Her wolf’s silence answers.

Heidi shuts her eyes, her thoughts racing through Proof. She needs proof. Something solid. Something that could clear her name and shove the lies back down Sierra’s throat. But all she has—the only one who saw half of what happened is in the labyrinth.

And that’s like saying her only lifeline is tied to the mouth of hell.

Her pulse picks up as she turns the thought over. The labyrinth. Could she go back? Should she? No one sane would. But sanity’s been a luxury she hasn’t been able to afford for a while now.

Still, even if she did, would anyone believe her and Junie’s word against Sierra’s? Her mind circles like a vulture over its prey, waiting for a good answer that doesn’t come.

"So what will you do?" her wolf finally asks.

"I don’t know." Heidi rubs her temple. "I can’t exactly ask anyone for help. Not after today."

"Ask them for help."

Heidi frowns. "Who?"

"Our mates."