Chapter 2 The wrong roommate
Malia's pov
I didn’t even realize I had whispered the words out loud until a shadow fell over me.
My heart jumped as Aiden’s footsteps stopped right behind my bed.
I looked up slowly—he stood there, arms crossed, a towel now draped lazily over his shoulder, blue eyes narrowed in annoyance.
“What did you just say?” he asked.
His voice was low, dangerous.
Like I’d offended him by simply breathing the same air.
I froze. “I— I just meant that… maybe I shouldn’t be in this room. Maybe I can talk to the housing office tomorrow and—”
His eyebrow lifted. Slowly. Mockingly.
“You think you have that kind of power here?”
Heat crawled up my neck.
“I didn’t say power. I just meant—”
“You’re a scholarship hybrid,” he cut in. “That means you get whatever room they assign you and you smile about it. There is no switching. There is no complaining.”
I swallowed hard.
Harsh.
But part of me had already known that.
Mooncrest College didn’t bend rules for people like me.
Aiden’s eyes flicked to my duffel bag, then to the bed I sat on. “You’re staying here. End of story.”
My chest tightened.
I wanted to argue.
To tell him his attitude was unfair, insulting, unnecessary.
But the truth was cruel:
He was a Moonfall.
And I was… me.
He didn’t wait for my response.
He just snorted under his breath and walked back to his wardrobe, pulling out clothes with careless ease.
Up close, the Moonfall crest glimmered on his luggage. Gold wolf. Crescent moon. Elite bloodline symbol.
Meanwhile, my bag was patched in two places.
Perfect.
\---
I tried unpacking, staying on my side of the room, staying small, staying silent.
But Aiden made that impossible.
First, he tossed his damp towel directly onto my bed.
“Hey!” I protested, jumping back from the cold patch on my blanket.
He merely shrugged. “Oops.”
Then he dropped a pile of clothes onto the floor. Not on his side.
No.
Right in the middle of the pathway.
I walked around it.
He scoffed.
“Stepping over things is bad manners,” he said without looking up, “but I guess hybrids don’t learn etiquette.”
I bit the inside of my cheek so hard I tasted iron.
Then came the bathroom.
An hour.
A literal hour.
Steam leaked from the corners of the door while I sat in a chair waiting, knees hugged to my chest, because I needed to shower too. But he acted like the place belonged to him.
Which, given his last name, wasn’t entirely wrong.
When he finally emerged—shirtless again, because apparently shirts were optional in his world—he didn’t speak. He just walked to the window, opened it wide, and dramatically inhaled fresh air.
I blinked. “Did you… did you just open that because of my scent?”
He didn’t even pretend to deny it.
“Obviously.”
My stomach sank.
I’d known Mooncrest would be hard.
But I hadn’t expected humiliation before dinner.
\---
Later, when I left the room to find the dining hall, an entire group of girls in pastel sweaters stopped mid-conversation the second Aiden stepped out behind me.
“Oh my goddess—Aiden!”
“He’s even hotter in person!”
“He’s one of the triplets, right?”
One girl fanned herself dramatically.
“Aiden Moonfall… future Alpha of the Moonfall pack. Literal royalty.”
I stepped aside so they could get a better look at him.
The girls didn’t even notice me.
Typical.
Aiden walked past them like they didn’t exist.
Like he was used to being worshipped.
And maybe he was.
I slunk down the stairwell, determined to avoid walking beside him. Being seen next to someone like him only emphasized the fact that I didn’t belong.
But as I reached the bottom step, someone approached from the opposite hallway.
Tall.
Quiet.
Expression unreadable.
He looked just like Aiden but… softer. Darker.
Still handsome in the way that made the air still, but without the arrogant glow that followed his brother.
His hair was slightly longer. His eyes darker—gray, almost stormy.
His steps silent.
Cian Moonfall.
The quiet triplet.
My breath caught as he walked past me, because for a moment he slowed.
Just a fraction.
Just enough for his gaze to meet mine.
His nostrils flared gently.
He smelled me.
Hybrid.
Omega blood.
Weak wolf.
Aiden’s disgust had been loud.
Cian’s reaction was silent… but somehow it cut deeper.
He didn’t sneer.
He didn’t glare.
He simply blinked once, a slow, blank sweep of those storm-gray eyes.
Then walked away without a word.
Aiden passed him in the hallway, clapping him on the shoulder in greeting. Cian didn’t react. Not even a grunt.
They were brothers, but they moved like different worlds.
And I was in neither.
\---
When I returned to the room later that night, Aiden was already asleep—spread across almost the entire bed he insisted was “the only bed,” leaving me with the much smaller cot folded out on the floor.
He didn’t ask if I was comfortable.
He didn’t care.
I curled up on my thin mattress, pulling the rough blanket up to my chin.
Tears pricked the corners of my eyes, but I blinked them back.
I had worked too hard to get here.
Endured too much.
Survived too long under my stepmother’s house to fall apart on day one.
But still…
Mooncrest College felt like a beast with jaws wide open.
Waiting.
Ready to swallow me whole.
I closed my eyes and whispered into the da
rkness:
“I hope tomorrow is kinder.”
But even my wolf didn’t believe that. Mooncrest is going to swallow me whole.
And whether I liked it or not, I was going to live with Aiden Moonfall.