Haters

Haters
Vinorca Jona POV

Just kill me, it would be so easy. My whole body started shivering, and that too very literally, not hypothetically.

"Repeat your words." Amy's eyes looked like she'd seen a ghost. If that was how she felt, what I felt was an understatement. My soul had left me.

"A...lpha..."

I knew it as soon as I heard the voice. It was Dante. What made it worse was that I was at this party, and with a man. It felt like getting caught in the worst possible situation, which was why I didn't look back once.

You might be thinking that not looking wouldn't save my ass. It practically didn't. But facing him wasn't an option I wanted to take. I needed to delay it as long as I could, maybe until it could be written off as a dream, because this wasn't a reality I wanted to live in.

He hadn't even seen my face yet, but if he was involved in this, he already knew it was me. My scent must have given me away, or maybe something else did.

"Amy," a voice different from Dante's, fell into my ears. "I told you not to make a scene here."

Amy tried to smile a little. "Brother, I was just having a little talk with my friend Vinorca. Isn't that right, Vin?"

I winced internally the moment she used my name, and doubled down when she used the nickname only people close to me used, which included Dante, though our relationship was all wrong.

"Vin," Dante called, and my sweaty hands curled into fists. I turned back like a robot. Dante stood there all dressed up, more dressed up than I'd ever seen him. Beside him was Finn, Amy's brother and the beta of this pack.

Masen looked at me, though I didn't look back, still I could feel his gaze burning holes into the side of my face. "Are you fine?”

That simple question was enough to make me want to throw up. I thought today might be my death day, because for a ceremony this big, why hadn't it once crossed my mind that I'd have to face these people?

I was blind to everything, so focused on one path of returning the favour, that it led me here, or maybe it was some joke destiny was playing on me, because what were the chances of having all my haters in one place? No pun intended.

Dante's eyes narrowed as he turned his attention to Masen. "Who are you, Mr...?"

"I'm their teacher. Nice meeting you, Alpha," Masen said politely. "Amy is your sister, right, Beta Finn?"

Can I just escape?

"Yes. You're the famous Mr. Kato, the young teacher the university just hired. I've heard so much about your work in the business." Finn stepped closer, offered his hand, and they shook it formally.

But all I could see was the way Dante looked at me, checking me over, not leaving an inch unnoticed, making me painfully self-conscious. My clothes started itching against my skin. Whatever comfort I'd had vanished, and I felt bare under his clouded eyes.

They burned, putting my cold body under every kind of fire, until it started hurting the cells running through me.

"You know Vinorca, Alpha?" Masen's question snapped me out of it. Finn was already pulling his sister forward, ahead of him.

My heart thumped, thudded, tripped over itself. What would his answer be? He'd never wanted anyone to find out we knew each other, and it was the same on my side. But in this situation, I didn't know what to expect.

"This is my pack. Don't you think I should be the one asking what you're doing here with your student?" Dante's hostility was evident in every word. At least he wasn't exposing our secret. Small mercy.

Masen answered. "She—"

"Sir wanted help taking notes, and I'm here for that." I cut him off and blurted out whatever lie came to my tongue, which somehow made sense to me, even if it sounded like the lamest excuse anyone could give.

I couldn't let Masen say something like she's my date or she's a close friend. In front of others, that might work, but this was Dante. He'd have both our heads on a whim, and that wouldn't even be the worst of it.

I was already in the mess of the century. Someone had to save me, or I didn't think I'd see tomorrow's sunrise. It might all sound over the top, but it wasn't even close to what might be waiting for me.

"Really? From the way Finn was praising you, just now, I thought you were some special teacher or something. But bringing your student along as your partner for a thing like this? Isn't that exploitation?"

Dante said a lot, but what echoed in my ears was the way he'd emphasized the word partner, the one word I'd have wanted him to avoid admitting to at any cost.

He wasn't an idiot. He was aiming that at Masen, but making sure I was the one who heard it.

"Mhmm," Masen fumbled. I felt bad for him, because he didn't even know what was going on. It was my lie, and of course he didn't know how to answer when he was being accused of something like that.

This was exactly why Masen had told me never to call him "sir" in the first place, and now it was blowing up in our faces anyway.

"That's exactly what I was talking about. This bi- I mean, Vinorca literally seduced the teacher and came here with him. That's not right at all." Amy let her loud, careless mouth run again, still standing beside Finn as he held her hand.

Every wrong thing in my life, all in one place, all at once. I couldn't catch one good day.

"Shut up, Amy," Finn growled.

"But—" Amy tried to speak, but one look from Finn was enough to silence her.

"I'm interested."