A whistle breaks through the moment.
"Damn, look at that. The ice prince has a heart after all."
Heidi blinks up through tears. Two boys are walking toward them with the arrogance of wolves who know the ground shifts when they walk on it. Nash and Ace. The NAY boys.
Heidi’s heart nearly stops when they clap her on the back like she’s one of them.
"Hell of a run in there," Ace says, his grin wolfish but not cruel this time. "Proved yourself, Wulf."
"Yeah," Nash adds, smirking, though his eyes actually hold respect.
Respect. For her.
"Didn’t think you had it in you. Guess we were wrong. You’re worthy of running with us now."
Heidi’s eyes almost bulge out of their sockets. Did he just...? The Beta and Gammas’ sons. Accepting her? Like it’s nothing?
She blinks rapidly, her brain short-circuiting. She’s gone from being the girl they saw as mocked, ignored, dismissed... to suddenly being worthy in their eyes? The earth might as well have flipped upside down.
And of course, that’s when she feels the weight of eyes. The burn of them drilling holes into her back. Slowly, she dares to glance across the courtyard to find Bellamys watching.
Daphne looks like she’s about to shatter her own teeth from clenching them so hard. Fury radiates off her in visible waves, seething at the sight of Heidi embraced by Lucan and fawned over by Nash and Ace. She doesn’t even try to hide it.
Beside her, Lira stands tall and perfect as Nash’s sister and Amias’s girlfriend that she is. She’s listening, leaning to meet her height as Daphne tilts her head, lips moving in a poisonous whisper. Lira’s gaze flicks once toward Heidi, before she murmurs something back.
Heidi’s skin prickles. Every hair on her arms rises. She doesn’t need to hear the words to know to figure they’re plotting. Plotting against her. Her gut twists with certainty.
And then her gaze collides with Amias’s.
Oh moon.
His eyes are on her. Burning with a killer jealousy. One wouldn’t think that a cold face can bear so many emotions. His jaw clenches, his hands curl, and the muscle in his cheek twitches. Seeing her in Lucan’s arms, seeing Nash and Ace fawning over her—it’s eating him alive.
Her pulse spikes. She can’t look away.
But then, unexpectedly, it’s Darien who snaps.
He grunts, balling his hands into fists, Heidi fears he might land it on the poor student nearest to him. However, whilst still shooting her death stares, he sighs heavily before turning and storming away.
The motion makes Heidi scoff in disbelief, unable to help it. He ignores and talks down on her but can’t stand seeing her with someone else, either platonically or not. Now, if that’s not some narcissistic shit, she doesn’t know what is.
Amias stays longer than Heidi expects. For a while, he just stands there across the courtyard, framed by the flickering lamplight that struggles to banish the shadows of night. His shoulders are stiff, his jaw working like he’s chewing back curses, or maybe just chewing on his pride. His gaze pins her in place, making her skin itch. Heidi has half a mind to stick her tongue out childishly at him.
Then, with a sharp turn, he stalks away. Lira scurries after him, calling his name in that high, sweet voice of hers, but he doesn’t slow down. Not even when she reaches out a hand to graze his arm. He shrugs her off like she’s smoke. The sight alone nearly makes Heidi laugh.
Well... almost. Because deep down, there’s a strange twist in her stomach knowing that after all, it’s Lira who he’s officially with.
Morgan and Grayson stayed back, torn between following Amias and sticking around to watch the spectacle. Their hesitation paints them like shadows caught between loyalties. Eventually, they exchange a look. Grayson rolls his eyes and Morgan mutters something Heidi can’t hear before they trail after their brothers.
For some reason, they don’t seem half as angry as the two older ones. Maybe because... Because they already know she’s theirs. Marked, claimed, and official.
The courtyard thins, students trickling away like water down cracks. Yet drama, as always, doesn’t end.
Daphne, who isn’t one to miss an opportunity to sharpen her claws, catwalks toward Nash. "Nash," she beams, tilting her head just enough for her hair to cascade over her shoulder like a commercial ad. "A word?"
She doesn’t even try to hide the way her eyes flick toward Heidi, filled with cynicism. A word? Please. She means a performance.
Nash, to his credit, gives a casual shrug... the kind of shrug that says he’s too bored to fight but too curious to ignore. "Sure," he says, but there’s wariness in his eyes.
And Heidi notices Isolde, who is hovering at the Bellamys’ section like some marble statue that forgot to leave when the rest of the gallery closed. Her expression is hard to read: too stiff to be neutral, too soft to be contemptuous. But there’s something there.
Atinge. A quiet, silent jealousy as her gaze stays on Daphne and Nash in conversation.
Heidi squints. Wait a damn second. Is Isolde... jealous? Of Daphne? Over Nash?
That doesn’t make sense. Not unless the girl’s bipolar with her feelings, because on the car ride, she sounded like she’d happily stuff Nash in a trunk and roll him down a hill. Heidi dims her eyes.
Oh, God. Wolves are fucking walking contradictions, the lot of them.
Lucan finally breaks the thread of tension with his dry voice. "Well, I’d say enough standing here. Ace and I will escort you to your dorm."
Heidi only nods. The amount of respect she has for this brother she never knew she’d had is too enormous for her to ever say no to him even though all her wolf wants is for her to sprint after her mates and ask them why another man is doing the welcoming hug when it should have been them.
But then again, that’d be a bad idea.