I Am Just Alpha’s Shield to Protect Her Chapter 01

I Am Just Alpha’s Shield to Protect Her Chapter 01

On our senior class graduation trip to an island, someone organized a bonfire night on the beach called “Leave Your Regrets Behind.”

One by one, everyone shouted their regrets into the fire. When it was Lucas Vance’s turn, he shot to his feet and hurled the words at the flames:

“The biggest regret of my life is making a girl who truly understood me wait too long!”

My heart slammed against my ribs. I was on my feet before I even realized I’d stood up.

My fingers found the moonstone pendant at my throat — the one he’d given me. He’d said it was his pack’s token, something only ever passed to his fated mate.

I waited, chest full of hope, for him to honor our unspoken promise in front of everyone.

But Lucas walked right past me.

He crossed the sand and pulled Seraphina Vale straight into his arms — the girl every guy at school was obsessed with. He tipped his head down and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead.

The beach erupted. Screaming, cheering, people completely losing it. Nobody noticed me standing there, face totally blank.

That’s when I finally saw it.

Around Seraphina’s neck hung a moonstone pendant. Identical to mine.

“I knew it!” someone shrieked. “The way Lucas always looked at Seraphina, that was never normal! How long has this been going on?”

Lucas tucked Seraphina against his side, his whole face lit up with a smile he’d never once worn around me.

“Since the first day of junior year. My wolf started calling for her the moment I saw her.”

Every eye on that beach was fixed on them. Nobody looked at me. I was standing right there, frozen, drained of color, and nobody looked.

“Then why’d you keep it a secret?”

Lucas pinched Seraphina’s cheek with that easy, indulgent smile. “Didn’t want the pressure getting to her. There’s more than one girl at school who wants me, so I needed a buffer.” He shrugged. “Someone to take the heat off.”

“Wait, so we all thought you and Raven were together because you wanted us to?”

Heads turned. All at once, the stares landed on me.

And one by one, the pieces I’d been too stupid to see snapped into place.

Every time I leaned over to help him study, his eyes would drift past my shoulder — Seraphina sat right behind me. Every time she dropped something, he was faster than I ever was, bending down to get it. Under the desk, their fingers would hook together.

The more details came out, the more the looks from our classmates shifted. Curiosity turned to pity. Pity turned to barely concealed laughter.

“Wait, so that Omega who’s always got her nose in a textbook — was she just throwing herself at Lucas this whole time?”

“Please. Lucas is an Alpha. You really think he’d go for an Omega who can’t even shift into wolf form? That’s why he just sat there and let the other Omegas mess with her. He didn’t care.”

“Exactly. Seraphina’s the heir to the Shadowmoon Pack. She’s the one who belongs with an Alpha like Lucas.”

Pete, Lucas’s best friend, dropped his voice to a stage whisper like he was letting everyone in on something he’d just found out.

“You guys don’t even know the half of it. She was late to her last SAT exam because Lucas lured her out in the rain on purpose. He wanted her to lose to Seraphina just once.”

The cold hit me all at once, and it wasn’t the ocean breeze.

Something inside me locked up.

I’d thought that when those jealous Omegas cornered me in the bathroom and things got physical, Lucas hadn’t known.

But he had.

He’d just chosen to look away.

So he’d sabotaged my SAT on purpose.

The night before the exam, he’d texted me: Come up to the school roof before your test tomorrow and cheer me on?

I went. He wasn’t there. I was locked out on the roof. If the security guard hadn’t found me, I might have died of hypothermia up on that roof.

Lucas walked toward me now with Seraphina’s hand in his, voice light and completely detached.

“She was just a classmate who helped me study. Don’t make it into something it wasn’t.”

Just a classmate.

I dug my nails into my palm and held on to the sting.

I turned around.

I looked straight at him.

“Lucas.” My voice didn’t waver. “Is it true? Did you lock me on that roof so I’d miss my exam?”

“What?” He frowned like I was annoying him.

“You locked me on the roof. On purpose. Is that true?”

Lucas had his arm around Seraphina’s shoulders. His expression didn’t change. Not even a flicker.

“Does it matter? Seraphina got what she wanted. You put in three years and that’s worth something. I’ll have my dad wire you some money.”

He said it the way you’d say the mail came. Flat. Unbothered. Like I was a line item in a budget.

Suddenly I felt so pathetic.

I’d stayed up until three in the morning making his study guides, and got a nosebleed bent over his flashcards.

When he broke his leg, I carried him up and down four flights of stairs every single day until my heels bled raw.

And he’d just put a price on three years of my life.

My eyes burned. But I didn’t cry.

“Okay,” I said.

“You’re right. I didn’t know my place.”

I turned to go.

Behind me, I heard the faint scrape of a shoe in the sand — someone taking one instinctive step forward.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the slight lift of Lucas’s arm, like he was reaching for me.

But the moment dissolved.

I didn’t look back. I already knew. Like always, he’d let that hand fall back into his jacket pocket.

I sat alone by the water for a long time and let the cold wind off the ocean hit my face.

My phone lit up. A text from Lucas.

Stop pouting. Come find me at our secret spot.