99 Times Repeated, Not Once Did They Say I Love You Chapter 02

99 Times Repeated, Not Once Did They Say I Love You Chapter 02

I spent the night at a hotel.

School started the next day, and I went straight to the housing office to apply for a dorm room.

The Rank Exam was right around the corner, and it decided almost every werewolf’s future. A wolf could end up a Beta, a Gamma, or even an Alpha.

Living on campus would help me sync up with my wolf, Elara. She had suffered through those ninety-nine days, too, and she was exhausted.

When I came out with my housing paperwork done, Silas was waiting at the exit with a face like a thundercloud.

I walked right past him.

He caught up in a few strides and blocked my path. “Are you serious?”

I knew he meant the dorm, and I couldn’t help frowning in confusion.

Ever since I was brought back to the Lioraen house, Silas had treated me like an intruder, a ticking time bomb that was bound to blow up Maeve’s perfect life.

If I left, he should have been the first one to celebrate.

So why did he look so angry?

I let out a tired sigh. “What do you think? The Alpha already ruled on it.”

“So you’re going to live as a rogue?”

“Some pack will take me.” I shrugged, and my thoughts drifted back to the one place that had ever shown me any warmth.

He ground his teeth hard enough to crack them. “Fine. Don’t come crying back when you regret it.”

I watched him storm off and almost laughed.

I couldn’t think of a single thing I’d regret.

The dorm room was cramped, with eight girls packed in, but it was safe, it was on campus, and it saved me the daily commute.

During those ninety-nine repeated days, I did more than curry favor with my “family.” I trained with Elara every single day. We were each other’s comfort, and we kept pushing each other to hang on.

The results spoke for themselves. Elara and I were more in sync than ever.

Before all this, I was an ordinary wolf from a small town with middling combat scores. People figured the best I could hope for was Gamma.

That wasn’t what anyone expected from an Alpha’s child. But what could anyone expect from a small-town girl who’d never had real training or a decent education?

So in the first mock exam after I broke out of the time loop, I placed first in the whole school. Everyone was shocked, and they couldn’t stop talking about me.

This time, the talk wasn’t nasty. It carried a quiet kind of awe.

When Silas came looking for me, I was showing some classmates my blade work.

The moment he saw I had no intention of acknowledging him, he dragged me out the way he always did.

As soon as we hit the hallway, he went off.

“Do you know how upset Maeve was when she saw your scores? You placed first.”

He glared at me as if I’d committed a crime. “Next time, you’d better land outside the top 100. You hear me?”

My fingers curled slightly at my sides.

This was nothing new. Silas had told me before that I was never allowed to beat Maeve.

The reason was simple. If I, a girl raised in an orphanage, outshone Maeve, who’d had the Alpha’s attention her whole life, people would laugh at her.

They’d say Maeve really was a fake, nowhere near the real thing.

She’d be embarrassed. She’d cry.

And Silas couldn’t stand that.

He had always spoiled Maeve rotten.

He even held himself back a grade at school so he could be in her class and look after her.

Back then, with the god’s task hanging over me, I had no choice but to go along with it.

But that was over.

I no longer owed him my obedience.

I gave a cold laugh and looked him dead in the eye. “Maeve’s upset about her scores? How is that my problem? If she wants people to think she’s good, she can earn it herself instead of making me play dumb.”

He hadn’t expected me to push back in public. His eyes went wide with anger.

“What’s that supposed to mean, Hazel? Ever since you came back, people have been pointing fingers at Maeve.”

“For years they’ve been whispering that she took your place. She’s had enough, and now you’re standing here mocking her?”

His voice turned sharp.

“If you’d never come back, she wouldn’t have had to go through any of this.”

The words hung in the air, vicious and undisguised. He stiffened for half a second.

I laughed.

It was quiet, but it carried down the hallway, and it was pure mockery.

“That’s exactly why I severed ties with all of you.”

I looked at him with deliberate coldness.

“We’re nothing to each other now. I’m not the Alpha’s daughter, and I’m not a member of Bleakfang Pack. Silas, you don’t get to give me orders.”