I Am Just Alpha’s Shield to Protect Her Chapter 03

I Am Just Alpha’s Shield to Protect Her Chapter 03

The cabin emptied fast.

The door hung open behind them. Ocean wind pushed through the gap, cool against the red, swollen skin of my arms.

The tears finally came. Not grief, just my body reacting to all that fur.

I pulled myself up off the floor. Walked to the table. Reached under the leg and took out the notebook.

I stood there holding it for a moment.

Then I dropped it in the trash.

Three years of all-nighters. Three years of being an idiot.

Gone.

I walked back to the hotel alone. Stood under cold water until the welts on my skin finally faded.

When I came out, my phone had a text from Lucas.

Where are you? You safe?

Then a video call request.

I stared at it. Then I answered.

Lucas looked exactly as good as he always did. Behind him, an open-air bar on the beach, “Jack & Diane” drifting out from somewhere inside.

“I sent you something,” he said.

A knock at my door. I got up and opened it. A hotel staffer stood in the hallway with a neat paper bag.

“From Mr. Vance, miss.”

I took it and looked inside.

Prescription-grade scar cream. The kind that was hard to find in most stores.

Junior year, I’d cut my hand slicing fruit. I’d mentioned once, just in passing, that this particular brand worked better than anything else but was nearly impossible to find locally. I hadn’t thought about it since.

He’d remembered. He’d kept it on him.

“Put the cream on,” he said through the phone. “Don’t let it scar.”

A beat.

“Seraphina didn’t mean to do it. Find her tomorrow morning, smooth things over, and we can all move past it.”

I looked at the bag.

“Lucas.” My voice stayed even. “Did you actually use my notebook to level the table?”

His expression went still. He didn’t answer.

“Sophomore year,” I said quietly, “you told me those were your love letters. You said you’d keep them even after graduation.”

Silence.

“You let her walk all over them.”

My voice didn’t shake. I almost wished it had. It would’ve felt like something.

“So what was I to you? What were those three years worth?”

He opened his mouth. Closed it.

Then: “The test’s done. It was just paper.”

Something splintered quietly in my chest.

“Yeah,” I said. “Just paper.”

“Like my feelings. Right?”

“Taylor—”

I hung up.

My phone buzzed. Lucas had posted.

A video of him and Seraphina singing along to “Jack & Diane.” Every comment below it was hearts and congratulations.

In the last few seconds, Seraphina rose up on her toes and leaned toward him.

Then a photo. Seraphina laughing on the beach, the moonstone pendant visible at her throat. The one he’d told me was only for his fated mate.

High school’s over. No more hiding. From now on, I only smile for you.

I stared at it for a long time.

I put my phone face-down.

Opened my laptop. Pulled up my email.

Two new messages. One from Moonrise Academy, the school in Lucas’s territory. One from Boston College, out of state.

I’d been ready to give up Boston for him.

Looking at that now felt like looking back at someone else’s life.

I clicked confirm on Boston College.

Whatever had been sitting heavy and stubborn at the bottom of my chest finally let go.

If I’m not your fated mate, I’ll go somewhere you’ll never reach.

I closed the laptop.

For the first time in years, when I finally fell asleep, Lucas Vance wasn’t in my dreams.