My brows furrowed, and without realizing it, my expression became dangerously cold. Even Fina and her cronies subconsciously took a step back.
These purple eyes had always bothered me. I had never met another person with this shade of violet. Even within the packs, a few wolves whispered that they were cursed.
Until last year, I'd worn thick-rimmed glasses to blur the color, but they were broke after my first heat. I couldn't afford new ones.
When I was the "rare omega," the purple eyes hadn't attracted much attention. Now, branded the "defective omega," I thought no one would add another insult based on my eye color.
"How dare you!" Fina snapped, forcing herself to rally.
I didn't flinch. "Stop this, Fina Sanders. Picking on me won't make Oscar get a good grade. You'd be better off helping him study."
"W-what?!" My comment clearly didn't calm her; it fueled her rage. "The teachers don't have proof, but we do!"
"What proof do you have?" Crossing my arms, I stared at her calmly.
"The proof is your eyes!" She stabbed a finger toward my face. I looked at her, genuinely dumbfounded.
"Your eyes come from the curse you inherited because of your parents' crimes," she declared with a confidence that felt practiced, not genuine. "Your parents were thieves. That's why they were banished from the pack. Your Luna was merely too kind to spare your life, but since then, you've been marked with those purple eyes. The child of thieves, of course, is a thief herself!"
I honestly wanted to laugh. Where on earth did she hear that ridiculous story? Even children could weave a more plausible tale.
Unfortunately, the surrounding students who overheard seemed to believe it, especially when she named her source.
"Tisha Browns, the daughter of your pack's Alpha, told me everything. She heard the story directly from the Alpha himself. It's disgraceful for them to keep you."
"Tisha? That scor—"
I stopped myself. Tisha was one of the Alpha's twins, but we were never close. Her blatant jealousy of me had always been annoying.
Luckily, her sister, Tasha, was much more reasonable and was my only close friend, though we only met during vacation.
Because I had a good reputation at the academy, and Tisha was stuck in the lowest class, she had never made trouble for me here.
Turned out, she was just waiting for the perfect chance.
"You believe her?" I challenged Fina with a dismissive shrug.
"Then do you know where your parents are, or why nobody in your pack will tell you where they went? They're too embarrassed to bring it up!" Fina pushed her statement, and the crowd around us nodded, believing her more and more.
The fact that nobody would discuss my biological parents had always bothered me, but I had always been satisfied with the life I had.
I didn't need people who left me. I had mentally rejected them first.
Hearing they might be criminals, however, left me feeling conflicted.
Suddenly, one of Fina's cronies jerked me forward, pulling hard on my arm. Fina and her other friends marched ahead.
I tried to yank free, but failed. I looked pleadingly at the students in the hallway, but a few looked away, and the rest stared with open amusement.
In the end, no one was going to help me but myself!
I allowed myself to be pulled, calculating the right moment to escape.
Fina led us to the entrance hall. Her crony threw me to the ground like a dried leaf.
Because the last period had just finished, the area was crowded. The commotion immediately drew attention. We instantly became the main subject.
While I struggled to figure out an escape, Fina began shouting, listing the supposed facts about my parents and my background—
facts that were still uncleared, yet delivered with such conviction that the students believed her.
"Raise your head so everyone can see your shameless face," Fina sneered, yanking my hair to pull my head up.
"Do you think you won't get punished for this?" Despite the searing pain in my scalp, I glared at her.
"Nobody will punish me, once the truth comes out!"
I wanted to scream, "What truth, bitch?!" but I couldn't waste my stamina arguing.
Plok!
Something wet splattered on my face. When I smelled it and tried to see through the muck, I realized what it was: a rotten egg!
There stood Tisha, a smug look on her face, winding up for another throw. Fina's crony held me tight, forcing me to accept the next one directly to the face.
Hoekk! The smell made me gag and feel instantly nauseous.
Murmuring, mocking, sneering, and laughing could be heard everywhere. My gaze fell to the floor. I had never felt this helpless, this publicly degraded.
I chanted silently to keep myself calm. I will find a way to escape and avenge what they are doing right now.
I didn't know how many rotten eggs hit me. The stench made me dizzy, and the sticky liquid made it hard to see clearly.
But I had saved all their faces in my memory: Fina, her cronies, Tisha, and Oscar, who was smiling slyly from behind the crowd.
"Oh my lord! What are all of you doing to this young lady?" An unfamiliar woman's voice cut through the noise.
Instantly, all the taunting sounds vanished. I slowly raised my head.
Purple eyes.
I tried to wipe the thick egg yolk away to make sure I wasn't seeing wrong.
"Let's go. She is… We don't want to look for trouble with her," Fina's crony whispered, sounding slightly scared. I couldn't hear the words clearly, only the fearful tone.
"Let's go," Fina conceded at last.
Footsteps retreated. All of them were gone, simply because of this one lady.
"Are you okay?" Her smooth, melodic voice reached my ears.
"I'm okay. Thank you, ma'am." I hastily wiped my face clean enough to see her.
"Is that a half-moon?"
"What moon?" I finally saw her face clearly. She was a beautiful, elegant, middle-aged woman. And her eyes... they were truly purple, just like mine.
Suddenly, she grabbed my hand, my dirty, egg-covered hand.
"No, ma'am. My hand is smelly. You will—"
"It really is a half-moon."
I followed her intense gaze. She wasn't looking at the grime; she was looking intently at my birthmark, which was shaped like a half-moon on my wrist.
"Why are you looking at it like that, ma'am?"
...