Kai's POV
The champagne glass in my hand is shaking.
I tell myself it's because I'm excited. That's all. Just excited. Not scared. Not nervous. Definitely not terrified that something is about to go horribly wrong.
"You okay?" Ethan whispers in my ear, his warm breath making me shiver in the good way.
I look up at my boyfriend—my boyfriend, even after six months I still get butterflies thinking those words—and force myself to smile. "I'm perfect."
And I should be. Tonight is the night Ethan Cross, the most popular alpha at Moonstone Academy, is finally going to tell everyone we're together. No more hiding. No more sneaking around. No more pretending we're just "study partners" when people see us in the library.
The Spring Gala is in full swing around us. Five hundred students and teachers crowd the decorated ballroom. The girls wear fancy dresses that probably cost more than my entire scholarship. The guys wear suits that fit perfectly because they're custom-made, not rented like mine.
I don't fit in here. I know that. I'm just a middle-class omega on a scholarship, studying biochemistry because I want to help people, not because my family owns a pharmaceutical empire like Ethan's does.
But Ethan chose me anyway. Sweet, kind, perfect Ethan who makes me laugh and holds my hand when no one's looking and promises that tonight, tonight, everyone will finally know.
"Attention everyone!" Ethan's best friend Jason yells from the stage, tapping the microphone. "Ethan Cross has an announcement to make!"
My heart jumps into my throat. This is it. This is really happening.
Ethan squeezes my hand and leads me toward the center of the dance floor. People move aside, creating a path for us. I hear whispers:
"Is that Kai Rivers?"
"The scholarship kid?"
"Why is Ethan holding his hand?"
The spotlight hits us, bright and hot. I can barely see the faces around us anymore, just shadows and shapes and the weight of five hundred pairs of eyes staring at us.
Ethan lets go of my hand to grab the microphone Jason hands him.
I'm still smiling. I'm so stupid. I'm still smiling like this is my fairy tale moment.
"Thanks everyone for coming tonight," Ethan says. His voice sounds different. Wrong somehow. But I tell myself I'm imagining it. "I wanted to make an announcement about my relationship status."
Here it comes. I hold my breath. In a few seconds, everyone will know. No more hiding. No more shame. Just me and Ethan, together, finally.
Ethan looks at me. His amber eyes—I love his eyes, I've written about them in my journal like a lovesick idiot—meet mine.
And they're cold.
My smile freezes on my face.
"This," Ethan says, gesturing toward me like I'm a stranger, "was a mistake."
The room goes completely silent.
I must have heard him wrong. I must be having a nightmare. This isn't real.
"An omega like you," Ethan continues, his voice loud and clear and cruel, "could never be suitable for someone in my position. You're not my boyfriend. You never were. This whole thing was just... a phase I needed to get over."
My chest feels like someone reached inside and squeezed my heart until it popped.
"Ethan?" I whisper. The microphone doesn't pick it up, but I see his jaw clench. "What are you—"
"Don't embarrass yourself more than you already have," he cuts me off. Then he looks at the crowd, not at me. Not at me anymore. "I apologize to everyone for this misunderstanding. Kai got the wrong idea about our friendship. I should have been more clear from the beginning."
Someone giggles. Then someone else. Then it's like a dam breaking—laughter, whispers, gasps of shock that sound almost excited.
I can't move. I'm frozen in the spotlight wearing my rented suit that's slightly too big, with my hands shaking and my eyes burning and my throat closing up.
"We're done," Ethan says. Still not looking at me. "We were never together. Stop spreading rumors about us, Kai. It's pathetic."
He drops the microphone on the floor with a loud thunk that echoes through the speakers. Then he turns and walks away, his shoulders straight, his head high, like I'm nothing. Like I never mattered.
Like the past six months—the secret dates, the whispered promises, the first time he kissed me and said he loved me—never happened.
I'm still standing in the spotlight.
Someone's phone is up. They're recording. I see the red light.
"Oh my god, how embarrassing," someone says, loud enough for me to hear.
"He really thought Ethan Cross would date him?"
"Gold digger."
"Desperate omega."
"So pathetic."
The words hit me like slaps. I want to run, but my legs won't work. I want to scream that Ethan is lying, that we were together, that this doesn't make sense—but who would believe me? Who would believe the nobody scholarship kid over Ethan Cross?
"Kai, sweetie," a teacher says, suddenly beside me, her hand on my arm. Her face looks sorry but also uncomfortable, like she just wants me to leave so this awkward moment can end. "Maybe you should go."
That breaks the spell.
I run.
I run through the crowd that parts for me like I'm contaminated. I run past the decorations and the fancy food and the stares. I run out of the ballroom with tears streaming down my face and cruel laughter chasing me.
Outside, the spring air is cold. I lean against the wall and throw up in the bushes because my body is rejecting everything—the night, the humiliation, the feeling of Ethan's hand dropping mine like it burned him.
My phone buzzes. Then buzzes again. And again.
I pull it out with shaking hands.
Notifications flood my screen. Tagged photos. Tagged videos. Comments:
"LMAOOO watch this omega get REJECTED"
"He really thought he had a chance
"Know your place"
The video is already going viral. Forty shares. A hundred shares. Three hundred.
Everyone is going to see this. Everyone.
I slide down the wall until I'm sitting on the ground, hugging my knees, trying to breathe through the panic squeezing my chest.
Why? Why did Ethan do this? We were happy. I know we were happy. He told me he loved me just yesterday. He kissed me and said tonight would be perfect and—
My phone rings. My older brother Derek.
Hope flares in my chest. Maybe Derek heard what happened. Maybe he's calling to check on me, to tell me to come home, to—
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Derek's angry voice hits me as soon as I answer. "I just saw the video. You embarrassed our entire family! Dating Ethan Cross? You? Are you insane?"
The hope dies.
"Derek, I didn't—"
"Mom and Dad are going to see this. Everyone's going to see this. You made us look like gold-digging climbers. How could you be so stupid?"
He hangs up.
I sit there in my too-big rented suit, covered in my own tears and shame, while my phone keeps buzzing with notifications from people who want to watch me break.
And I realize: this is just the beginning. Tomorrow I'll have to face school. Face everyone who saw the video. Face Ethan.
I don't know how I'm going to survive this.
I don't even know if I want to.