Fated and Claimed by Four Alphas

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~Spring's POV~

Sixty questions, all done, confident and accurate. I stood up smoothly and unhurriedly and walked to the front.

The tall, fair woman teacher, a tall, fair woman with silver-rimmed spectacles and a disapproving expression, blinked when I handed her the paper.

"You're done?" she asked, as if she hadn't heard right.

"Yes, ma'am," I said politely.

She took the sheet from my hand, brows furrowed. Her eyes scanned the first page, then the second. I saw the moment her lips parted slightly.

Without a word, she placed the paper on her desk.

"Very well," she said, trying and failing to keep her tone neutral. "You may leave quietly."

I nodded, slung my bag over one shoulder, and exited the room.

The hallway outside was hushed, mid-test silence still blanketing most of the building.

But by the time the final bell rang, the corridors came alive again with chatter and shuffling feet. I didn't need to eavesdrop; the whispers made their way to me.

"Can you believe it? She finished in eighteen minutes."

"Didn't even review her answers."

"No way she actually knew them all."

"Maybe she guessed."

"No, I heard she got everything right. All sixty."

A few students standing by the water fountain shot me sidelong glances, whispering behind their hands.

"She's the one with the Alpha mates, right? Are you sure she isn't pretentious?"

"She was made to repeat a class. I bet her old schools kicked her out for a reason."

"They probably just felt sorry for her."

"She's a fluke. A pretty face, the Alphas took pity on."

I kept walking, putting on a straight face, but inside, I felt every word like a pinprick. Still, I didn't stop until someone did it for me.

Lucien.

He stepped right into my path like he owned the space, arms crossed, mouth twisted into a sneer.

"Well, well. Look who's suddenly brilliant," he said. "You must feel really important now, huh? Riding high because you won a few dumb challenges and got the Regional heirs wagging their tails behind you."

I looked up at him slowly. I honestly did not have the mental patience to be patient with souls like him. "Move."

Lucien's eyes widened a little. "What did you say?"

I blinked at him as though none of what he did affected me. "Move, Lucien. Or do you need it translated?"

"You—" His words strangled in his throat as his pride crumbled under my indifference. "They were right. You really think you're better than the rest of us. But you're not. You're just some hand-me-down miracle that lucked into power."

I smiled thinly. "Still smarter than you, though. So what does that make a creature like you? Worse than a hand-me-down, sorry case, wagging his tail and begging for scraps of affection?"

He went red. "Repeat that."

I leaned forward slightly. "Still. Smarter. Than. You."

Lucien's fist snapped toward me without warning. But I had already seen it coming.

I ducked and stepped to the side, letting his momentum throw him off balance. Then I pivoted, let my arm swing low, and punched him hard in the gut.

He gasped, staggering back, hands flying to his stomach.

"You want more from where that came from?" I sneered, glaring daggers at him. "Because we could go at this all day, and I won't break a sweat to deal with a nuisance."

Suddenly, all the whispers stopped, and the hallway went quiet again, but this time, for a different reason.

"I thought as much. The next time you so much as pull a stupid stunt like this… would be the last."

Lucien groaned as he managed to straighten his spine. "And you think a weakling like you would be able to do anything?"

I paused, inhaling softly when he added the line that changed everything.

"You think because you're whoring yourself between four guys that you're somehow special?" he spat, straightening fully, voice cracking with venom. "Everyone's seen you. Kissing them in the open. Being passed around like a toy."

My spine stiffened, and my breath caught. My fingers curled at my sides, trembling—not from fear, but from the absolute disgust and rage coursing through me.

"I always knew you were fake," Lucien continued, allowing his voice to rise. "You wear this nice-girl act, like you're so soft, so humble, but underneath you're just like the rest—desperate for attention. You didn't win those dares because you're clever, Spring. You just sold yourself well."

I stepped forward once, then again. Each step echoed in the now-silent corridor. I didn't care about the eyes watching. I didn't care who stood nearby or what stories would spread after this.

I stopped just inches from him, close enough to feel the heat of his breath.

I knew he was jealous and pained, but there was nothing that was going to turn out well from knowing a person like him.

Nothing.

He was a bully, and he was bitter. People could say I did not give him a chance, but just like the rest, when I said that I wasn't ready for a relationship, and yet they still pursued me, he did no such thing but instead, unlike the others, right from time he was not eager to be with me.

So spare me the bullying card, he was a waste of space and time.

"Repeat it," I said quietly.

He stared at me, lips curled, then repeated it, slower this time, nastier. "Whoring yourself to four Alphas. Maybe if you open your legs for a few more, you'll finally feel worthy of the name Kaine."

My vision tunnelled for a moment. Something inside me shifted and burned.

But just as I opened my mouth to speak, something cracked through the air like thunder.

An intense pressure rolled down the corridor like a wave of invisible fire, furiously. My breath stalled in my lungs, and even Lucien faltered, wobbling back slightly on his feet.

The next moment, four figures appeared at the end of the hallway—calm but radiating power. Storm and Jace were in front, Tyrion and Kael behind them.