"You're actually dorm-ing withthosethree? The ones who made your life a living hell? Who had the entire school chanting that horrible nickname?"
My voice climbs with each question, the volume control surrendering to the sheer injustice of the information being presented. I remember those boys. Remember Rafe Calder's smirk and Cal Knox's nervous laughter and the chant that echoed through hallways like a weapon designed to destroy a girl who had committed the unforgivable crime of being smart and different and too gentle to fight back.
I fought back for her. Every time. Fists up, eyes blazing, daring anyone within striking distance to say another word about Nerdy MaeBell while I was standing between them and her.
And then I vanished. Left her without her shield. Without the girl who was willing to take the hits so she did not have to.
And the boys who hurt her are now her roommates.
What kind of sick, twisted, cosmically vindictive arrangement is that?
"The very same." Mae takes a sip of water. "Surprise."
"How? How does that even happen? What kind of cosmic joke is this?"
"The universe's favorite kind, apparently. The kind where it kicks you while you're down and then laughs about it."
Jace tilts his head, and I can see the connections forming behind his amber eyes.
"Wait. When you say your bullies from sixth grade... You're talking about Calder, Knox, and Laurent, right?"
Mae blinks. "You know them?"
"Everyone knows them." He gestures vaguely at the cafeteria. "They're literally the talk of the school. Have been since they showed up last week."
I nod, because I have been tracking this particular intelligence since their arrival. When you are an Omega on a hockey campus populated by Alphas whose egos are measured in square footage, you learn the names and the threat profiles and the scent signatures of every notable player on the roster before they finish unpacking their gear bags.
"Especially Laurent," I add. "The amount of Omegas fawning over that boy is borderline obscene. He's got this whole 'mysterious French-Canadian with sad eyes' thing going on, and everyone eats it up."
"What's so great about Laurent?"
The question exits Mae's mouth with a petulance that is so pure in its unintentional jealousy that my lips twitch before I can suppress the reaction.
"Jealous?"
"What? No! I'm just..." She huffs, crossing her arms. "Actually, now that I think about it, I remember Rafe and Cal being part of the whole 'make MaeBell's life miserable' parade. But Étienne? I can't remember him being part of it. Like, at all."
Jace and I exchange another loaded glance.
This one carries different freight. Not alarm. Information. The shared knowledge of a detail we possess and Mae does not, a piece of the puzzle that will reframe her understanding of the past in ways she has not anticipated.
"Mae..." I modulate my voice into the careful register reserved for delivering news that has the potential to rearrange someone's emotional furniture. "Wasn't it his older brother?"
She stares.
"His what now?"
"Older brother." Jace picks up the thread, his delivery smooth and factual in the way mine could not be because my emotional investment in Mae's wellbeing makes clinical detachment impossible. "Étienne has an older brother. He was in our grade back then because he got held back. Twice."
I watch the recalibration happen across Mae's features in real time. The confusion folding into realization. The realization collapsing into the specific, gutting guilt of a person who has just discovered that a grudge they held for thirteen years was aimed at the wrong target.
"Pretty sure it was Bastien," I confirm. "Bastien Laurent. The older one. He had those same eyes, remember? That icy blue? But he was... meaner. Louder. Étienne was always the quiet one who hung back."
"Holy shit," Mae breathes.
"Yeah." Jace sips his smoothie. "Bastien's actually still here, by the way. He's on the senior division hockey team. Been attending the university for a few years."
I explain the division structure because this is my territory, the one area where my knowledge is comprehensive and my confidence is unshakeable. Junior and Senior divisions. The separation by experience level and pack maturity. Rafe, Cal, and Étienne on the junior squad. Bastien entrenched in the senior roster.
