She nods slowly. "And you're holding position."
"I don't have a choice. Submitting won't get me what I need."
By lunch, everyone has seen it. The hair is uneven and I've done nothing to fix it because fixing it would signal that I'm bothered by it, that the dominance display affected me. I find my table at the back and sit down.
Nico Rossi is already moving toward me through the tables.
I know him by sight from days of watching. He moves through the hall at ease, unhurried, warmth distributed in small exact amounts to maintain his position as Caspian's second. His face is open and constructed to put wolves at ease.
He reaches my table and his hand goes for the water pitcher.
The entire pitcher goes over me.
Ice water hits like a wall, soaking through my uniform instantly. The cold seizes my breath for a second and in that second the hall erupts.
Not measured or planned. This is loud, fast, three hundred students responding to spectacle. Someone nearby sends their plate clattering. Food flies, someone shouts, and within thirty seconds a food fight develops.
"Oh no," Nico says, his face assembled into concern, his eyes flat. "How clumsy."
Something wet hits the wall behind me. A bread roll lands on my table.
I'm sitting in ice water and I keep my face still. This is another test. Another assessment of whether I'll show submission signals or hold composure under public humiliation.
Headmaster Owen appears, his eyes landing on me, the new wolf, wet and central to the chaos. His face does its calculation.
The punishment is announced before the food fight stops. I'll clean the dining hall tonight. Alone. Full hall, all tables, floors, chairs. Starting at nine.
I say nothing. Accepting the consequence without complaint is the only move that doesn't signal weakness.
Chapter Five
The morning after Nico spills the pitcher on me and I clean the dining hall alone until three am, I wake to Lily standing at my bedside with a tray.
"You're eating in the room today," she says.
I sit up. My body aches in small targeted places, shoulders, lower back, the muscles in my calves from kneeling on stone for hours. "I can go to breakfast."
"You can. You shouldn't." She sets the tray on my desk, toast and eggs and something that might be sausage. "Trust me on this."
I look at her face and I see something I haven't seen before, a careful measured fear that she's trying hard to keep out of her voice. "What happened?"
"Nothing happened. That's the problem." She sits on the edge of her own bed, hands folded in her lap. "Nova, do you know what the Dominion is?"
"No."
She closes her eyes once, opens them. "Okay. I'm going to tell you. You're going to eat while I do, because you need to eat and I need to say this. I can't watch you not eat while I'm saying it."
I pick up the toast. She waits until I take a bite.
"There's an elite group at this Academy," she says. "Centuries old. Strongest bloodlines only, invitation only, never officially acknowledged. The Headmaster knows about it and doesn't interfere. The faculty knows and looks away." She pauses. "They call themselves the Dominion."
The toast tastes like nothing. I keep eating it.
"They're the real power structure here. Alphas and potential Alphas, the ones who'll lead major packs when they graduate. And they enforce pack hierarchy as wolves have for centuries." Another pause. "Through dominance trials."
"Dominance trials?"
"Every year they identify unknown elements. Students who arrive with no clear bloodline, no established pack position, no readable scent markers. Students who could be anything from dormant Alphas to worthless Omegas, and the Dominion needs to know which." She meets my eyes. "Because unknown wolves are dangerous. They're threats until proven otherwise."
