Chapter 13: You Have 24 Minutes To Do It And Your Time Starts Counting Now!
Iris’s POV
My mind, however, resisted the hypnotic pull of his physical perfection, drifting back, involuntarily, to my past life. In my past life, Zane had been a relentless tormentor, a constant shadow of cruelty. He’d always threatened me whenever he caught me committing a crime. He always uses it as leverage to make me do whatever he wanted, to bend me to his will. I remembered one instance with agonizing clarity. It was a public humiliation that still burned with a vivid, humiliating heat through my memories.
It was during college, a time when I was still trying desperately to gain his attention, and that of his brothers, Cade and Kael, who, to my naive self, never so much glanced my way.
I had been dared by Zane to confess my "undying love" for him in front of the entire student body during lunch and kneel to offer him a rose flower. Naively, foolishly, blindly infatuated, I went through with it, standing on a table in the bustling cafeteria, my heart pounding a frantic rhythm against my ribs, stammering out a heartfelt and utterly ridiculous declaration of affection. "I’m in love with Zane and I’ll do anything for him to love me back alongside his brothers." I declared loudly as I knelt in front of him, holding up the flower to his face.
He just stood there, arms crossed, his face filled with a mocking smirk. When I finished, he burst out laughing, quickly joined by the boisterous, derisive laughter of Cade and Kael. Then, he pointed a finger directly at me and announced, loud enough for every single person in that crowded room to hear, "Look at her! An Alpha’s daughter, reduced to begging for attention, eating dirt for a guy who doesn’t even notice her!"
The entire cafeteria erupted in a cacophony of laughter and jeers as he walked away, leaving me still kneeling with the rose in my hands.
Whispers followed me for weeks, insidious and relentless.
"She’s an Alpha’s daughter and yet she’s reducing herself to nothing for Zane!"
"Pathetic!"
"An Alpha’s daughter acting like an omega dog!" The humiliation had been excruciating, a public display of my desperate, unrequited infatuation, my willingness to debase myself for even a shred of his attention. It was a constant, gnawing reminder of how little he thought of me, how easily he could manipulate and control me, how I was nothing more than a pawn in his cruel games, an object of his amusement.
My mind reeled, not just from their mockery but from the deluge of bitter memories Zane’s presence always seemed to unleash. He’d weaponized my affections against me countless times and the college cafeteria incident, where he exposed my desperate confession, was only one of many. Another, even more personal humiliation, still stung like a fresh wound.