The Alpha's Secret {bxb}

t w e n t y s i x

tw for attempted sexual assault and violence towards the end of the chapter. not super explicit but i'll still mark the beginning and end if you wanna skip it.

Dante POV

July- 7 months earlier

For the first time ever, Dante was actually excited about the upcoming school year.

He absolutely loathed St Joe's, and under normal circumstances, he would be dreading each dwindling minute pushing him closer to that hellscape disguised as a school. But these weren't normal circumstances. He and James were finally seniors. It was their last year. James said he was ready now. After 3 long years of secrets, lying and hiding out in janitor's closets, James finally said he was ready to be out. To not hide.

If they lived anywhere else in the world, perhaps it wouldn't have to be this way. But here- especially in the halls of St Joe's- alpha/alpha pairings were looked down upon.

Disgusting.

Unnatural.

Freak.

It didn't really phase Dante though. The opinions of strangers whos names he would never retain meant nothing to him. Especially when they tried to tell him who to love. Regardless of how he felt, though, James had insisted he didn't want anyone to know of their relationship at the very least until their senior year. Then they'd graduate together and move somewhere bigger, more exciting, more inclusive. James even mentioned getting a dog once or twice, and even though Dante was more of a cat person himself, he readily agreed anyway. Being young and in love, Dante thought James was his one. Something as trivial as what kind of pet they'd have meant very little to him in the grand scheme of things. He was planning his future with his love. As long as they'd remain together, he didn't really care.

Looking back, perhaps that was his first mistake, loving James at all.

+++

September - 5 months earlier

In the 3 weeks since school had started back up, Dante still had yet to see James. A few days prior, he texts stopped going through. He couldn't find any of his socials either. Dante didn't want to think James would just block him on everything with no explanation, but what else could he think? He'd debated on just going to James' house to check on him, but every time he drove past that house on the way to school, the driveway was empty and all lights where off.

And then this morning, a for sale sign was in the front yard. So, needless to say, Dante was already in a piss poor mood when he walked into the school building.

He tried his hardest to ignore the other students as usual, but as each class passed, he began to notice some of them shooting him strange looks and whispering to each other. It only got worse at lunch. Dante sat alone at his usual table, headphones in, styrofoam tray full of unappealing slop pushed to the side in favor of his sketchbook. Every time he happened to glance up, eyes were on him. Anyone who passed his table gave him wide berth, mouths downturned on a disgusted snare. Within the first 10 minutes, Dante had already decided he'd had enough and started gathering his things to leave.

Which, in retrospect, was a big mistake.

Joshua Jones, Brett Lewis and David Hyatt approached his table while Dante was distracted putting his sketchbook away. All at once, the entire cafeteria descended into silence. Dante didn't notice them immediately, which clearly upset Joshua. With a cruel smirk he grabbed the tray, filled to the brim with what the school claimed was meatloaf, gravy and mashed potatoes.

The sudden movement finally caught Dante's attention. He looked up at the three alphas surrounding his table and hesitantly removed one of his earbuds. He opened his mouth to speak, ask if they needed something from him, when Joshua dumped the tray right onto his lap.