It was an ordinary afternoon at Westhill Academy — quiet halls, the hum of cleaning equipment, and the soft rustle of papers forgotten in empty classrooms. The new transfer student had been assigned cleanup duty as part of his orientation week. He didn’t mind; the silence gave him time to adjust, to breathe.

That’s when he caught it — faint but impossible to ignore.

A scent.

Sweet. Warm. Overwhelming.

Omega heat.

His body reacted on instinct, muscles tensing as his senses sharpened. The smell was coming from the next room. Hesitating only for a moment, he stepped into the hallway and followed it cautiously, trying not to draw attention to himself. He didn’t want to cause alarm, especially not if someone was vulnerable.

He pushed open the door to the adjacent classroom.

There, curled up beneath a desk, face flushed and breath shallow, was a boy. Brown silk hair stuck to his damp forehead, and his arms were wrapped tightly around himself as if trying to hold his own body together.

Theodore.

Even in his haze, he glanced up — glassy eyes narrowing as soon as he saw him.

"Of course it had to be an Alpha" He muttered bitterly, trying to shrink further into the shadows.

Theodore's jaw clenched. “Get. Out. I swear if you come closer...”

Their eyes met — tension thick in the air — and in that fragile moment, something unspoken passed between them.