Chapter 6: Hailey’s Bullying

The first time Hailey called her a curse, it was in passing.

A whisper. A smirk. A fleeting accusation masked as a joke.

"You shouldn't be here, you know."

Rose had been fetching water from the river when Hailey appeared, standing on the moss-covered rocks with her arms crossed. The moonlight made her look ethereal, almost angelic, but the venom in her voice told a different story.

"No one wants you here, rogue girl."

It would have been easy to ignore if Hailey hadn't known how to make her words stick.

Like a slow-working poison, they seeped into the ears of everyone around her.

By the time the sun rose the next day, the entire pack was repeating them.

And the torment truly began.

Hailey had always been beautiful. The kind of beauty that made people listen when she spoke.

But it wasn't just her looks that made her dangerous.

It was the way she knew people.

How to push the right buttons. How to manipulate emotions. How to twist the truth into something wicked and believable.

And when the Betas died, Hailey saw an opportunity.

She hated Rose, though she had never said why.

Maybe it was because the Betas had raised her like a daughter, when Hailey had always been treated like the pack's spoiled princess.

Maybe it was because the quadruplets—the future alphas—had always ignored Rose before, yet now that she was alone, their gazes lingered just a little too long.

Maybe it was because Rose was still standing, while the Betas—the strong, the respected, the beloved—were buried beneath the cold earth.

But Hailey never needed a good reason.

Only an excuse.

And now she had one.

"She killed them," Hailey whispered to the pack girls one evening, her voice barely above a breath. "She had to be involved. It makes sense, doesn't it?"

Her friends exchanged looks, intrigued.

"But there were no rogues," one of them hesitated. "No sign of an attack."

"Exactly," Hailey said smoothly. "And she was the only one inside the house. How is it that she made it out, but the Betas didn't?"

No one had an answer.

So Hailey gave them one.

"She's cursed."

The rumor spread like wildfire.

Rose noticed the difference almost immediately.

The glares that lasted too long.

The whispers that followed her through the pack village.

It didn't take long before the taunts turned into something worse.

"Stay away from me," a mother snapped when Rose reached for a loaf of bread at the market. She yanked her child behind her, eyes full of disgust. "I don't want your bad luck rubbing off on us."

The baker, who had always given her extra pastries when she was younger, refused to meet her gaze.

"I don't sell to murderers," he said flatly.

When she tried to attend training, the warriors laughed her out of the field.

"You think we'd let you fight alongside us?" one sneered. "What if you turn on us, just like you turned on the Betas?"

Everywhere she went, Hailey's words followed.

She had no proof. No evidence.

She didn't need any.

All she needed was a pack full of people desperate for someone to blame.

And Rose was an easy target.

"You don't belong here."

Hailey's voice was sweet. Too sweet. The kind of sweetness that made Rose's stomach turn.

She had just finished gathering herbs from the forest when she saw her standing there, a small group of girls flanking her like guards.

Rose swallowed hard, adjusting the basket in her hands.

"I don't want any trouble," she said quietly.

Hailey smiled.

"Trouble?" she echoed. "Oh, Rose, you are the trouble."

Before Rose could react, someone grabbed her basket and flung it to the ground.

Herbs scattered over the dirt.

A sharp kick sent them flying into the mud.

"Oops," one of the girls giggled.

Rose clenched her fists.

She didn't fight back.

She never fought back.

Because she knew if she did, the pack would only use it as more proof.

"Look at her."

"See how violent she is?"

"No wonder the Betas are dead."

Hailey stepped closer, tilting her head. "You should just leave, you know. The pack doesn't want you here. We don't needyou here."

"I have nowhere else to go," Rose whispered.

Hailey leaned in, her lips brushing against Rose's ear as she murmured, "Then I guess you'll just have to suffer."

And suffer she did.

It wasn't enough for Hailey to spread rumors.

She needed to see Rose break.

She tripped her in the halls at school, pretending it was an accident.

She stole her assignments and had teachers believe Rose had forgotten to do them.

She had the pack boys slip salt into her drinking water, then laughed when she choked on it.

And worst of all?

She turned the entire pack against her without lifting a single claw.

One day, Rose entered the schoolhouse only to find her desk gone.

"Where—?"

"Oops," Hailey said from her seat near the back. She gestured toward the door, where Rose's books were now sitting in the dirt outside. "Looks like you don't have a seat anymore. Guess no one wanted to sit next to a curse."

The class laughed.

Even the teacher said nothing.

Rose bit the inside of her cheek and walked outside, picking up her books with shaking hands.

She didn't cry.

Not yet.

She had already learned that tears meant nothing in a place where no one cared.

"She needs to leave."

Hailey's voice was low, serious, as she sat on a log with the pack girls surrounding her.

"You've been saying that for weeks," one of them sighed. "But she won't. She's too stubborn."

"Then we'll make her leave," Hailey said simply.

"How?"

Hailey smirked.

"We'll give her a reason to run."

Rose was walking home late at night when she saw it.

Her bed—her only place of safety—was in flames.

Her few belongings—her books, her clothes—had been thrown into the dirt, torn and ruined.

And standing in front of the fire, smiling, was Hailey.

"Oops," she said. "Looks like you're homeless now."

Rose's breath caught in her throat. "Hailey, why—?"

"Why?" Hailey's eyes darkened. "Because you don't belong here. You never did. And now? Now you don't have a choice."

A crowd had gathered behind her. Warriors. Pack members. The elders.

And no one. Said. A word.

Rose's heart pounded.

They were just… watching.

Letting it happen.

As if they agreed.

As if this was right.

She looked at them, at the people she had once called family, and she finally understood.

There was nothing left for her here.

Nothing but pain.

Nothing but hate.

And maybe Hailey was right.

Maybe she was a curse.

Because no matter how hard she tried, no matter how much she suffered—

The pack would never love her.

They would never accept her.

And the only way she would ever be free—

Was if she left.

So that's exactly what she did.