The Bully Alpha's Fake Alpha Mate (BL)-Chapter 53: TRANSFORMATION BEGINS

ASHER

The mandatory full moon run was at nine PM.

Every student was required to attend and there were no exceptions.

I stood in my dorm staring at my reflection, trying to figure out how the fuck I was going to survive the next few hours. My skin was flushed, my pupils were blown wide, sweat dampened my hairline despite the cold shower I’d just taken and the pain.

Goddess, the pain was so intense I could barely stand upright. I pressed my hand to my abdomen and took a shuddering breath.

I could skip the run, fake being sick, lock myself in my room and pray Reed couldn’t break down the door but the Dean had been clear. Mandatory meant mandatory. Missing the full moon run meant expulsion and if I was expelled, I’d lose my scholarship, my future and everything.

I had no other choice than to go.

I just had to stay away from everyone, stay on the outskirts and shift as quickly as possible before my scent gave me away. Once I was in wolf form, I could run, get far away before anyone figured out the Omega scent was coming from me.

Simple.

The pain pulsed again and I doubled over, gasping.

Nothing about this was going to be simple.

The woods behind campus were packed with students by the time I arrived, hundreds of them. All gathering in the clearing where the transformation would take place.

Alphas clustered together in groups, weaker Alphas stood nervously on the edges and everyone was buzzing with excitement for the run.

I kept to the shadows, I stayed as far from the crowd as I could and pulled my hood up to hide my face.

The pain was getting worse by the second. Each breath felt like fire in my lungs and there was a pressure building inside me that made me want to scream.

Just a few more minutes, just until the transformation started. This was so much worse than I’d anticipated.

"Asher?" I heard my voice from afar and I turned to see Julian standing there, his shirt already off. "You okay? You look like you’re about to pass out."

"I’m fine." I told him, this was a big mistake, he shouldn’t come close to me. If he did, then he would notice my different pheromones.

"You don’t look fine. Maybe you should sit this one out—"

"I can’t." My voice came out harsher than I intended. "I have to run."

Julian studied my face. "What’s wrong with you? You’ve been acting weird all day."

"Nothing’s wrong. I’m just tired."

"Asher—"

"Leave me alone, Julian." I took a step back. "Please, just leave me alone for now. I just want to be away from you, please."

Julian’s brow furrowed, he didn’t say a word, he just nodded and walked away but not without throwing me a glance one last time.

I could tell he was hurt but it wasn’t my fault.

’I am sorry,Julian. You would soon understand the full moon hit. Please forgive me.’ I said quietly, hoping he could hear my thoughts. This was better, I didn’t want him to find out while standing as I shifted to my omega form.

I just know that once it’s time then I would shift and run before anyone realized what I was.

The Dean stood on a raised platform at the center of the clearing. "Listen up!" His voice carried across the crowd distracting me from my thoughts. "Standard rules apply. Stay within the designated territory, no fighting and no hunting of non-game animals. You have until dawn to run."

The crowd murmured with excitement.

"The full moon rises in five minutes," Dean Blackwood continued. "Prepare yourselves."

Around me, students started stripping off their clothes. Getting ready for the shift. I moved further back, closer to the tree line and further from the crowd.

My whole body was shaking now, the pain was getting worse and there was heat building between my legs that made me want to sob.

I pulled off my hoodie with trembling hands then my shirt followed by my jeans.

The cold air hit my overheated skin but it did nothing to cool me down. I was burning from the inside out.

"Something smells different tonight," someone said nearby and I froze immediately.

An Alpha was sniffing the air. "Do you guys smell that?"

"Smell what?" another student asked.

"I don’t know. Something... sweet? Like heat?"

My blood went cold.

No.

The moon wasn’t fully up yet. I was still human. My pheromones shouldn’t be leaking this strongly but more students were starting to notice. Heads turning, noses flaring and confusion spreading through the crowd.

"Where’s that coming from?"

"I can’t tell. It’s faint but—"

"Fuck, that smells good."

I needed to shift now before they tracked the scent to me. I closed my eyes and tried to force the transformation early. I tried to pull my wolf form out before the moon fully rose but my body wouldn’t cooperate. The shift only happened during the full moon. I couldn’t force it.

"It’s getting stronger," the Alpha said. His voice was getting rougher. "Whatever it is, it’s close."

"It smells like Omega," someone else said. "Like an Omega in heat."

The clearing went quiet.

"That’s impossible," Julian’s voice cut through. "There are no Omegas enrolled here. We’re an Alpha Academy."

"Then where’s that scent coming from? Its fucking amazinb becausethe omega in heat is unmated. Oh I can’t wait to have the omega, whoever it is." The Alpha said.

I pressed myself against a tree, trying to stay hidden in the shadows. My heart was hammering so hard I thought it might explode.

Just a little longer, just until the moon rose and I could shift and run, please.

The moon broke over the horizon, full, bright and massive. And everything went to hell. The transformation hit me like a freight train, and pain exploded through my body. Every muscle, every bone, and every nerve ending lit up at once but I bit down on my lip hard enough to draw blood and forced myself to stay silent.

Around me, students were gasping and groaning as their shifts started. The clearing filled with the sounds of bones breaking and reforming and I shifted with them.

The transformation was agonizing. Worse than I’d imagined. My bones broke and reformed. My muscles tore and rebuilt and through it all, the heat pulsed and burned and made everything ten times worse but finally, I was on four legs instead of two.

My wolf form was smaller than the Alphas around me, leaner and built for speed rather than strength.

Omega.

The clearing was full of wolves now. Dozens of them shaking out their fur. Testing their new forms and then the scent hit.

Not just me smelling it, everyone smelling it.

My heat pheromones flooded the forest in a wave so strong it was almost visible.

Sweet, warm and intoxicating. Pure Omega in heat.

Every wolf in the clearing froze, heads snapped up, noses turned toward the wind trying to locate the source but I was already moving. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

I bolted into the trees before anyone could track the scent to me specifically, before anyone could see which wolf was running, just another shadow disappearing into the forest.

Behind me, the clearing erupted into chaos, howls filled the air, confused, hungry and desperate.

"There’s an Omega here—"

"Where—"

"Find them—"

But the voices were shifting now. Becoming growls and barks as more students completed their transformations and the hunt began. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me. My paws pounded against the forest floor, branches whipped past, the full moon lit my path but I could already hear them behind me.

The wolves, dozens of them or maybe hundreds. All following my scent trail and all hunting me.

They didn’t know it was me, they didn’t know Asher Graham was the Omega they were chasing but they knew there was an unmated Omega in heat somewhere in these woods and every Alpha instinct was screaming at them to find me, claim me and breed me.

I ran faster, my lungs were burning and my muscles were screaming but the heat made everything harder, it made my movements sluggish, it made it difficult to think straight. Behind me, the howls were getting closer. The pack was spreading out and searching. Some going left, and some going right, trying to track where my scent was strongest and somewhere in that pack, Reed Jackson had shifted.

His rut had hit, his wolf form had caught my scent and he was hunting. I could feel it. Some primal part of me recognized that he was out there, that he was coming for me and that when he caught my scent trail, nothing would stop him from tracking me down.

I pushed harder, ran faster, ignored the pain and the heat and the fear but my scent was everywhere, coating the forest, impossible to hide and the wolves were getting closer.

The hunt had begun and I was the prey.