Claimed by the Alpha and the Vampire Prince: Masquerading as a Man-Chapter 176: Isolated (ii)

(Few days later)

Clark’s POV:

Sara... she was like a different person now. It was like someone had erased the warmth from her eyes overnight. Her gaze, once full of light and hope, was now cold—full of disgust and disdain. I couldn’t understand what happened. One minute, we were talking about survival, about trying to make it through this hellhole together, and the next... she was a stranger. I tried. I really did. I asked her a million times, What did I do? What went wrong? But all I got were venomous stares, words full of anger, and that familiar look of contempt.

She hated me now.

I had no idea why. I tried to reach out to her. Tried to understand what changed, but nothing I did made it better. Nothing I said ever seemed to pierce the cold wall she had built around herself. At this point, I didn’t even know if it was me she hated—or if it was everything I had become since all of this started.

I asked her over and over again, "What did I do?" I begged her for an explanation, but she only met me with silence and those eyes full of disgust. It was like I was the scum of the earth. she gave me looks like I was the villain in some story I didn’t even understand. Like I had done something unforgivable, but I didn’t even know what that was.

And as for the others? It felt like I had become a punching bag. Maybe it was just because I was the easy target, or maybe it was because everyone else felt like they needed someone to blame. Either way, I was constantly the brunt of their sick little pranks. First, it was the snide comments, then the dirty looks, and eventually, it escalated. A fucking bucket of urine dumped on my head while I was just walking to class? Yeah. That was fun.

Bucket of urine? Really? That was the kind of thing they thought was funny? They’d laugh, I’d sit there, soaked and humiliated, but I couldn’t even cry about it anymore. What was the point?

What was the point of even trying? It was like they were all playing a twisted game, and I was the target.

The bullying... it never stopped. It was like they were all waiting for me to break. Waiting for me to show that I couldn’t take it anymore. It felt like every single person in that damn school had decided I was an easy target. Maybe it was because I had no one else to stand with me. The other humans kept their distance, and I wasn’t about to try to fit in with them anymore. I was a pariah, and they let me know it every chance they got.

The pranks, the mocking laughter, the shit they threw at me—it all just blended into this thick layer of disdain and humiliation.

But in a sick way, I was grateful. Grateful that the vampires and wolves avoided me. At least there was that small mercy. They didn’t want to deal with me—didn’t want to look at me like I was something less than human. In their world, I wasn’t even worth the effort.

That didn’t apply to everyone, though. Specifically, it didn’t apply to Blaze and Reed.

God, those two.

Blaze, with his smooth words and arrogant smirk, and Reed, with his unpredictable intensity. They didn’t care about what the others thought. They didn’t avoid me. In fact, they seemed to find it amusing how I could barely keep my footing in this world, like I was their personal amusement.

It was like I was the rope in a tug-of-war match, constantly caught in the crossfire between them. One minute, Blaze was around, breathing down my neck with that smug grin, and the next, Reed would show up out of nowhere, all intense eyes and tight jaw, clearly annoyed by the fact that Blaze existed anywhere near me.

Blaze... that bastard. He would just show up whenever he felt like it. His eyes, cold and calculating, always seemed to find me, no matter how far I tried to hide. He didn’t care about the rest of the world’s rules. No, Blaze was a law unto himself. He was always so... relaxed when it came to making his presence known. He didn’t care who saw him with me. It was like he wanted to flaunt it, to let everyone know that he had claimed me in some twisted, unspoken way. His eyes would follow me, always too intense, always too much.And Reed...

Reed was worse. He was more... brooding. More unpredictable. When he showed up, I could feel the tension in the air, the way his eyes would flicker over to Blaze like a challenge. Reed never really spoke much to me—he’d just look at me with those damn eyes like he was trying to read me, trying to figure out if I was worth his time.

And in a way, I felt like I was constantly walking on eggshells, caught between them.

Every time those two were in the same room, everything would crackle with tension. It was like I was stuck between two worlds that hated each other, and I was the dumb human they both seemed to want to play with. Not that they cared about me, not really. I was just a pawn, a piece in their endless battle for control and power. But I was the one who had to suffer for it.

One moment, they would be on the same side, ganging up on me, and the next, they were at each other’s throats. The air would thicken with their hostility, their eyes locking as if to say, This is your fault. But they never really talked to each other. They didn’t need to. Their glances were enough.

And I? I was stuck in the middle of it.

Every time they clashed, every time their tensions reached a boiling point, I was the one who had to deal with the aftermath. Whether it was being dragged into the middle of a fight I wanted no part of or trying to escape the mess they’d made, I was the one who got hurt.

And it was only getting worse. The supernatural world didn’t care about humans. It didn’t care about me.

I was just trying to survive, but these two kept dragging me into their sick little games. One minute, I’d be caught in the crossfire of some brutal exchange of glares or words between them, and the next, they’d both be silently circling around me, trying to figure out what they could gain from my misery.

And every damn time I tried to get away, every time I tried to distance myself from them, they only pulled me back in, like I was some kind of prize to be claimed. Maybe I was. Maybe that’s how they saw me. Just another piece of the puzzle.

I hated it.

I couldn’t tell if I was lucky or cursed.

Sara had turned her back on me. The humans had written me off as an easy target. And the supernaturals? They might as well have been circling around me like sharks in water.

And now, I was wondering if I even had a chance to get out of this alive.