Page 20 of The Drama King (The University Players Duet #1)

"Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth, unapt to toil and trouble in the world, but that our soft conditions and our hearts should well agree with our external parts?"

I let my hands trace the outline of my body, a gesture that should have been submissive but instead felt like an inventory of weapons.

"Come, come, you froward and unable worms!" The insult cracked like a whip across the theater. "My mind hath been as big as one of yours, my heart as great, my reason haply more, to bandy word for word and frown for frown."

This was the pivot, the moment where Kate revealed her true strength even as she claimed to surrender it. I delivered it with fierce pride barely disguised as humility.

"But now I see our lances are but straws, our strength as weak, our weakness past compare." I paused, letting the audience feel the weight of the lie. "That seeming to be most which we indeed least are."

The final lines I delivered directly to Dorian, finding his eyes in the darkness and holding them.

"Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot, and place your hands below your husband's foot." I knelt slowly, ceremonially, but my eyes never left his face. "In token of which duty, if he please, my hand is ready, may it do him ease."

I extended my hand, palm up, in the classic gesture of submission. But the way I held it - steady, unwavering, almost like a challenge - transformed the offer into something else entirely. A dare. A threat wrapped in silk.

For several heartbeats, there was perfect silence. The kind that performers dream about, when an audience is so captivated they forget to breathe.

Then the applause began, scattered at first, then building to a thunderous wave.

Someone in the back row stood, then another, until nearly half the audience was on their feet.

I rose from my kneel with liquid grace, gave a deep curtsey that managed to be both perfectly proper and subtly mocking, and exited stage left.

Stephanie was waiting in the wings, her eyes wide with something between awe and vindication.

"Holy shit," she whispered, pulling me into a fierce hug. "You just turned the most problematic monologue in Shakespeare into a feminist fucking manifesto."

"Did you see their faces?" Robbie added, already bounding down from the lighting booth. "Dorian looked like someone had just declared war while smiling sweetly."

I clung to them both, still vibrating with the intensity of the performance, my body trembling with emotional aftermath. "Was it too much? I couldn't tell if-"

"Too much?" Stephanie pulled back to look at me, her expression almost reverent. "Professor Goldman is taking notes. That critic from Theatre Weekly is leaning forward in her seat. You didn't just perform Kate's submission - you interrogated it, subverted it, made it dangerous."

A tech assistant hurried over to usher us further offstage as the next performer prepared to enter. We moved to the green room, where a small monitor showed the ongoing showcase. Several other students nodded or smiled as I entered, their expressions ranging from impressed to wary.

"Water," Stephanie said, pressing my bottle into my hands. "Drink. You're still shaking."

I obeyed automatically, the cold liquid shocking me further back into my body. As the adrenaline began to ebb, exhaustion swept in to replace it. I sank onto a folding chair, suddenly aware of how much the performance had taken out of me.

We watched in relative silence as the remaining students delivered their pieces.

Some brilliant, others merely competent.

By the time the last performer exited, my heartbeat had almost returned to normal, though the phantom sensation of Dorian's scent still clung to my skin like a brand I'd transformed into armor.

The department head stepped onto the stage for closing remarks, his formal Alpha presence commanding immediate attention.

"What an extraordinary showcase of talent," he began, his voice booming across the theater.

"Before we adjourn to the reception in the lobby, I'd like to invite our faculty to share brief impressions. "

Professor De Scarzis spoke first, her Italian accent more pronounced when she was excited.

"Tonight we witnessed several remarkable interpretations, but I must specifically acknowledge Ms. Levine's revolutionary take on Kate's final monologue.

To transform that problematic text into a meditation on power, performance, and survival - this is exactly the kind of critical engagement with classical texts that modern theater demands. "

My breath caught. De Scarzis was notoriously stingy with praise, especially for first-year students.

Professor Goldman from NYU leaned forward in his seat.

"If I may add - Ms. Levine's performance demonstrated the rare ability to inhabit a text while simultaneously commenting on it.

The meta-theatrical awareness, the layers of meaning, the sheer audacity of making Kate's submission an act of defiance.

.. It's exactly what we look for in our graduate program candidates. "

The words stunned me into silence. Graduate program candidates. NYU. The possibility I'd never dared to dream was being discussed in front of the entire theater community.

"You did it," Stephanie whispered, squeezing my hand. "You fucking did it."

The stage manager stuck her head into the green room. "Five minutes until reception. All performers to the lobby, please."

Reality crashed back as I remembered what awaited me. A crowded reception where I'd inevitably encounter the pack, now likely furious that I'd managed to distinguish myself despite - or perhaps because of - their calculated sabotage.

"I can't," I said, panic rising fresh in my throat. "Steph, I can't face them right now."

"Yes, you can," Robbie said firmly, moving to my other side. "Because you're not the same person who walked onto that stage. You just proved something tonight. To them, to the faculty, to yourself."

"He's right," Stephanie added. "You just performed Kate's submission speech while carrying an Alpha's scent-mark and turned both into weapons. You transformed their sabotage into your strength."

She was right. The marking that was supposed to humiliate me had instead added a visceral layer to my performance - the reality of domination underlying Kate's words, making my subversion of them all the more powerful.

"Okay," I said, standing on legs that were steadier than they'd been all evening. "Let's go face the music."

The lobby was packed with faculty, students, and industry professionals, the buzz of conversation punctuated by laughter and the clink of wine glasses.

I spotted the pack immediately. They'd positioned themselves strategically near the main entrance, ensuring that I'd have to pass them to reach the faculty gathering around Professor De Scarzis.

Dorian's eyes found mine across the room, his expression unreadable but intense. For a moment, we simply stared at each other across the crowded space, two opponents acknowledging a fundamental shift in the game.

Then Professor Goldman appeared at my elbow, breaking the spell.

"Ms. Levine," he said warmly, "I wonder if we might have a word about your future plans? That performance was... incendiary. In the best possible way."

As I allowed him to guide me toward a quieter corner, I caught a glimpse of Dorian's face in my peripheral vision. The confusion I'd seen during my performance had crystallized into something more complex. The look of an Alpha who'd discovered his prey had turned his own weapons against him.

The hunt, I realized, was far from over. But tonight, for the first time since arriving at Northwood, I felt like I might actually be capable of not just fighting back, but winning.