“The premier university in the state is offering you a scholarship with a generous stipend to cover living expenses. You’ll have free accommodation, your meals provided for…”
I wanted to hear what they were saying, the details were so, so important, but my head filled with this white staticky noise, followed by a high-pitched whine. I was too young to experience first-year medical student syndrome, but right now, I felt like I was having a bloody heart attack. My pulse was racing, my heart felt like it was bouncing around in my chest like a basketball, and the muscles across my torso seemed too tight for me to take a full breath. The pressure inside me was building, building…
“It’s OK, beta.” Blake’s deep voice cut through everything, creating calm where there had only been insanity. And when I took my first real breath in, nothing felt better than that rush of sweet, sweet air. Of course, that was when reality snapped back abruptly.
“Riley, are you OK?” Ms Thornton said, reaching out, but she dropped her hand when Blake shot her a censorious look. His arm went around me, and he pulled me in close, something we hadn’t done since…
“She’s just overwhelmed,” he told them. “This is some amazing news, but… This is what her dad wanted for her.”
No, it wasn’t. He wanted this—me plastered against Blake’s big body, leeching his strength, him stepping up and looking after me, all of them doing that. As if summoned by my thoughts, I heard the sound of heavy footsteps, and then the rest of the pack all came running in.
“What the fuck happened?” Fen asked Blake, not waiting for an answer as he lifted my chin, staring into my eyes. “Some shit go down? The omegas attack you again?”
“Mr Vanguard,” the principal said stiffly. “Language, please.”
“We’ll use all the appropriate language you like, as long as you tell us what happened to Riley,” Haze drawled.
“She’s as white as a ghost,” Colt snapped, peering down at me, then glaring at them. “What fucking happened?”
The principal stood tall then and gave the alphas his most perfect beta smile. He might have to recognise their authority in all other things, but not here.
“Riley has been given a full scholarship with incredibly generous conditions to study medicine…”
I couldn’t seem to hold on to the details, my head whiting out the minute people started talking. Instead of the glimpse into my future, all I heard was the frantic rattle of Blake’s heart, one whose pace matched mine. Finally, people stopped talking, the guys steering me out of the room, and for once, I was glad for their overprotective bullshit. They got me out of the building, downstairs, and over to the table we always sat at. My books were removed, my bag placed beside them, then a bottle of Coke and an unwrapped salad sandwich were set before me.
“Eat, Riley,” Fen said, using the slightest touch of alpha command to prompt me to do what I needed. I took a sip of the Coke, the caffeine and sugary goodness helping resettle me, then grabbed the sandwich and took a bite.
“Good girl,” Ryan said, his voice even and calm, so then I was too.
This was why alphas were so important. They could guide and steer the emotional state of a community, ensuring calm, well regulated towns or creating frightening despotic regimes like we’d studied in history.They would be so good as town leaders, I thought as I chewed.If they showed everyone the same care as me…Ryan watched my every chew, nodding encouragingly, while Colt slotted in beside me, putting his arm around my back. Haze sat cross-legged on the table, picking at his beat-up Converse sneakers, and Blake continued to scowl. But as always, we turned to Fen.
“So you’re going?” he asked, smiling then, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Instead, they were big and green, wide open and transmitting everything he was feeling, like they had been when Dad died. “Fuck, Riley…”
“You did good,” Colt said, giving me a squeeze. “We’ll keep drilling you every night until exams—”
“God, how I wish we were actually drilling her,” Haze said with an exaggerated sigh, then winked at me. “You could pretend to be our omega, like we used to when we were kids. Once more for old time’s sake, though with considerably less—”
“Shut the fuck up, Haze,” Blake rumbled. I didn’t want to meet his eyes, those dark depths flashing now with so much I knew he’d never say. “So you’re gonna take this scholarship?”
“I have to,” I replied. “This is it. What I’ve been working for since…” I swallowed. “Since Dad died. I’ve got no future here. You’re going to take one of the omegas as a mate…” I glanced behind me to where Cheryl and her posse all sat, ostensibly completely oblivious to us. “And I don’t have it in me to be someone’s bitch.”
“Fuck, could you imagine?” Fen said, now with an honest-to-goodness smile. “Remember when Viviane was the first omega to reveal and started throwing her weight around and Riles—”
“Put her on her arse for beating up the year seven kids,” Blake said with a snort. “That was fucking glorious.”
I shook my head, finding myself smiling against my will, but that didn’t last for long. When I looked up, regarding each one of them, I said, “I can’t put the ruling omega on her arse, no matter who she might be. Your beasts won’t let that happen, for one. They’ll know her, your fated mate, and you’ll do anything to protect her. Anything. Friendships from the past…” There was a low rumble at that. “They won’t matter, and you know this.”
We’d all seen what we thought were rock-solid relationships fracture and disintegrate when people found their fated mates. While people revealed as alpha, beta, or omega at puberty and alphas and omegas shifted into wolves at some point in early adulthood, true mates came after. The bond was so intense, so complete, that loyalty, friendship, anything that was incompatible between mates was set aside, and I knew none of the Bordertown omegas would tolerate me around.
“This is why you’ve been pulling away from us,” Fen said in a low, dangerous tone, a growl rising in the others. “This is why you don’t want us around.”
“I’m just trying to meet my destiny head-on,” I said, getting to my feet, wrapping the sandwich up, ready to throw the rest away. “Yours is here, with one of the omegas, and mine is in the city.”
“Sit down and eat, beta,” Ryan said, and my knees buckled, my arse slamming down on the concrete bench.
“This is not what Dad wanted for me when he spoke to you,” I said, trying to fight his command but failing miserably. As if in support of his highhanded bullshit, my stomach rumbled in response. “He didn’t want you bossing me around, making me your little beta slave.”
“Oh, Riley…” Haze purred. “If we did that to you, you’d be putting something else entirely in your mouth.”