Her eyes had swollen like balloons, and I’d thought they’d pop right out of her face and float away.
“They’re highly trained and deadly efficient,” I’d added, hoping to appeal to her alpha tendencies.
But based on Mother's reaction, you'd think I'd have suggested camping out in a tent on the battleground. Her jaw had dropped like an anchor.
Of course, she'd been concerned for entirely different reasons than safety.
"You areunmarried,Brylee." Her front teeth had clenched together so hard that I'd expected them to crack.
"Fine. Shotgun wedding," I'd countered.
Three vases. Three vases had shattered to smithereens, giving their lives for my sarcasm. I'd relented when she'd gone after a fourth.
“Fine. Get a camera crew in too. Might as well film this disaster. Live-action horror story?—”
She’d hung up on me mid-sentence.
So, here I am at Darling. About to pack up and leave this place forever.
My throat tightens unexpectedly. I reach for the base of my throat, gripping lightly. My gaze roams over to the loose stone near the fountain where I first hid my cloak to escape this place.
Softer times.
When my problems were more innocent.
"You okay?" Luka steps closer, eyes dark with concern.
I want to tell him the truth. That it feels like I'm caught in a riptide and being swept out to sea by forces beyond my control. By this brutal, shoving wave that's about to drown me. But if I start to talk, I'll break down. And that's the last thing I want to do when I have to go face the wicked witch.
So, I give him a wobbly smile and lie. "Yeah. This is all just a lot of change happening so quickly. I'm fine. Let's go."
His brow furrows, but he doesn’t push as I take his arm so he can help me navigate the steps. The forest-green bodycon midi dress I'm wearing doesn't make them the easiest to handle. But I tried to pick an outfit that my mother would approve of.
I need her to see me and dismiss me from her thoughts.
See omega-like compliance and nothing else because I need her to turn her attention to other things.
Inhaling the perfumed air, I try to smooth a serene smile onto my lips as the doors open and two guards nod in greeting.
We proceed through the grand entry and up the stairs, and I try not to notice the interested looks of all the other omegas who pause what they're doing to gape.
When we finally reach the sanctuary of my room, and Luka and Colter are assembling boxes as I sort through my wardrobe, the bathroom door flies open.
"Bry!" Harper shrieks shrilly as she catapults herself into me, arms wrapping tight. "I'm sosososo glad you're okay!"
Warmth suffuses my chest as I hug her back, squeezing harder than I mean to. She lets out a tiny yelp.
"Sorry. Same."
We separate and stare at each other, wearing matching grins. She's in the typical Darling skirt and blouse today, with her hair pulled back in a sleek bun. And even though I don't really want to walk down to class with her, I feel a tiny pinch of regret that I won't be doing that ever again.
"Guys?" I ask, because I can see eight thousand questions brimming in my roommate's eyes that she will never, ever ask in front of alphas.
Harper's a much better omega than I am that way.
I glance over at my men, and without even saying anything aloud, Colter nods, a smile visible beneath the edge of his mask before he grips Luka's shoulder and navigates him toward the door. My other alpha quickly catches on.
"We'll go get coffee. Harper, how do you like it?" Luka asks.
