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“Remember, Storm,” I heard the headmistress purr. “What happens next is allyourfault.”
The office door slammed shut behind me as they pulled me through it and into the hallway. My screams turned to wails as I tangibly felt the distance between Storm and me growing. Tears tracked down my cheeks and splashed onto the shirt I was wearing. My hair was a tangled mess as I bucked and fought to get out of the grip of whoever had me.
Omegas were in the hallway, waiting for their classes to start, and they all stopped walking and stared wide-eyed at me and my disgrace. My heels dragged along the marble flooring and my voice echoed off the tall ceilings.
I heard a door open and then I was unceremoniously tossed inside a small room. It looked like it had been a utility closet at some point; it was so tiny. I scrambled to catch my footing and turned toward the quickly shutting door. The last thing I saw as it clicked shut and the lock snapped was Hilary’s gleeful face as she turned to her friends, gossiping about what had just happened.
My fists beat on the thick wooden door and I tried futilely to open it. My tears poured from my eyes, my heart feeling like it was breaking in half. I spun and my back slid down as I collapsed into a heap on the floor, sobbing. How could they do this to us? Why were they being so thickheaded?
I wasn’t sure how much time passed while I was locked in the little room. I thought I dozed off and on as the heat inside rose to a sweltering level, being there were no air ducts or windows. The only light was a single small bulb in the ceiling. Finally, after what seemed like hours, I heard the lock click.
I pushed myself to my feet and positioned myself to run out as soon as the door opened. Unfortunately, they anticipated this. When it swung wide, I darted out and right into the waiting arms of a guard. He spun me around, banding my arms around my middle. I struggled fruitlessly against him.
“There, there, little omega. Calm down,” he said, his chest rumbling with a purr in an attempt to calm me.
Fuck. He was an alpha. Alphas weren’t allowed on school property, not unless it was the mixer. His purr did nothing for me. It merely agitated me more. I didn’t want his purr. I wanted my Storm.
“Feisty little one, aren’t ya?” he said, dragging me along against my will once again.
“Let me go!” I snarled.
“Hmm, no can do. You’re on the next bus out of here, I’m afraid. It’s my job to make sure you get there in one piece. I don’t want to, but I will tie you up if I have to. Let’s not make this harder than it has to be, huh?”
Something in his words shocked me into stillness. My struggles ceased, and I ran his words over and over in my head, trying to work out what I was reacting to.
“Wait,” I whispered. “Next bus? Where are they sending me?”
“Home, omega. You’ve been expelled.”
Chapter23
Storm
Ithought getting sent home, disgraced and expelled, was the worst of it. I fully intended to find Riley as soon as we left the school grounds and go get my girl. Sadly, I wasn’t able to. When that sham of an academy sent her packing, they had put only a few articles of clothing in her bag, leaving the heaps and heaps of things I had purchased for her behind. Including her phone. I had no way of contacting her.
Too late, I realized I had never asked where she was from. What her hometown was called. Nothing. I hadn’t bothered to find out more about where she lived prior to coming to the ORA, too focused on our connection.
I hadn’t stopped trying to find her, though. Every day, I scoured the internet, hoping for some hint to where she was. There wasn’t much to go on. I knew her full name was Riley Druman and she had two brothers. I knew that one of her brothers was a beta and the other an alpha, but even that didn’t help me. It was like they didn’t have an online footprint at all.
My parents were trying to help as much as they could, too. When I had come through the front door, blazing with my anger, they had jumped to assist me. I had been so furious, I couldn’t get the words out for hours about what had happened. Once I did, though, they were just as infuriated.
Papa Tony had grabbed the phone and started dialing. As soon as the ORA picked up, he started roaring down the line. He ripped them up one side and down the other, livid on my behalf. How dare the school kick us out or say that we couldn’t be together? How dare they try to dictate who could be together and who couldn’t? Who put them in charge of fate?
It didn’t matter. They refused to listen to anyone but their own close-minded opinions. They told him they had every right to keep us apart, that they weren’t willing to let our littlecrushget in the way of their perfect ratio of graduating omegas with bonded packs. When my other dads heard what the school was saying, their anger grew.
Within seconds, they had pulled all their ongoing donations to the school and stopped any payments for the year for my tuition. They were going to revoke the scholarship money as well, but I begged them not to. That money was helping others get the education we all deserved, and I couldn’t bear it if they pulled it and sent the students packing.
My dads listened and begrudgingly kept sending the funding for that program. When I told them, however, how misapplied the money was, they were up in arms once again. They had never intended for the scholarship students to be treated as poorly as Riley had been.
They couldn’t believe the restrictive limits placed on her and what she could get. Also, they hadn’t forgotten how the school conveniently hadn’t had a room or bed for her upon her arrival, as if they were hoping she would just leave. I knew that if my parents donated for the program next year, they would make some serious changes to how they allowed the money to be spent.
After that disastrous phone call with the school, my parents began helping me in my search for Riley. They hired PI after PI, but no one could find her. The ORA’s system was locked down so tight, no one could get into it to find out information.
Now, it was already August, three excruciating months since I had held Riley in my arms. Since I had breathed in her delicious perfume. Everything was dimmer now, without her here with me. I was almost feral in my need to find her. My heart was aching from being apart from her. It was worse than when I’d been home for spring break. At least then I had a silver lining to look forward to. I had an end date for when I could see her again. Now, I had nothing.
No news of her. Nothing to go on. I was barely sleeping, so focused on trying to locate my girl. When I did sleep, I burrowed into my nest here, surrounded by clothing that still had her scent embedded within the fibers. I found it was the only way I could get any rest: if I wrapped myself up in what I had of hers and tried to imagine she was with me.
I hoped that wherever she was, Riley was doing better than I was.
