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“You are in the Dunning Building. Top floor, room 534.”
“Okay, thank you.”
I turned to leave and she scoffed, stopping me. “Don’t you want to know how to get into the room?”
“Oh, yes, please.”
“Your fingerprint is your key. Come here and put it on this pad.”
She thrust out a black rectangle at me and I hurried over awkwardly. I placed my pointer finger on the pad, and it whirled once and then lit up under my digit. On the woman’s computer screen, I could see my fingerprint registering as it showed up on my file.
I flushed bright red when I saw my name because written in bold red lettering were the words “Scholarship Student.” When the receptionist pulled the device back to her, I stuffed my hands into my pockets, embarrassed.
“Was there anything else?”
“Oh. Um, yes. Where is the Dunning Building exactly?”
Rolling her eyes, the woman answered, “Look at your map. I can’t do everything for you.”
“Right, okay. Um, sorry.”
I scrambled to leave the office and her odious presence. Outside the stifling room, I took a minute to calm my thundering heart. Then, I pulled my duffle to my front and dug through my few belongings, looking for the welcome packet I had shoved in there.
I found it squashed at the bottom of the bag. I opened it and located the crumbled paper map, my eyes running around it, looking for the building I needed. There it was, the farthest one from me, go figure.
At least I didn’t have a ton of bags to carry there.I clutched my map in my hand and rushed outside. I hurried in the direction I hoped was right. On the way there, I couldn’t help but think,If they needed my fingerprint for the door and I had to go there to give it to them, why was she such abitchto me about coming for help?
Chapter3
Storm
Move-in day was the worst. People were everywhere, and their scents plugged up my nose and leaked into my room, my sanctuary. My nose wrinkled, and I went to the en suite to grab one of the academy-provided towels. They were much too rough for my skin, but it would work well as a smell blocker.
I knelt and jammed the towel at the bottom of the door, blocking the gap between the wood and the floor. Suddenly, I heard screaming in the hallway. Someone was getting the riot act. Damn my omega curiosity. I rose and kicked the towel out of the way just enough to crack open my door and see what was happening. When I saw who was causing the racket, I rolled my eyes so hard, I swore I saw my brain.
Hilary. Of course. We’d barely been back ten minutes and she had already started her normal crap. I wondered who the unfortunate victim of Hilary’s wrath was this time.
I opened my door the rest of the way and stepped into the hallway. I wasn’t the only one watching the spectacle. Hilary didn’t seem to mind. In fact, it looked like she enjoyed the attention. Her hair was flying around her head, giving her a wild, crazed look. She yelled at the top of her lungs at a poor beta staffer who looked utterly flustered and terrified. The staff member didn’t know how to handle Hilary.
I leaned against my doorframe. It was only a matter of time until I stepped in to help, but I wanted a little more information first. What could have possibly gotten Hilary so worked up already? A flicker of movement behind the staffer caught my eye. Standing half-hidden behind the beta was a short omega.
An absolutely exquisite omega.
She had her long blonde curls tied into a ponytail, accentuating her cheekbones and gorgeous violet eyes. Eyes that looked on the verge of tears. She should be proud, sure of herself. Unfortunately, it looked like something had chewed this omega up and spat her out. Her posture screamed for help.
It was obvious she didn’t want to be the center of all the attention. She kept her head bowed, though her eyes flicked up. The omega didn’t meet anyone’s gaze before she returned hers to the wooden floorboards beneath her feet. That wasn’t right. I perked up my ears and listened to what Hilary’s tantrum was about.
“I’m not sharing my room with a scholarship student. Forget it. My sponsors paid a large amount of money to send me here, and I shouldn’t have to share my space with anyone else. This is ridiculous. I refuse. You cannot bring her in here. Find her somewhere else to stay. This is my room,mynest. Not anyone else’s, and especially nothers. Who knows what diseases she has?”
The short omega flinched at Hilary’s words, and my eyes narrowed. What the hell was wrong with Hilary? Treating another omega like that? In the next minute, I mentally chastised myself. Hilary would be the one to treat her that way. Anyone without money or power was beneath her as far as she was concerned. It didn’t matter if they had the same designation as her.
The staff member stammered out an apology. “There must have been a mistake, Ms. Lawrence. Just one moment, let me see what I can do.”
“Mistake?!” Hilary screeched, causing more than one person to plug their ears from the shrill pitch. “You get paid enough to assure that there won’t be anymistakes. Just wait until my father hears about this. I’m appalled, absolutely appalled.”
The worker was typing furiously on her tablet, but the look in her eyes let me know that what she was going to say next wasn’t going to go over very well.
“I-I’m really sorry, miss. It looks like we had an uneven number of scholarship approvals this year. Ms. Druman got placed in with you because we are short a room—”
