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Ifelt like I was coming apart at the seams. I didn’t know what was right anymore, but I knew I was fucking up. I’d spent so long trying to get here, and then I’d gone into the room of another alpha to… Fuck.
I had to keep my sights set on the goal: my mates. No matter what Dusk made me feel or made me do, he wasn’t my end game. But escape was looking unlikely, and I couldn’t shake the inescapable worry of what would happen when Dusk and Umbra finally caught my scent.
Yesterday had proven to me how much I was living at Dusk’s mercy, the echo of his alpha bark still setting my hairs on end when I thought of it. I’d shaken the command, but for a moment when he’d told me not to move, I hadn’t been able to at all.
It was more reason to find a way to reach my mates.
In the late morning, Dusk and I left the apartment to go to the academy hall and pick up our class schedules. While the schedules were released electronically (not that I had a phone or a laptop), the main hall was set up for socialising. It was a large room, with tall arched windows and an impossibly high ceiling. The specialties had booths laid out in different places, and the air was full of the chatter of students as they loitered. The scents of alphas and omegas tangled with the room’s scent of old books and aged stone.
I managed to act foolish enough to the lady at the desk that she let me rifle through the schedules myself, and I caught a glimpse of Flynn and Eric’s schedule before finding my own.
Scanning the page, I committed as much to memory as I could before handing her the folder. My breath was stolen from my lungs as I backed awayfrom the table and hit a solidsomeonebehind me. Passionfruit drowned my senses, and I spun, eyes wide.
Eric.
Had he seen me looking at his schedule? Surely not… right? I’d just tell him it was an accident.
He was the tallest in his pack, and his sweep of dark brown hair was easy to spot in a crowd. He was also the quietest, though his intense green eyes seemed to pick up everything. My heart tripped over itself as that intense gaze found mine, and he lifted a hand to steady me.
He offered me a smile as I stammered out an apology, and my cheeks blazed as his scent of passion fruit scrambled my brain. I hadn’t ever seen Eric smile, and it was heart stopping, a flash of ivory that lit up his usually stoney expression. But in the next moment, dark opium joined us, and Dusk’s hand was slipping around my waist. Any thoughts of small talk died from my mind.
They spoke for a while about Arkology (I tucked away the tidbit that Eric was looking forward to Aura Studies, which also happened to be my favourite Arkology subclass) and I noticed how often his eyes slid down to Dusk’s touch even though they weren’t talking about me at all.
Did it bother him that Dusk was touching me? The emerald green of his eyes was so impassive, it made him hard to read. Whydidn’the smile much? Was it something I could maybe do something about when I finally got to them? If he could offer me the world, I should be able to offer him that.
It was hard not to stare dumbly. He had smooth, pale skin, a lean face, and his teeth were so straight. Dusk had irritatingly pretty teeth, but I thought Eric’s werejustabit straighter. Perfect, actually. He must have had braces or something.
And already, he’d smiled for me.
I didn’t think I’d seen him do that for Roxy.
But… how upset would he be if he knew what I’d done with Dusk yesterday?
It’s something Dusk couldn’t understand. There was so much more to this than just a normal scent match. I needed this Lincoln pack more than any omega had ever needed a scent match. There were chains lurking in every direction but for the one with my mates.
After we returned to the apartment, I spent the day curled up at the end of the couch, examining the classes I was going to attend and making a study plan. All the while I tried to ignore the fact that Umbra and Dusk existed, which was difficult, since the apartment was painfully open concept, and the only private spaces were the bathrooms, bedrooms, and nest.
I tried to focus on how many classes I was excited about. I’d applied for every Arkology class the school offered, and been accepted to a good number. Dusk and Umbra, it seemed, had done the same, and aside from the two Omega Studies classes, I was with at least one of them around the clock. The good news, however, was that I knew we were also sharing many of those classes with my mates.
When dinner came around, Dusk cooked for three. I was primed to reject it when there was a knock on the front door.
“There, Gem.” Dusk announced, setting the brown bag on the counter before tugging a note from his pocket and putting it on the fridge. He grabbed a sharpie and wrote at the top:
Shatter’s favourite food.
Below it was my scrawl:
Anything Dusk Varis doesn’t make.
I scowled as he finished serving up for him and Umbra. But I tried to plaster a pleased expression on my face as I approached the dinner table and took the bag.
Oh. It was McDonalds. IlikedMcDonalds. It had always been a treat, and it was definitely better than the stupid pot pie meal Dusk had made.
“Umbra or me?” Dusk asked when they’d finished eating. I’d remained silent, barely touching my food.
“What?” I asked.
“No couch tonight. If you won’t take the nest, pick one of us.”
