ALEX #3
Cursing quietly, I take a deep breath with a dose from my inhaler. My asthma is as bad as it was before I dated Bay, it chokes me every day, allergies plague me, eczema, everything has returned.
Slowly, I raise my hand and close my fingers around what I wear on a silver chain around my neck, a little soda can tab, the symbol of my relationship with Bay, as ridiculous as it sounds… I remember like yesterday the day he slipped it onto my finger and asked me to marry him.
I tighten my grip on the silver tab.
"Where are you, Bay," I whisper, "do you ever think about me, do you miss me?" I groan as tears burn under my eyelids.
Every day I want him back so badly, I am so heartbreakingly miserable, so desperately lonely, and nothing in my life is finding its place.
I finally swallow a bite of toast, grab my bag, and leave the house, heading toward campus.
Fortunately, the stretch I have to cover today is very short, only a street separates my house from the campus grounds, and it is a fairly busy one.
On the other side there is a wide open lawn I usually cross diagonally, and beyond it a parking lot, then the campus buildings begin.
Because the area is relatively open and cameras are everywhere, I feel somewhat safe on the way to the main building, but it gets much worse when I have to move between the different campus buildings because some of them are scattered deep inside the park where thick bushes and trees block camera views.
During the day I often have to circle between those buildings several times, pushing through the paths that cut through the wooded park.
Other students think the campus is beautiful, that it is so green, but for me it is a curse, I would prefer something shaved down to bare concrete if it meant I could at least feel safe.
Sometimes I feel like I am going to get cancer from all the constant stress I live under.
My health problems flare from that stress, always at full intensity, my skin is always itching, I constantly have stomach issues because of my food allergies, my life feels unbearable, zero prospects, zero chances for anything to change.
The decision to attempt suicide again is slowly forming inside me.
Where is all of this leading anyway?
The only area of my life where I succeed is academics, I am the top student of my year, and my professors are already encouraging me to pursue a mathematician’s path and stay to work at the college.
The idea of teaching students doesn’t tempt me much, but I will eventually need a job, and I really am good at math.
Classes go by in a similar blur and I go to lunch with Dereck and his boyfriend.
Sometimes I am tempted to ask him about Bay because I know they still see each other occasionally, and Dereck even plays with Bay at some concerts when Bay needs a second bassist.
There is one time when the question is on the tip of my tongue: whether Bay has someone, whether he has found another omega.
But I never ask because it really isn’t my business; we aren’t officially together, the marriage exists only on paper, I can have a boyfriend, he can have one too, nothing binds us anymore.
Well, something binds me, my love for him, which hasn’t faded, hasn’t diminished; it remains.
And I know it won’t change until the end of my days.
After lunch I have a few more hours of classes.
They pass slowly, and as it grows darker outside, my anxiety climbs, just like every day.
In my last class my gaze keeps drifting to the window, where dusk settles in and the shadows of the park trees grow deeper.
I am in a building in the farthest corner of campus, and I have a woods crossing ahead of me. I decide to join a group of students heading toward the dorms; unfortunately, that is the opposite direction and means I will have to take a long detour, but that is usually what I do.
Unfortunately, this time, when I pack my tablet into my bag and head toward the door to join the group of students leaving class, my professor, Martin, waves me over.
"Alex, come here, I need to talk to you. Professor Alvarez and I are looking for a third person to help write an article; we need someone to push through some exhausting statistics, so I won’t pretend we don’t need your help."
Of course I know how these collaborations with professors work when it comes to academic articles, the student always gets the least pleasant part of the work, the tedious, exhausting statistical analysis, but of course I nod and agree because if I plan to work at this college someday, I need to gather points and goodwill.
The professor starts explaining the article in detail while I shift from foot to foot, all the students have already left and we are the last two in the empty room.
Professor Martin talks and talks and talks, and I nod and nod, and it feels like it will never end, my irritation rising little by little, but I can’t cut him off mid-sentence.
He finally gives me all the necessary details and promises to send materials, so I am free to go, but at this hour there are no other students in the building. I am completely alone, and Professor Martin heads upstairs to the faculty offices so I can’t even walk through the park with him.
I feel my pulse rising as I step outside. There are some lamps near the building, but once the path dips into the park there are far fewer.
I swallow and hesitate for a moment, wondering if I should call campus security, but I had already called them several times recently in similar situations, after evening classes, when a sudden food allergy attack kept me in the bathroom and made me stay late.
Well, maybe I’ll manage somehow. Clenching my teeth, with trembling hands I adjust the bag on my shoulder and enter the winding paths.
I sense them almost immediately.
They are the whole reason I decided not to use suppressants, so that my sense of smell stays sharp and I can detect alphas from far away.
After about a hundred feet into the park, I’m almost certain they’re on my trail.
Twenty more feet and I reach a fairly dense thicket, my heart pounding wildly.
"Good evening, Mr. Strada," someone calls out, and… the oldest Tanner brother emerges from behind the dense wall of bushes.
The other two follow behind him, smirking.
I step back, my heart jumping to my throat.
I know that even if I try to run, they’ll catch me within a few dozen feet, my fitness is nonexistent and these are young alphas.
"What do you want?" I force out in a shaky voice.
They laugh.
"We knew patience would pay off."
"What do you want?!" I repeat, louder this time.
"A little fun with you, what do you think? You really believe that stupid restraining order counts? Maybe you remember it only applies to Jared, but we have free access to you."
"What do you even want from me, what kind of beef do you have with me, you hurt Jared, now what?!"
"We had big plans for Jared and you got in the way. We had people lined up and you kept ruining it."
"What plans?"
"That doesn’t matter. But who knows, maybe we’ll use you for something similar. You’re not ugly, and if you look past that messy hair and those ridiculous glasses, you’re actually a pretty decent omega." He tilts his head. "And your ass is probably extra tight. I doubt anyone has ever drilled it."
He would be surprised, but my hole has been drilled many, many times, that stupid thought shoots through my head.
Unfortunately, aside from that, I finally register what is about to happen to me.
"Leave me alone! You’re on campus grounds, there are cameras everywhere."
Another burst of laughter.
"We know how to get onto this campus without being caught on them, nobody walks through these paths at this hour…"
The chatting is over.
In the next second, the oldest Tanner lunges at me…
I let out a desperate squeal, and he knocks me to the ground with one shove. I try to flip onto my back right away, but he holds me down almost effortlessly with one hand.
His other hand hooks into my pants and starts yanking them down; pale fear sweeps through me, and I start screaming as loudly as I can, but the second one crouches beside me and clamps his hands over my mouth.
When my ass is already exposed, I hear a strange dull thud behind me and a sound like something’s breaking.
The hand pinning me down suddenly lets go.
That gives me enough momentum to twist onto my back and see what is happening.
One of the brothers is on the ground holding his arm near the elbow.
Another lies nearby and seems unconscious.
And the oldest one, who has just pushed himself to his feet, starts running like crazy.
A man is standing over them.
Wearing a mask.
I freeze, staring at him with a blank, stunned look, unable to understand what just happened.
The brother clutching his elbow scrambles up with some effort and grabs the other one under the arm, trying to hoist him up.
But the masked man has no intention of letting them get away with this.
The strike is so fast I barely catch it, and the middle Tanner, the one trying to lift his younger brother, collapses back to the ground, now both of them lying unconscious.
Then the man slowly turns toward me.
My eyes meet his, or more like meet the thin mesh covering his eyes, and everything goes quiet.
I inhale and catch the scent of an unfamiliar alpha, a foreign, mostly neutral scent that stirs neither negative nor positive reactions, the kind typical of people with low-to-half compatibility.
I don’t recognize the individual note of the scent; I’ve never smelled it before.
The man is very tall, taller than Bay by at least three inches, and Bay was solid, but this one is even broader and more massive.
He slowly lifts his hand and points toward the path leading to my house.
What the fuck?
He’s staying still, silently showing me the way out; it’s pretty obvious he wants me to leave.
"Tha… thank you," I manage to mumble.
I get to my feet and tug my pants up in a frantic motion.