Chapter 58
WREN
Shit.
I’m struggling to keep up with the giant, bristling Alpha. Atlas’s strides are easily twice the length of mine, and I have to almost run in an effort to rush after him.
He opens the passenger side, like he keeps insisting on doing—as if I’m the weakest Omega to ever exist, utterly incapable of opening my own goddamn door—and with a resigned sigh, I get back in his truck.
Looks like my plans to attend classes today are about to be tossed out the window.
I puff my cheeks out and let my head drop back against the seat.
This is categorically unfair. My throat tightens, heat pricks little stinging barbs behind my eyes as Atlas starts driving us away from campus.
Everything about this is bullshit, and I’m ruing the day I decided to enroll at Willow Falls.
I’m only bringing complications and potential scandal pouring down like scalding oil on everyone around me.
There’s every chance that what just happened could also come back on Nikita and Gabbie. It wouldn’t take a giant leap for a reporter with a grudge to start digging into everyone in my life.
Pulling out my phone, I send a quick text of warning to our group chat.
Without going into any details, I tell them to ignore any phone calls from unknown numbers, and not to speak to any media or answer prying questions if they’re approached on campus.
They’re smart, I trust them to keep my secrets safe, but you never know how these snakes will slither their way inside without anyone suspecting.
I also send a quick message to Lark with the same details.
Oh, god.
I let my phone slip from my fingers into the side pocket of my bag, wanting nothing more than to curl up in a ball.
My vision is frazzled, even though it’s not exactly blinding sun outside, I feel like I want to squeeze my eyelids shut to relieve the soreness lingering there.
Right now, I wish it was possible to pull the drapes and hide, blocking out the glare.
“You see?” Atlas finally lets out a growl of frustration. “This is exactly the type of shit I’ve been trying to avoid.”
Yeah, if he wasn’t already intending to completely push me away, now it’s inevitable. I blink rapidly. The last thing I want to do is break down in front of my brother’s best friend. Not after he pretty much rejected me at point-blank range.
My skin prickles, feeling tight and uncomfortable.
“You see… I’m no good for you,” he repeats, more to himself than anything. With one tattooed hand gripping the wheel, Atlas rubs the other back and forth over his hair.
“Why are you pushing me away?” I ask quietly.
“You’re better off without me.”
His words pierce me like a knife to the gut.
A surge of lancing pain shoots through my lower stomach, so swift and cruel, I almost double over.
Instead, I white-knuckle the seatbelt restraining me.
I’m ready to claw at the inside of this vehicle to be released; every noise feels too loud, my clothes are too scratchy, the pounding in my head is only heightened by the empty feeling in my core.
So empty.
“That seems convenient.” The words drop from my lips like they’re wisps of ash. “After you finally seemed ready to agree to be part of this. Sure changed your tune real fast,” I hiss. It feels difficult to talk or concentrate. My mouth is dry. So dry.
I’m dry and empty. Nothing but a husk. A shell. I need my Alphas to fill me up and make me feel whole again.
“Wren… don’t. Just don’t.” Beside me, Atlas’s voice is strained.
My skin erupts into a blazing wildfire. I’m burning from the inside out.
“No, don’t you dare give me the Wren routine.
” Twisting in my seat, I glare at him, ignoring the way my head is throbbing with the effort to talk and move.
“You know what? I’m just as scared. I’m just as frightened of what this could do to your career, to my scholarship, to my brother.
I’m constantly worried, but I know that even though I’m tempted to, I’m not running away. ”
By the time I force all those words out, I feel like I want to claw the offending, suffocating clothes from my back.
Atlas makes a sudden noise, pulling off to the side of the road. I don’t care where we are. I don’t care about anything except getting away from this overwhelm rising fast from my toes.
“Then you’re just proving my point.” He brings us to a skidding halt.
I feel lightheaded.
I feel…
“This is why I’m no good for you. I’m no good for anyone.” He whips around to look at me. A muscle pulses furiously in the side of his jaw.
Atlas looks at me like he wants to devour me alive.
I want him to.
Over and over and never stop.
My blood chants his name.
It’s like he’s unlocked a secret door I didn’t know existed. One that leads to a place long hidden, that I can’t quite make out, but there’s a rush of something from the other side that pulls me down into this dizzying spiral.
All that heat and gut-wrenching hollowness morphs into something else.
Craving.
Pure, potent, craving.
“You feeling okay?”
“Mmm?” I lick my lips.
Need. Lust. Desire. That’s what I’m feeling.
“Are you okay, peaches?”
I’m distracted, yes. His lips are distracting. His mouth. I need more of that. Want to touch. Taste. Bite. Stroking his jaw, yes, that’s what I want. I want to trace a finger over his tattooed rose on the side of his neck. I want to lick it.
“Hey.” Scowling Alpha’s deep grooves between his brow soften. “Hey… are you sure you’re feeling okay?” I poke those furrowed lines to try and make them go away completely. He catches my hand and wraps it inside his own, which is a million times bigger than mine.
“Wren?”
Shaking the fog away, I find myself blinking fast, trying to make sense of what just happened. “I think… blood sugar… forgot breakfast.”
Did I faint?
“You didn’t forget. I know you ate earlier with Renfro and Brennan. What do you need? Shall we get you something to eat?”
Yes.
You.
Right here.
“Peaches…”
My Alpha knows my scent. My strong, silent Alpha. He will make this better. I trust him. Need him.
“You’re not making sense.”
Scowling Alpha is looking at me with concern. When all he needs to do is show me his dick.
“Oh, fuck,” he chokes. “Peaches, I think you’re… I think this is your heat.”
I think…
I think he’s…
“Mine.”