Chapter 14
Fourteen
RYLAN
T he address Violet gave me ends up being one of the large dorm buildings on UCLA’s campus, tucked away from most of the academic buildings. It’s large and overbearing, though I imagine some find it more awe-inspiring. The orange brickwork contrasts with the green landscaping. Two young women sit on the steps leading to the main entrance, and they pause in their giggling over something on one of their phones as I pass by them.
They don’t say anything until I’m back out of earshot. I roll my eyes and stretch my neck, trying to remember how to fucking do this. How did someone start a relationship?
It’s not like I could really just expect her to suck me off the way Jasper did. And that still resulted in a nasty fight between me and Dominic. Though there wasn’t really anything to stop another one of those from happening right now.
I shake my head, forcing a deep breath to clear my thoughts. The woman at the front desk waves as I pass by but doesn’t ask any questions. There are benefits to being clearly older and appearing confident. As long as I didn’t look like I was lost, I’d doubt anyone would have the courage to call me out for being here.
Her dorm is on the fourth floor, tucked into the farthest corner of the building. The door is decorated with photographs, mostly polaroids filled with sunsets and profiles and tons of different people laughing. I knock on one of the only open spots available and tuck my hands into my pockets, clutching the small box stashed there.
A redheaded woman answers the door, her hair pulled back into two long braids that track down her head and fall below her shoulders and out of sight. Her simple white crop top doesn’t quite reach her floral knee length skirt, a thin patch of pale, freckled skin peaking out with each small movement she makes.
“Is Violet here?” I ask, clearing my throat.
The woman raises an eyebrow but opens the door.
“He’s here, Vi,” she calls out.
She moves deeper into the shared space, leaving me in the doorway without any kind of greeting at all. A door opens to the left, and Violet takes a single step into the living room. The woman walks up to her and takes her hand. A cell phone sits on the coffee table, forgotten by both girls until it starts vibrating with an incoming call. The redhead looks back at it and purses her lips.
“It’s Samantha. They probably need me to deal with something downstairs. You good?” she asks.
Violet nods and drops the woman’s hand. “I’ll text you if I’m going to be late, Fae.”
The other woman— Fae —nods as she answers the phone and settles into the lone chair tucked into the far corner of the room. Violet crosses the space, stopping in front of me, her eyes shrewd as she takes me in.
I hold out my hand without comment, trying to gauge how she’s feeling after the video call devolved last night. It takes her a minute of indecision before she takes it. I lace our fingers together and pull her into me, running my nose along her neck and marking her with my scent without making a big deal of it.
Her breath hitches, but she doesn’t scent.
Damn scent blockers .
She twists around me, grabbing a small purse hung beside the door without dropping my hand, guiding us out of the dorm and down to one of the side entrances of the building. Another group of girls congregate near this one, spread out on the grass.
“Are we waiting for a ride share?” she asks when we’re about a dozen feet from the building.
“It’s just a couple blocks,” I say. “Shit, sorry. I can order one if you’d like?”
I’m so used to walking everywhere, even after six months of living in the large estate Dominic owns out in Brentwood, I didn’t think to double check if she would be all right with the walk. She shakes her head, tucking her hair behind her ear.
“I’m fine,” she says. “Just wanted to make sure I didn’t need to get us to an easier place for someone to pick us up.”
I squeeze her hand and start us toward the edge of campus. Everyone and their damn cat seems to be out today. Groups of people sit on low brick walls or play various games on the wide stretches of grass. All of them seem to be in a good mood, laughing and smiling.
“Finals finished today,” Violet says without actually looking toward me. “Everyone’s enjoying the time off before move out next weekend.”
Fair enough. I guide her around a group of guys playing hacky sack in the center of the large circular pathway.
Violet grows steadily more tense beside me, and it sets those instincts on edge. I look around, taking in everything more thoroughly, trying to figure out what’s made her anxious.
“Hey, Violet!” A guy comes toward us. His dark hair is parted down the center and falls to his ears. Combined with the polo and shorts and leather necklace, he’s practically a walking neon sign for fuckboys everywhere. Violet freezes beside me, her hold on my hand now closer to a death grip. Her face is blank, but even I can tell that her eyes are wary.
The asshole doesn’t seem to notice, though. Or care. His gaze takes me in, his lip curling for a minute, before he focuses on her again. He stops a few feet away and tucks his hand into his pocket. His voice is bright and about two levels too loud for the environment, and it attracts the attention of those closest to us.
“Saw your dad in the news,” he says. “Seems like the new project is really taking off! Was wondering if?—”
Tugging on Violet’s hand, I step in front of her, hiding her from view. She doesn’t resist me at all. The movement is so smooth, you’d think we’d rehearsed it before.
Sometimes I forget just how ingrained the instincts are.
She trusts you .
My stomach flips. The possessive growl builds in my chest, though I keep it from becoming as loud as the asshole is. The smile falls away from his infuriatingly pretty face. Why is it that the assholes are always the pretty ones? At least Jasper broke that mold.
A growl builds in his own throat, nearly as loud as mine. “You got something to prove, asshole?” he snarls, quiet enough now that no one else will hear him.
“Only have something to prove if you’re not going to figure out she’s uninterested,” I say, the same deadly calm as him, letting my accent thicken to add to the effect. Here, in LA, sometimes sounding like an outsider can be helpful.
He takes the bait—hook, line, and sinker. “Like you would fucking know what she wants,” he snarls, closing the distance between us. “You think you can just show up here and decide she’s yours? Did you convince her to fuck you already, too? You so desperate for an Omega that will tolerate you, you have to fish around the local campuses, asshole?”
The growl rips through my chest, louder than it’s ever been.
Another guy comes up next to him, his face pale, and grabs his elbow, trying to pull him away from me. Violet’s hold on my hand is a death grip, and it’s the only thing keeping me from completely losing my shit on the asshole.
“Eric, man, it was match week, remember? Shut up before he lays you into the ground,” the guy whispers, loud enough that I can hear him.
Eric snarls but takes a step away.
“It was announced Thursday. I told you to pay attention to the announcements,” the other guy says. “Let’s get out of here before campus security gets called. You know that won’t look good for you.”
It’s like a switch flips. All at once, the lethal energy emanating from the other Alpha is gone, replaced instead by an easy-going feel I don’t believe for a single fucking second.
“Hey, sorry, man,” he says, raising his hands up in surrender, adopting that overly loud volume again. If I hadn’t seen the feral gaze from before, I’d be half-convinced he was actually apologetic. “Didn’t realize now was a bad time. I’ll just…”
He trails off as the growl gets louder. I take a step toward him, snarling.
Didn’t know it was a bad time? Does he think I’m a goddamn moron? He singled her out in a public place where he assumed she’d have no option but to talk with him. If I can tell that, then those around us can, too.
And then he decided he could take me, too, the fucking dumbass. I’m not Dominic, but I’m not fucking helpless. I’d have him in the ground before he could find anyone to help him out.
“Rylan,” Violet whispers. “Let it go.”
I force my body to relax, though the growl doesn’t stop. A few people closest to us have their phones pulled out and pointed toward us. As I focus on more than the asshole in front of me, the charged silence of the crowd sinks in. There’s a growing sense of anticipation in the group surrounding us.
Hell, the last thing I need is to get into a fucking fist fight when I’m trying to handle a skittish Omega. Switching my hold, I guide Violet around to my other side, keeping me between her and Fuckboy Extraordinaire. He tries to lean around me, and I growl again, curling my lips back. He blanches, his eyes widening to the point I can see white all the way around them, and takes a quick step back.
Everyone else gives us a wide berth, some even skittering out of our way despite not being in our path of travel at all.
“Sorry,” I mutter as we cross the street and head toward the beach.
She shakes her head. “Don’t be. Some of those people need to remember that there’s more than just a label with designations. Especially Eric. He should know better than to try to approach an Omega very clearly with another Alpha.”
She spits his name like it’s bitter on her tongue, and that thing in my chest relaxes at her obvious dislike of him. The need to scent mark her again is strong, though. Breathing deep through my nose and out through my mouth takes the edge of it off as we cross the street.
“He’s bothered you before?”
I switch us so I’m walking on the outside of the sidewalk.
She nods and sighs. “Has been trying for the last year to get on my good side so I’ll put in a good word for him with my father,” she explains after a minute. “Or at least… I assume that’s why he’s been pursuing me.”
I guide her up the street a few blocks before stepping into one of the small local cafés in the area.
“Oh, I love this one,” she whispers. It’s so low, I don’t think she expects me to hear her.
Good . Snooping through her Instagram last night like a fucking creep was useful, then.
“Why does Eric want a good word with your father? And why does he think you’ll give it?”
She blows out a breath and cocks an eyebrow. “Starting out with easy questions, I see. Did the packet give you all the basics, so you figured you’d skip straight to the heavier topics?”
Her voice grows brittle, a thread of anger twisting through it. I frown, stopping her just inside the door, twisting her around so she faces me.
“What?” I ask her. “No. I was just trying to figure out if I need to make sure someone’s around so I don’t smash Fuckboy Extraordinaire’s head into the pavement next time I show up to take you out somewhere.”
Her eyes widen at my outburst.
After a long moment, she nods and squeezes my hand.
“Sorry,” she murmurs.
I shake my head. Something clearly has her on the defense. Jasper, maybe? Though my asking about some random asshole of an Alpha that goes to the same school as her couldn’t really be related. Jasper hasn’t ever stepped on UCLA’s campus as far as I know, and that asshole Alpha sure as fuck doesn’t run in the same groups as my lover.
She clears her throat and gets into the short line.