Chapter 27
NEVEN
I’ve been surrounded by hurt people for a long time. There is something about the pain that people constantly carry that makes me see them that much more.
I see it in Reed, how he limits himself due to his designation. In Asher, and how undeserving he feels because his condition makes him feel like an outsider. Soren and his brothers’ reputation tarnishing his.
Even in myself, I feel it. How lost I feel about the direction of my life. How aimless I was until the group of us found each other.
Today was the first day I truly saw it in Esper. And I fucking hate it.
Carrying her was more for selfish reasons. My alpha needed to feel as if he was helping his omega, and I needed time to figure out how to fix this. Fix those tears streaming down her face. The painful sobs wracking her body.
I needed them to stop. Emotions don’t work that way.
A box of fresh chocolate chip cookies isn’t gonna solve her problems, but it's a start.
It took everything in me not to storm in that damn office and rip whoever the fuck came into my field of vision first to shards.
But this isn’t the Stone Age. More importantly, my omega needed me in a different way. I couldn’t be selfish and try to handle this like a man. I needed to handle it like an alpha. Like a leader.
For that, Fleur gets to see another day.
Back in Esper’s dorm room, I open my laptop as she curls into my side with her phone propped up on my chest, one of her ASMR videos pulled up on low volume.
I read that omegas nearing their heats are more emotional, their hormones flaring and even minor things feeling that much more raw. Could be that was why Esper felt this interview so strongly. Why she need the extra comfort.
Either way, I’m more than happy to provide it.
“You can play it louder,” I say, opening my latest assignment, writing code for a simple keyboard game. It’s something I’ve been able to do since I was twelve, but that's alright. I’ll have to be patient when it comes to the university’s curriculum.
It’s nice not to have to work on something complex anyways so I can keep a closer eye on the omega next to me.
“It’s okay, I just—my ears hurt so I don’t want to wear headphones.”
I shake my head despite her not being able to see me. “I don't mind the tingly taps, go ahead and bump up the volume.”
“You’re sure?”
“I wouldn’t have said it if I wasn’t.” She shifts her head, her eyes peering into mine. Shining, glassed over with unshed tears. I nod again. She slowly looks back down to her phone, a video of a woman squishing slime covered in varying layers of wax, and hits the volume button once.
“Again,” I say and she obeys. I know it's the right volume when she snuggles in more, and my chest blooms with satisfaction.
We settle into a comfortable bubble. Me working on my laptop and her trying not to fall asleep to her ASMR video. I could stay like this forever.
It lasts about an hour, the calmest, most peaceful hour of my life, when a sharp knock comes to her door.
“Do you know anyone who knocks like that?” I mumble pressing a quick kiss to the top of her head.
“No,” she says, following behind me as I get up. None of the guys would knock like that, making me think it’s someone we don’t know or something serious. Either way, this is the last thing my omega needs right now.
I’m about to tell whoever it is just that when I see her RA standing behind the dorm’s Resident Director, who I recognize from my research when I learned this was where Esper stayed.
Knowledge is power and all.
“Esper Malent?” the director calls, and Esper steps around me, much to my dismay. Esper is in fuzzy pajama bottoms with little bows all over them and one of Soren’s t-shirts that hangs well past her hips and off her shoulder.
“Yes?” Esper answers. By the director’s stern brow and the RA’s frown, this isn’t going to be good.
The director sighs, her posture stiff as he launches into a clearly memorized speech. “You are being removed from the dorms. You have failed to follow the rules and therefore have been removed from the program—”
“What? What do you mean?” Esper sputters. Her hand grips mine tight, her long nails digging in my hand, and I can’t tell if she’s trying to calm herself down or me. My anger wants to answer first. Wanting to slam the door in both of their faces while telling them to fuck off.
“Rules are important here at White Pine Crest, and you can’t seem to follow them.”
“What rules?” I ask, and that makes the director roll her eyes.
“Guests,” she answers, raising both her brows and nodding toward me. “And unauthorized decor.” I follow the director's eyeline, and the fairy lights around the room have the gall to flicker.
“It's visiting hours though,” Esper says and the director shakes her head.
“It wasn’t last night, and with the multiple complaints regarding guests being at this dorm, and the disturbance, we’ve decided—”
“Complaints from who?” I ask.
Who the hell…
“You know I can’t say.”
“So one person?” I ask again, trying to get a read on her, and by the silence I can correctly assume it’s one person. But who?
“Sir,” she snaps and my alpha growls. She only scoffs at me, knowing I can't do anything to her.
Not in the moment at least.
“Please, this is between Esper Malent and White Pine Crest—”
“Fuck this shit,” I turn, dragging Esper with me a bit as I reach for a bag under her bed and start packing her blankets in it. I’m not sure what she needs, but I can’t listen to this absolute fucking bullshit.
“Esper, maybe it's best if you try just being an omega. You have a Pack it seems anyways.” The grimace she wears is damning.
Oh, I am so fucking done.
“Cut the discriminating bullshit. We’ll be out of your dorm as expeditiously as possible,” I snap, finally indulging my alpha and slamming the door in their faces. A ping from Esper’s phone draws her from the shock.
“I just got the email.” Her voice is gone, hollow.
Fuck. I have to fix this.
“Let’s pack for a night. I’ll… talk to the dean, the provost—hell, I’ll fucking talk to the news station if I have to. This is so fucking stupid.” I pause, only because my hands don’t know what to grab next. “What do you need?”
“I don’t… I don't know."
She’s freezing on me. I should have shut the door on those two earlier. That last comment was completely unnecessary.
My eyes meet Esper’s wide ones. I have to decide. Taking a deep breath, I think for a moment. Her room, her nest… she's being kicked out of her nest.
Goddamn.
“Let me see your phone.”
She hands it to me with shaky hands, and I read over the official letter attached to the email from the dormitory office.
Due to multiple complaints and violations, Esper Malent has been removed from White Pine Crest University omega dormitory, effective immediately. The student has three days to remove all belongings.
“We’ll wait actually,” I decide. This is hers. I can’t tear her away from this. I tug her by her wrist and pull her into my chest, hugging the ever-living hell out of my poor omega. “We’ll figure this out.”
“Who would complain about me? I didn’t think we were ever loud or anything?”
“No idea, Omega,” I mutter. “I’ll find out though.”
I settle us back on the bed, abandoning the bag under her desk.
I tuck her head onto my chest and open her ASMR playlist on my computer so she can watch it on a bigger screen.
She trembles against me. I pull up two blankets, one a faux gray fur and the other a pink fluffy one.
I wrap them around her firmly, hoping that the cozy swaddle will help her settle.
She has no reaction, and I can feel my instincts telling me to stop, but I want to keep going, keep adjusting.
Eventually, she touches my arm and I still, sighing as I let my body relax, hoping she will follow suit.
The one good thing: If anyone was equipped to figure out what the fuck was going on, her Pack is. That’s for damn sure.
Esper couldn’t settle in her nest anymore. She just kept shifting, and shifting turned to pacing. Pacing turned to her stepping out of the room and once she did, only then did she visibly relax.
It was time to leave.
I helped her pack two bags. One with blankets, and one with clothes and toiletries. My bike wasn’t going to carry these bags though, so I called Red and told him to come with a car.
Being back at the MC Plaza feels like a breath of fresh air, despite the circumstances. Red acts as our driver and hasn’t asked any questions, though I know he was bursting to ask. He tries to be his normal self around Esper who has yet to crack a smile or do anything more than blink since we left.
I lead them to my apartment. It’s simple, plain furniture and the bare minimum, but at least it’s clean.
It’ll tide us over until we find our next step.
Because my simple apartment, small as it is, won’t make a good nest. Esper hovers near the couch while I set her bags down by the bed.
She stares around the room, and for the first time, I’m self-conscious about the blandness of the space.
“I don't have much,” I say and her eyes flash to mine. A smile finally graces her lips.
“You have enough.” Walking past the couch, she picks up the single coaster on the table. “You actually use it?”
“Of course I do. My omega gave it to me.”
She smiles and sets it down with care, and my stomach churns with a realization.
We have got to be the worst Pack ever. Our omega has gotten us each gifts and we’ve yet to give her one.
Shit, we have to fix that.
Red reappears with his arms full of blankets.
“Brought supplies for a fort,” he says, setting the blankets on the armchair and shoving the couch into whatever he considers optimum blanket fort positioning.
“Sure, by all means, make yourself at home,” I say with an eyeroll and a chuckle.
Not all that long ago, Red barging in and rearranging my shit without so much as a May I?
would’ve boiled my blood. Now, though, Esper’s eyes light as she sorts through the blankets, a mix of sheets and heavier throws, and I could not give less of a fuck what happens to my stuff. So long as that smile stays put.
“Heard there was a party in here,” Ash says with a tray of weed and a few pillows tucked under his arms. Soren follows in after him, with even more blankets and pillows.
Did they fucking steal soft and cuddly things from every Wolf on the premises?
Esper and Red get to work. Flipping and tossing blankets like a 2000s romcom come to life. Asher tries to help, but apparently his instincts leave something to be desired. While Esper quietly fixes whatever he got wrong, Red loudly corrects him with insults, though Asher only smiles and keeps on.
Soren rolls blunt after blunt, a small pile stacking up on the counter before us. I brought him up to speed on Esper’s afternoon, including the post-interview meltdown and the run-in at the dorm.
“What’s our move, then?” Soren mutters, trying to be quiet so Esper can’t hear. Unlike Red and Ash, Soren can control his temper, even if he’s as pissed as I am about the whole thing.
“I’ll start with figuring out who was complaining. Getting her back in the building may be a lost cause at this point.”
We did technically break the rules staying over last night, and they have the evidence needed to enforce the consequence.
No, the question I couldn’t get out of my head was how did they know? There are no cameras in the dorms, not even the hallways, and we were careful on our way in and out.
Soren hums, and I go back to watching my omegas wrestle blankets.
“Well, be that as it may, buildings can and do mysteriously catch fire, and windows can and do get broken.”
“Damn right about that.”
“It’s done!” Esper waves her hand at us. Soren grabs the tray and I turn to my cabinet, grabbing snacks before meeting Esper at the entrance of the huge blanket fort in my living room.
“Asher, you go there. Reed, next to him. Soren, right there. Can I lay on you?”
“Please do, Trouble.”
“I want her to lay on me,” Red says in something suspiciously close to a whine, but Soren scoffs.
“She picked me.”
“I’ll lay on you next time,” Esper promises, directing me to sit next to Soren. Crawling in, she lays on her stomach on Soren, the rest of us getting comfortable in the confined space.
Esper’s the only one among us who grew up in a Pack. The rest of us don’t have the sense of normalcy around the multiple partner thing. Even so, I have to say, we all take to it pretty well.