Rejected by the Beta, Claimed by the Alpha

Chapter 147

Chapter 147: Paranoia?

Clark POV:

I tried going back to bed.

Keyword: tried.

Lucas was clearly nuts. Or maybe just too high-strung for a place like this. Whatever it was, I shouldn’t have let him get in my head. I shouldn’t have even engaged him.

Monsters?

Right. And maybe next week, I’d be abducted by aliens who wanted to teach me advanced calculus.

It was a prank. Had to be. Some messed-up, long-standing tradition where seniors test how gullible the freshmen are. Maybe they had a whole betting pool about who would crack first. Lucas just happened to be the poor bastard who snapped early.

And if, by some insane chance, he was telling the truth?

Then it was a cult.

Big deal. I wasn’t joining it.

I rolled over in bed, pulling the blanket over my head like Lucas had done last night. Ironic. But even under the covers, the room felt colder. Like whatever panic he brought in had left a residue behind.

My hand instinctively reached for my phone. I hovered over sara’s name.

I missed her voice already. Her joy. The way she always managed to talk me out of my spirals. If anyone could snap me back to reality, it was her.

But 5:13 a.m. was too early. Even for her. I didn’t want to come off as clingy.

I’ll tell her at lunch, I told myself. Maybe laugh about it. "Hey, guess what? My roommate thinks we’re living in a vampire cult."

Yeah. Maybe it’d be funny by then.

I dropped the phone beside me, closed my eyes, and tried to block out the sound of the wind outside. The faint hum of the old radiator. The flickering fluorescent light in the hallway that kept buzzing through the crack under the door.

Tried.

But my mind kept looping back to one thing Lucas had said:

"You saw it, didn’t you?"

Yeah.

I had.

if I didn’t want to

thoughts—Lucas’s creepy warning, his strange laughter, and everything else—I still managed to pass out again. My brain

desk beside my bed. It was Sara calling. I jolted

I picked up.

"Hey," I rasped.

You okay?" her voice was light, cheery, and painfully normal. A total contrast to the fog I’d woken up

bed. She didn’t see my text until this morning. Now she

need to be

because I was starving, but

really did leave. His stuff was gone, and the eerie quiet

I shook it off.

shower and bathroom. No public restrooms. Thank. God. That would’ve been the worst, especially if bullies were in the picture. The idea of being cornered in a

was showered, dressed, and half-drenched in deodorant. I wasn’t about to let Sara’s first official

time. One of the many failings of my so-called genius brain. Show me a

stood outside

making their way out too. Some in small chatty groups, others with their noses buried in their phones,

I followed.

to look like a weirdo, but I kept a healthy

in. The buildings—gothic and majestic—seemed to

Too still.

breeze that rustled past

Not a sound. More like a presence. That same cold prickling at the back of my neck. I turned quickly—nothing. Just mist. And the

to myself. "Or maybe

I sped up, almost

into view—massive, all-glass windows glowing warm gold from inside. Through the glass, I spotted Sara standing by the entrance, her arms

Normal.

Safe.

she saw me, and I waved back, the tightness in my chest easing slightly. Human connection. The

your sweet time," she grinned as I

lost," I admitted.

was about to

last night, Lucas’s strange warning, the pale-eyed

Just for a moment.

as we stepped inside, I noticed

didn’t meet ours. Their smiles were all... wrong. Tight-lipped. Tired. Or forced. One of them, an older man with white hair and sunken cheeks, just stood behind the fruit tray staring blankly ahead. His apron looked stained with

told myself it

and toast. I followed suit, trying to act natural, but I couldn’t shake the feeling I was being watched.

Targeted.

students were sitting

flicked toward me in

Then turned away.

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