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.

didn’t

laughter, and everything else—I still managed to pass out again. My brain must’ve tapped out

to reality when my phone buzzed violently against the desk beside my bed. It was Sara calling. I jolted

I picked up.

"Hey," I rasped.

painfully normal. A total contrast to the fog I’d woken up

didn’t see my text until this morning. Now she was heading to the cafeteria and offered to wait so we could

to

was at 8:30, and food sounded like a lifeline. Not just because I was starving, but because I needed some normalcy. Something to remind me this

neatly like he’d never come back. Maybe he didn’t. Maybe he really did leave. His stuff was gone, and the

I shook it off.

had its own private shower and bathroom. No public restrooms. Thank. God. That would’ve been the worst, especially

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

failings of my so-called genius brain. Show me a network server or a firewall, and

outside the

like other students were making their way out too. Some in small chatty groups, others

I followed.

want to look like a weirdo, but I kept a healthy distance. As I walked, I took in more

was holding in. The buildings—gothic and majestic—seemed to rise out of the fog like sleeping

Too still.

that rustled past

I walked, something shifted behind me. Not a sound. More like a presence. That same cold prickling at the back of my neck. I

whispered to myself.

still, I sped up,

came into view—massive, all-glass windows glowing warm gold from inside. Through the glass, I spotted Sara standing by the entrance, her arms folded and her hair pulled up in

Normal.

Safe.

back, the tightness in my chest easing slightly. Human

your sweet time," she grinned as I walked

got lost," I

figured. I was about

Lucas’s strange warning, the pale-eyed

Just for a moment.

we stepped

all... wrong. Tight-lipped. Tired. Or forced. One of them, an older

it

filling her tray with eggs and toast. I followed suit, trying to act natural, but I couldn’t

Targeted.

toward a dark corner of the cafeteria where students were sitting quietly. Too quietly. No chatter. No clinking of cutlery.

toward me

Then turned away.

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