Rejected by the Beta, Claimed by the Alpha

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

loud thoughts—Lucas’s creepy warning, his strange laughter, and everything else—I still managed to pass out again. My brain must’ve tapped out from sheer exhaustion or just

came back to reality when my phone buzzed violently against the desk beside my bed. It was Sara calling. I jolted up, groggy, my body stiff like I’d been lying in a casket. Weird

I picked up.

"Hey," I rasped.

was light, cheery, and painfully normal. A total contrast to the fog I’d woken up

my text until this morning. Now she was

need to be

sounded like a lifeline. Not just because I was starving, but because I needed some normalcy. Something to remind me this was

really did leave. His stuff was gone, and the eerie quiet of the room now felt too heavy. Like a vacuum had sucked his fear right into the walls and left

I shook it off.

restrooms. Thank. God. That would’ve been the worst, especially if bullies were in the picture.

to let Sara’s first official breakfast memory with

was. Sure, there was a campus map on the school app... but I suck at directions. Big time. One of the many failings of my so-called genius brain. Show me a network server or a firewall, and I’ll find twenty back doors

I stood outside

the stars, it looked like other students were making their way out too. Some in small chatty groups, others with their noses buried in their

I followed.

a weirdo, but I

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

Too still.

that rustled past didn’t touch the

behind me. Not a sound. More like a presence. That same cold prickling at the back of my neck.

to myself. "Or maybe I’m catching

sped up,

finally 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

Normal.

Safe.

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

your sweet time," she grinned as

got lost,"

about to

last night, Lucas’s strange warning,

Just for a moment.

as we stepped inside,

member behind the food counters was pale. Not just light-skinned—pale. Almost translucent. Their eyes 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.

told myself it was berry

She was already filling her tray with eggs and toast. I followed suit, trying to act natural, but I couldn’t shake the feeling I was

Targeted.

of the cafeteria where students were sitting quietly. Too quietly. No chatter.

toward

Then turned away.