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.

didn’t want

to pass out again. My brain must’ve tapped out from sheer

only came back 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.

okay?" her voice was light, cheery, and painfully normal. A total contrast

yesterday and crashed straight into bed. She didn’t see my text until this morning. Now she was heading to the cafeteria and offered to

didn’t need to

because I was starving, but because I needed some normalcy. Something to remind me this was just a college, not some horror

come back. Maybe he didn’t. Maybe he 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

I shook it off.

private 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

half-drenched in deodorant. I wasn’t about to let Sara’s first official breakfast memory with

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

outside the

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

I followed.

but I kept a healthy distance. As I walked, I took in more

undeniably beautiful, even under the strange, thick morning mist that still hung low over the grass like a breath the land was holding in. The buildings—gothic and majestic—seemed to rise out of the

Too still.

that rustled past didn’t touch

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

to myself. "Or maybe I’m catching

sped up,

spotted Sara standing by

Normal.

Safe.

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

your sweet time," she grinned as I

got lost," I admitted.

figured. I was about to come rescue

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

Just for a moment.

as we stepped inside, I noticed

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

told myself it was

her tray with eggs and toast. I followed suit, trying to

Targeted.

turned once, glancing toward a dark corner of the cafeteria where students were sitting quietly. Too quietly. No chatter. No clinking of cutlery. Just silent chewing and

eyes flicked toward

Then turned away.