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

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

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.

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

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

need to be

practically flew off the bed. It was already 7:30. Orientation was at 8:30, and food sounded like a lifeline. Not just because

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

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

deodorant. I wasn’t about to let Sara’s first official breakfast memory with me involve me smelling like

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 in under five

I stood outside the

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

I followed.

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

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 fog like

Too still.

breeze that rustled past didn’t touch the

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

whispered to myself.

I sped up, almost

warm gold from inside. Through the glass, I spotted Sara standing by the entrance, her

Normal.

Safe.

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

your sweet time," she grinned as I walked up, slightly

got lost," I admitted.

I was about

laughed. For a moment, the weight of last night, Lucas’s strange warning, the pale-eyed senior, the

Just for a moment.

as we stepped inside, I

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

it

eggs and toast. I followed suit, trying to act natural, but

Targeted.

students were sitting

toward

Then turned away.