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 admit

else—I still managed to pass out again. My brain must’ve tapped out from sheer exhaustion or just self-preservation.

phone buzzed violently against the desk beside my bed. It was Sara calling.

I picked up.

"Hey," I rasped.

painfully normal. A total contrast to

this morning. Now she was heading to the cafeteria and offered

didn’t need to be told

It was already 7:30. Orientation 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

he’d never 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

I shook it off.

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

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

problem? I had no idea where the cafeteria 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

I stood outside the dorm, scanning.

too. Some in small chatty groups, others with their noses

I followed.

want to look like a weirdo, but I kept a healthy distance.

and majestic—seemed to rise out of the fog like sleeping giants. Ivy climbed

Too still.

breeze that rustled past didn’t touch the

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

myself. "Or maybe

I sped up, almost

the glass, I spotted Sara standing

Normal.

Safe.

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

your sweet time," she grinned as I

lost,"

I was about to

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

Just for a moment.

stepped inside, I

meet ours. Their smiles were all... wrong. Tight-lipped. Tired. Or forced. One of them, an older man with white hair and sunken cheeks,

myself it was berry

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

Targeted.

were sitting

eyes flicked toward me in

Then turned away.

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