Sara’s POV
I wake up in the middle of the night feeling both parched and famished. It’s a few minutes past midnight. I didn’t leave my room after escaping the aftermath of my meeting with Levi, so I didn’t eat dinner.
I get out of bed and head to the door. The living room is dark and quiet. I turn towards the kitchen and come up short.
The lights are not on there either, but there’s enough spilling out of the open refrigerator. Christian is holding the door open, peering inside.
This is the first time I’m seeing him since he went into his room earlier. He lifts his head and looks towards me. Our eyes meet in the semi-darkness.
My heart’s already pounding as I step forward, winning against the small part of me that wants to turn back. I might not get another chance to talk to him before I leave with Levi. I’m not even sure what it is I want to say to him.
I only feel there’s a need to say something. I should at least tell him about my decision to mate with Levi.
As I get closer, he reaches for something inside the fridge. An apple. Then he closes the door, cutting off the only source of light in the room. He walks towards me, and I tense.
I realise at the last minute that he isn’t walking to me, but past me. Without thinking, I reach out and wrap my fingers around his wrist. He tries to tug free, but I tighten my hold. It’s confirmed. He is avoiding me.
“What?” His voice is sharp and icy. It sends a thread of fear down my spine, but it’s not enough to make me let go of him.
“Are you mad at me?”
“Why would I be?”
“You haven’t really talked to me since last night.”
He scoffs. “Sorry I couldn’t find time from all the chaos to chit-chat with you.”
My grip loosens, and I let him go. His voice is so cruel, it makes me wish I had let him leave.
“I just thought” I stop and bite down on my lip. If he finds this, me, annoying, it’s better that I don’t say any more. If he is going to be an asshole about this, I cannot take it. Not after last night.
He sighs impatiently. “Is this about last night? Forget it. I’m no longer interested.”
My teeth dig deeper into my lip. The pain is nothing compared to the hurt and shame I feel. It’s a blessing I can’t see his facethe coldness in his voice is enough. It’s also a good thing he can’t see mine either. If I look as broken as I feel, he’ll have something else to taunt me about.
I wonder when things changed. Maybe it was right afterwards after I left and he was no longer horny and realised what he had almost done. A mistake. He must have been glad for the interruption.
Why does it matter to me, anyway? I’ve already made up my mind.
I wonder if my next words will have any effect on him. I wish they could hurt him the way his dismissive ones just did to me. “I’ve chosen Levi.”
Yesterday, he asked whether I had chosen Levi over him. Why had he even cared?
The prize, Sara, the prize!
Right. That was all it was.
Pretending that he had changed his mind about having a mate, almost sleeping with me last night. It was all so that he could claim me before Levi. What a fool I am! I already knew that, so how did I end up thinking last night meant anything?
“Good for you,” he says.
Suddenly, I wish the lights were on. I want to see his face. I want to see how cold he looks as he says that so that I’ll never forget it. So that I’ll never be so stupid again as to feel warmth where there are only icicles.
“I heard you got yourself a nice deal,” he continues. “Here’s my advice. Don’t let him know about Kai and me. He doesn’t do well with sharing.”
“I don’t need your advice.”
“Goodbye, then.”
My eyes follow his dark figure as he moves to his door, opens it, and then disappears inside. It closes with a small thud.
“Asshole,” Edna whispers.
I blink and hate it when my lashes get wet. “Yeah. Good riddance.”
I wish I felt that in my bones.
***
Levi shows up in my room very early in the morning and tells me to pack so we can leave.
“Now?” I ask, rubbing my sleepy eyes. It’s not quite sunrise yet.
“Do you want to be here where the Alpha King comes to assess the situation?”
I jump out of bed, panic mode activated. “He’s coming here?”
He nods. “And I’m guessing you’ll be high on his list of to-do activities. I would love to have another go at him, but I haven’t claimed you yet, so he might be able to keep me from taking you away.”
“Will they just let us go?” The campus must be heavily guarded to ensure students who need to be detained elsewhere do not get away. Victor has likely already asked the school president to keep an eye on me.
“My eyes are not just aesthetic,” he says.
“What?” I mumble in confusion.
“They have compelling power.”
“Oh.” I suddenly feel like I should not be looking right into them. If he can compel people with his eyes, does that mean he could have compelled me to agree to mate with him when we first met? Why did he not do it?
Magical abilities are extremely rare among werewolves. They usually result from mixing bloodlines with some sort of magic user. I would have thought a family tree like Levi’s would be full of purebred Alphas. But then again, here he is, ready to take me, an Omega with an unknown background, as his mate.
A troubling thought crosses my mind. I can’t believe I didn’t ask him about it last night. “Do your parents know about me?”
Levi might be on board with me being his mate, but what about his parents? What about his pack’s council? An Alpha’s mate is of the utmost importance to the entire pack. If those two parties disapprove of me, I could be walking from one hell into another.
He smiles. “They can’t wait to meet you.”
“Really?”
He nods. “I told them about you.”
“Did you tell them about my background?”
“Yes. They don’t care.”
I find it hard to believe. Is he lying so that I won’t change my mind and delay our departure? Or are his parents really that awesome?
He strides to my wardrobe and pulls my suitcase from the top. “Do you need help packing?”
“No, thanks. It’s not a lot.”
“If you could be done in ten minutes, that would be awesome,” he says as he heads to the door. He pulls it open. “Guards are changing shifts soon, I want to get the tired overnight ones. Easier to get by.”
“Okay,” I agree, already opening my drawers. “I’ll be quick.”