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abbatoirablaze · 2 years

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School Days AU, The Professors, Chapter 6

Word Count: 7.2k

Warnings: angst, a/b/o dynamics, rejected nest, coercion, manipulation, dubcon/noncon relationship, threats

Tom was beyond drunk as he stepped onto the porch of the immaculately decorated cottage. A few hours ago, he had felt like dirt when he saw that his cell phone read 9 PM and that he had no messages from his mate. But he also knew why she wasn’t reaching out to him. She didn’t have a way to, and he hadn’t spoken to her since before either of them had their revelations.

He knew where he should have been, but after the disaster that was the entirety of his day, he wasn’t entirely sure that he could do it sober. No, Tom was terrified not only of the implications and what it could mean for him and his new mate, but of his own feelings. She looked so mortified to see him teaching her class.

What if she rejected him?

“What are you looking at?”

Tom looked to Sebastian, his equally drunk companion who had his brow raised at him, “my phone…”

“No shit,” the younger alpha laughed, clapping his friend on the shoulder, “you’ve been staring at it for ten minutes. You’re looking at it like you’re waiting for something…did you expect her to call you or something? What’s going on, with you?”

Tom frowned even further. And he realized an error on his part. She didn’t have his number. She couldn’t call or text him. She couldn’t so much as send him an email, unless she was willing to send him one through his school email. And she was so professional about everything involving school that he knew despite her being an omega, she wouldn’t allow her hindbrain to win that battle.

Tom took a deep breath and released a heavy sigh, “I-I never gave her my number. I-I just realized that she can’t contact me.”

Sebastian laughed as he tipped back his beer, “well in your defense, you two were doing something a little bit more important…I mean, you realized that she was your mate and you acted on it. She can’t fault you for that, can she?”

“Yeah,” he sighed, suddenly more upset with himself than ever. Not only had he found out that Emily was a student and not a professor, but one of his own students. And while she was his mate, a marked one, he’d never even so much as given her a way to contact him, “I-I feel like a shit alpha though…she should at least have my number, right? What if during that week of our little paradise something had happened when I was teaching? Sh-she wouldn’t have been able to contact me.”

Sebastian shrugged, “I mean, I’m not going to disagree with you on that.”

“Emily,” the drunken alpha whimpered, lightly knocking on the door. A hiccup pushed past his lips, and his head felt like it was filled with cement as he leaned against the door frame, “Em…I’m sorry…please open the door, mate…I’m an idiot! Please…omega?”

His little knocks were lost on him, as the omega in question had fallen asleep, tearfully, in the guest bedroom just forty minutes prior, thinking that she had been abandoned by her mate for the same reasons he was fearful of.

But Tom sighed, leaning more against the door frame, feeling as though his little mate was not only ignoring him, but giving him a soft rejection. He began to feel entirely too warm in his sport coat and button-up. Stripping off the sport coat, he unbuttoned his shirt, and laid against the cool wood in front of the door.

“I’m not leaving you, my sweet omega. My perfect little mate who I will one day fill with pups,” the drunken alpha whispered to himself. His hand caressed the bottom of the door frame as he continued his drunken musings, “I’m a shit alpha for not coming home sooner, but I love you and I will beg for your forgiveness until it is received. I’ll stay here day and night if I must…I’ll do it for you, my sweet omega.”

He continued repeating similar sweet nothings to himself until his hazy mind allowed itself to fall into a dreamless slumber.

“What are you doing here?”

Tom groaned at the small but harsh nudge, which felt more like a kick, to his hip. His stomach lurched at the contact as his head reminded him that it hated him for drinking so much last night. Tom groaned again when he felt a similar kick a little higher to his side. His eyes fought the spots that appeared in his vision when he forced his eyes open, battling both his hangover and the obscene light that was shining from the sun.

“Shit, it’s bright.”

“Are you drunk, Professor Hiddleston?”

“The correct term is hungover, mate,” he said with a half chuckle, trying to make a joke as he sat up. Emily frowned even further, keeping her own tears at bay while looking at her mate. He was chaotic at best. His sport coat had been left halfway up the porch steps, and his button-up was halfway off his body, twisted around and caught on his left arm, looking like it’d been mostly torn off before he gave up on that as well. His car door was still open, and she could see one of his shoes hanging on the lip of the door, keeping it from being closed. She fought the urge to help him up as she looked at her half-naked mate, sitting on the porch in front of her, “I-I tried to come home…but…I realized I don’t know where the key is.”

“I was up until nearly one AM waiting for you.”

Tom could hear the sadness in her voice. The rejection. He fought against the migraine tugging at the seams of his mind as he tried to focus on her. While she wasn’t crying, Tom could see the blotchiness on her cheeks…the puffiness of her eyes. And it had broken Tom’s heart.

She had cried over him last night.

“Mate…”

“Don’t call me that,” she hissed angrily, “a mate wouldn’t do that to his other half. A mate wouldn’t abandon me like that.”

Tom frowned at the anger that laced her voice, “but you are my mate.”

“What kind of mate leaves his mate after that kind of revelation? I was terrified, and left alone, Tom,” she squeaked, the distress in her tone making her scent sour, “what kind of alpha leaves his omega heartbroken like that.”

“Not a very good one,” he frowned. She scoffed, and Tom pushed himself up until he was on his knees, grasping at her hips to pull her closer. His jaw nuzzled against her hips as he inhaled her scent deeply, “I-I’ll leave if you tell me to…but I wanted to be here. I had to be here when you woke up…I-I’m just scared. I never thought that I’d find my mate, let alone in a student, Emily. I don’t want to lose my job…but I can’t stand the thought of losing you…just tell me what to do, omega…you’re what matters to me the most.”

Emily sighed, “get up, Tom…you’ll probably be late for your classes if you don’t get to work.”

“Emily, none of that matters…don’t you get what I’m saying?” he sighed, getting to his feet. He kept his hold on her as he looked deep into her eyes, “I don’t care about my job if you’re still upset with me, omega.”

“I have to go to work, anyways…” she mumbled, breaking eye contact, “w-we couldn’t talk even if I wanted to talk to you…which right now, I don’t.”

“I-I don’t want to leave, Em,” he said sadly, feeling slightly rejected by the fact that she didn’t automatically stop to think about staying with him, “I know I fucked up…but I don’t want to leave. I’m not going to abandon you…I’m serious about that. I’ll stay here day and night if that means the chance that you’ll say a few words to me at a time.”

Emily pushed away the tears that threatened to bite her cheeks. She gave a heavy sigh and wiped angrily at her cheeks to make sure she didn’t start crying again. She looked away from him and shook her head, “I-I really do have to go to work, Tom.”

“L-let me stay?” he asked softly, practically a step away from begging her, “I-I’ll be home waiting for you when you get back…we can talk then. Please…I just…I don’t want to leave. I’ll sit on the porch all day if I have to.”

“Fine.” She sighed to herself and unlocked the door once more, letting Tom in, “I’m not going to make you sit on the porch…we’re going to talk when I get home. And it’s going to be a very serious conversation Tom…what happened last night is never going to happen again…i-if we do stay together…”

He gave her a hopeful look and instantly pulled her to his chest. His heart raced and he was happy, knowing that she was willing to give him some semblance of a chance, “I-I will be here…I promise…and I know…”

“I’m only doing this because we’ve already marked each other,” she admitted sadly. Tom frowned, pulling away from her slightly. She sounded pained by her own admission. He nodded, showing that he understood, “I-I’ll be home around five…i-if you have to leave, there’s a spare key under the potted plant by the door…”

“Five…okay…I-I’ll see you then!” he agreed. Tom leaned forward, hoping that she would allow him to kiss her. She turned away when he went for her lips. And while he did kiss her cheek, he frowned a little more, “I promise. I-I won’t leave you again, my love. I’m an idiot, but I won’t do-”

“Tom?”

Tom turned back, stopping himself from going inside, “yes omega?”

“You might want to clean up your little drunken adventure,” she replied sadly, looking back to the driveway. Tom blushed, and nodded at her, heading back to collect the shirt that he’d thrown off when he got up, as well as his sport coat and shoe. His keys were still in the ignition, and he noticed that he’d left the car running all night, “if you need gas, I have some in the shed…you can put it in the car until you’re able to get to a station.”

“Thank you, omega…”

“Don’t thank me yet,” she grumbled as she bit her lip, “we still have to talk when I get home, alpha…and there will be rules. This isn’t happening again…I’m very serious about that.”

He nodded once more, toeing off his other shoe once he got in the house, dropping his clothes in a pile by the door. She frowned at him once more as she closed the door behind him. For a brief moment she wanted to cave into her hindbrain and just spend the day with Tom.

Her inner wolf was running around in her mind, happy that her alpha hadn’t truly abandoned her, but she was far from okay with the fact that he thought it would be perfectly acceptable to just show up on her doorstep hung over. With a heavy sigh she padded down the steps to leave. Tom heard her car pulling away a few moments later, and he looked around to the cottage.

Her scent was normally so sweet and fragrant. But he could smell the distress in the living room. Her scent had slightly soured, and it made him feel like a terrible person for even going to have drinks with Sebastian, even though it did give him the clarity he needed. He felt his heart lurching at the thought that she must have waited in the living room for him, watching the door for him to walk through.

The first thing that Tom did was go up to the stairs, knowing that he’d seen a computer in her spare bedroom. He needed to send out an email to his classes, giving them an assignment and cancelling class for the day. But his mind paused as he passed the main bedroom. The scent seemed especially pungent in front of the door.

With a heavy sigh, he opened the door. And while the scent hadn’t soured inside of the room, he could tell that it was stale. His heart broke a little bit more as he realized that she hadn’t slept in the room last night. She must have stood outside the door, arguing with herself on whether or not to go in. While he understood her not being in the nest, it had upset him slightly. He mentally put that on a list of things to fix up and do for the day while she was at work.

But first…the guest room. To cancel his classes.

His frown got even worse the closer he got to the room. He could smell her so much that he realized where she’d spend the night. Alone, in the guest bedroom of her own home, because she couldn’t stand the thought of being rejected by him.

Tom knew in the moment that he’d opened the door to the guest room that he’d had more than his fair share of things to make up for when she came home tonight.

Sebastian frowned when he saw Alana in class on Monday. He hadn’t seen her since Thursday afternoon when they parted in the park, and while he’d given her his number, she had yet to utilize it. He also noticed that she was unnaturally quiet and hadn’t corrected him when he purposely flubbed a quote from Socrates. Nor had she bothered making eye contact with him.

No, he could tell that not only was she uncomfortable, but she was also rejecting the idea of even looking at him. It made his stomach turn, and it felt like a soft rejection, something that he wasn’t comfortable with.

“Miss. Moore, can you please stay after class?” he requested once he’d managed to dismiss everyone, “there is a few things that I’d like to go over with you!”

She sighed, and Sebastian noticed a few guys in the back row spare her a glance before heading out of the classroom. Alana bit her lip, looking back to the door of the lecture hall, before collecting her bag and heading to the front where he stood, “y-you needed to see me, Professor Stan?”

“Yes,” he nodded. He watched as the rest of the students emptied out before he leaned in a little closer to her, “y-you didn’t call…or even text me this weekend. I-is everything okay? I didn’t mean to offend you if I did that…”

“P-Professor Stan, is this about schoolwork, or no?”

Sebastian frowned, upset at the fact that she seemed to be distant from him. She called him Professor Stan, and not Sebastian, like he’d insisted. He reached out to put a hand on her arm and she shied away from him, “I-what’s wrong, Alana?”

“C-can we talk about this later?” she asked softly as her gaze returned to the back of the lecture hall where one of the exits was, “I-I have another class to get to, Professor Stan…and I can’t be late.”

“You can call me Sebastian, Ala-“

“Sebastian…I need to go,” she said firmly, looking back to the door once again, “Please.”

He frowned, gesturing to the back door, “fine…I-I guess I’ll see you later then…”

“Yeah…”

Sebastian waited, pacing like a dog waiting for its owner for the full hour. Not only had she not shown up, but she hadn’t bothered to text him to let him know that she was cancelling. He’d expected her to come to his office at five PM, as she’d originally scheduled, but by six he realized that she wasn’t coming. No, she’d ghosted him.

It had hurt his pride.

Genuinely, it had.

Sebastian was an alpha. An alpha that wasn’t used to rejection. Wasn’t used to women not falling all over themselves just to become closer to him. Whether it was because of his family name, or his family’s wealth, a woman rejecting him was not a familiar feeling with him. It made him feel all too insecure with himself, and it was a feeling that he certainly did not like.

And that’s what made him decide to go the media wing. He smiled, seeing Professor Nelson still in the classroom. He raised his brow when he saw Sebastian.

“Sebastian? Do my eyes deceive me?” the professor joked. Sebastian chuckled, knowing that neither man usually ventured into the other’s wing, “this is a rare sight indeed. what are you doing here?”

He chuckled and ran his hand along the back of his neck, “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I came down here. Hopefully you can help me?”

“With?”

“A student of yours,” he said slowly, thinking of the lie as he spoke, “Miss. Moore…she uh-she shot me this past week…I hadn’t gotten a chance to see the photos. She had to rush to her next class…and I didn’t know she had turned them in yet or not…”

“Alana, yes,” he smiled, turning back to his desk. He waved Sebastian over and pulled up two photos from the series, “it was an amazing set. She was able to have some great chemistry with you. It’s impressive! She’s a natural.”

Sebastian smiled, seeing the images, “she made me look younger.”

Professor Nelson chuckled, “no editing. It was either black and white or color, and that was about as much editing as they were allowed. She’s a good kid. Shows a lot of promise. I was surprised that she managed to get you to volunteer in all honesty.”

“Really?” he asked, quirking a brow, “why?”

“Well, I told the students to pick a model, and most of my students pick significant others or random people if they can’t find a friend,” he chuckled, “not usually professors. Though, it did inspire me to approach a few other professors so that we can do live photo studies with them.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he sighed, “unfortunately, not many teachers outside of the media or art wing agreed. They don’t want to ‘waste their time’ was the most common response. I swear, most of them only are willing to do something if it benefits them. What about the students? This is their time to shine, right?”

“Assholes.”

“I’m actually glad you showed up,” he smiled as he turned back to pick up his phone from his desk, “I was going to send you an email today and ask you if you would be up for volunteering again…if not it’s fine, but I-“

“Can I work with Miss Moore again?” he asked, cutting his fellow colleague off, “I feel so awkward having my picture taken normally, but when she shot me, I just felt so calm and relaxed. It felt natural, you know?”

“With a good photographer, it always does,” he smiled, nodding his head, “yeah. I’d be okay with you working with her again…but the photo studies are going to go the rest of the semester with new sets being every other week. I’m going to make it their finals. Can you commit to at least two shoots a month?”

“If I’m paired with her I can.”

“Great,” he smiled happily, “I’ll send out an email to Miss Moore, and I’ll send you an email as well with the topics and list of shoots, that the two of you can accomplish. I may end up having the two of you start this week that way you two can be my examples if that’s alright?”

“Sounds perfect,” Sebastian smiled, suddenly feeling like he was on top of the world, “I’m excited for this, Nelson.”

“Me too, Stan.”

“I don’t appreciate what you did, Professor Stan.”

Sebastian turned around, the smallest of smiles tugging at the corners of his lips when he saw her. Alana looked beyond pissed off at him as she held her books in front of her. He frowned.

“Nice to see you too, Miss. Moore…you missed your check-in on Monday.”

“So, you went and talked to my photography professor to make sure I’m stuck with you all semester?” she asked. Sebastian bit the corner of his cheek and she glared at him, “that was a really low blow, Sebastian.”

“I wasn’t doing it to piss you off,” he said quickly, noticing the change in the way she addressed him, “I did it because I was worried. Thursday was…amazing. And it’s obvious that you feel a lot of the same things that I do-“

“You’re my professor.”

“And you’re my mate.”

Her mouth parted slightly, and Sebastian looked at her, waiting for a response. She gave a heavy sigh, “I have a boyfriend, Sebastian…I-I really like him…and I don’t want to mess that up.”

Sebastian felt his heart plummet into the pit of his stomach. He took a deep breath, “w-what?”

“I have a boyfriend,” she repeated softer. She bit her lip and looked up to the older man, “I-I thought that I would be able to figure it all out on Thursday…and then I went to Bobby’s on Friday and I just…I couldn’t break up with him. H-he told me that he thinks I’m his mate too…”

Sebastian frowned, “that’s impossible-“

“I’m not breaking up with him, Sebastian. What he and I have is something…special,” she said quickly, cutting him off. Sebastian could hear the uneven, nervous beating of her heart and the way that her scent was less fragrant, “he uh…he thinks I should drop your class and just wait until next semester and take it with a different professor…I-“

“But I’m your partner for your photography class now.”

“Yeah…” she frowned, “that makes this even more difficult. It’s not fair of me to be dating Bobby and make you wait while I try to figure out what exactly I feel for him, so I’m not even going to consider asking that of you…but I also don’t want you to think that I’m going to leave him for you either, because I’m not.”

“S-so what are you going to do?”

“I’m not dropping your class,” she replied as she bit the corner of her lip, “or my photography class…Bobby won’t be happy, but I’m not pushing away my career because of what we did…but you may be seeing some of his brothers around.”

“Ala-“

“Please, Professor Stan…I think we should put as many barriers as we can between us,” she said sadly, “I-I think we should stick with our last names. I-I’m also going to have one of his frat brothers or him with me every time we shoot…bec-“

“Because you don’t trust me.”

“Because Bobby doesn’t trust you…and quite frankly I don’t trust myself either,” she corrected. She gave him a sad smile, “Bobby…well…he-he’s one of those super alpha ultra-macho guys. He doesn’t think that we should be alone together to begin with…he doesn’t get that it’s a human thing and that I don’t feel the same things that an omega might…but I also don’t really get the whole shifter thing either…”

“You said that one of his frat brothers might be with you when we shoot if it’s not him?”

“Yeah,” she said slowly, “they’re all kind of dicks…so fair warning on that…”

“What frat?”

“Alpha Chi Rho…but listen…I-I should leave. I have to get to my next class,” she sighed, “Professor Nelson told me that we’ll be the examples for the live studies…so I’ll message you later in the week to get a shoot done.”

Sebastian watched her sadly walk out of the classroom. And his mind was on her the entire rest of the afternoon his mind also swirled around ‘Bobby’ and ‘Alpha Chi Rho.’ By the time he’d finished his classes for the day, he cancelled his office hours. He’d looked up where the Alpha Chi Rho house was, never having made himself familiar with it when he was part of his frat, and had every intention of telling ‘Bobby’ to back up and leave his mate alone.

Which is how he found himself on Greek Row. He sneered. He, himself had been part of another frat, Phi Sigma Alpha, which ironically, was right across the street. But he was well aware of the guys of Alpha Chi Rho. If there was one thing that Alana was right about, it was the fact that the Rho’s were the super macho alphas of campus. They were the only all alpha only fraternity, and that had always struck Sebastian as wrong. They prided themselves on being ‘the best of the best,’ but all they really did was look down on anyone not an alpha. And more often than not, they tended to be bullies.

But it was a simple knock on the door that made his own testosterone go into overdrive. He’d recognized two of the boys from the class that Alana had. He couldn’t place them offhand, but he knew that if they were here, they must have been upperclassmen.

One narrowed his eyes at Sebastian, “YO! LOVER BOY ACTUALLY FUCKIN SHOWED!”

Sebastian narrowed his eyes at the younger man, “you were in my class.”

“Keepin an eye on our brother’s girl,” the second one commented. The first, who had yelled through the house hit his ‘brother’s’ chest, “the hell Barnes…thinking cuz you’re VP I won’t hit ya back in front of a professor?”

“He don’t need to know shit,” ‘Barnes’ commented, “go be an actual adult and grab Bobby…he was upstairs with one of the pledges showing them around.”

Sebastian’s jaw clenched, “is that code for fucking another girl behind his girlfriend’s back?”

“What’s it to-“

“Shut up and get him Storm,” Barnes grumbled. Storm disappeared from the door, and Barnes took up a majority of the frame, trying to intimidate the older man with his aura, “pretty brave of you to come here, prof…think your title saves you from dealing with us if you fuck with our brother’s girl? We don’t have any problem kicking a professor’s ass because he crossed some lines.”

“Think threatening a professor makes you a bigger man?” Sebastian asked, narrowing his eyes at the younger man while throwing out his own aura. Barnes sneered, but bared his neck after a few moments, submitting to him. Sebastian smirked, “that’s right…I know how to deal with pups like you, Barnes. Think you’re all big and bad because you’re a bit on the larger side for an alpha…that don’t mean shit.”

“Clear out.”

The others looked to see a larger man with a girl on his arm. The omega was giggling as she clung to his side. He could feel his aura from the door and Sebastian frowned.

“You Bobby?”

“Bobby’s not coming downstairs,” the guy replied shortly as he pulled the omega closer to himself, “he’s busy.”

“Tell him I’m here to talk to him.”

“He doesn’t give a fuck, prof,” the guy responded, “and I’m president. I’m saying he’s not coming downstairs, so he’s not coming downstairs. I don’t feel like having the cops come here because he shredded some professor for harassing his girlfriend.”

“I’m not harassin-“

“Looks like that to me…hell, one of our brothers is a cop, and I know he’d hate to come back to the house and arrest yo,” the guy replied, quicker in his responses. He patted the omega’s ass, “baby girl, go back upstairs. Daddy’ll be there in a few minutes, okay?”

“Yes daddy!” she giggled sweetly.

He smiled and leaned down, giving her a gentle kiss to her forehead, “love you, mega.”

“Love you, alpha.” she purred. When she turned away, Sebastian caught a mating mark on her neck, and he found himself looking back to the large alpha who had a matching on just below his mating gland. The alpha himself was glaring at him.

“Didn’t I say clear out?” he growled, this time he threw his aura at the remaining guys by the door. Barnes didn’t cave as easily, but he did turn away from him. The guys grumbled about ‘missing the action’ before turning and heading upstairs or deeper into the house. The large alpha exited and closed the door behind him, “you’re going to leave Bobby’s little toy alone, capiche?”

Sebastian growled at the way that he spoke about her, calling her a toy, “and what are you? Bobby’s bodyguard?”

“I’m the president of Alpha Chi Rho, Curtis Everett…and I know who you are, Professor Stan. It’s why I allowed Bobby to take some of the guys so they can watch over Alana. I know you Sigma’s like to pretend to be the good guys, but you’re not. She’s a human that doesn’t know the difference between a good alpha and a bad one…you aren’t what’s good for her,” he informed him firmly. Sebastian tensed, feeling put off by him, “you’re going to stop this bullshit, fawning over his little toy. You’re going to give her a passing grade and she’s not going to show to your classes anymore. And the only time you’re going to be allowed to meet with her is when she’s stuck doing that stupid fucking photography class. Understand, prof?”

Sebastian felt himself snarl, “that’s not up to you…”

“Bobby’s asked me to handle it, so I am,” Curtis said, narrowing his eyes, “now personally, I’d rather be knotting my mate…but since you decided to pull your bullshit, my attention is now split between her and this stupid little drama. And when anything takes me away from my mate, I take it seriously. So, you need to go find an omega your own age and stop kissing little school girls.”

“So, then you know my situation.”

“You kissed a claimed girl, professor,” Curtis chuckled darkly, “you scented her in a public fucking place…do you know how many pledges we had to throw at Bobby to get him calm enough that he wouldn’t kick your ass on sight? He’s run through most of the alpha girls…cheating on his poor little plaything, because of you. And that’s really on you, prof. How’s it feel knowing you caused that, huh? Feel like a big bad alpha now?”

“She obviously doesn’t matter to him if he’s fucking around.”

“She’s human,” he said, rolling his eyes, “she couldn’t handle an alpha rut. Barely made it through his rut in the summer. But Bobby wants to keep her around…likes her I guess. And I’m going to help a brother out, because that’s what a good one does.”

“I’m not backing down, Curtis.”

“Fine,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. Sebastian’s brow furrowed as the president started back into his house, “I gave you your warning prof, but Bobby doesn’t play fair…he’ll break your little fucking mate and not think twice about it if she doesn’t listen to every word he says.”

By the weekend Sebastian still hadn’t heard from Alana. Meanwhile, Calista was having the opposite issue with Natasha. She’d had so many texts and calls from her that she had to turn her phone off and hand it over to Chris. She was so upset by the fact that Natasha had alpha commanded her, that there was no way she could forgive her in any short time span, and thankfully, Chris was there for her.

“Are you going to tell me what just happened” Chris asked when they got back to Sebastian’s house, “I-I mean, if you don’t want to tell me, I understand, but it’s something that we will have to talk about eventually…you know that? Right sweetie?”

She frowned, “I-I’ve been in an abusive relationship before…”

Chris frowned. That was not what he had expected. Calista lifted up her shirt and started lowering her pants to show Chris a scar.

“I’m so sorry…”

“At first I didn’t think too much of it,” she offered with a sniffle, “I mean it was a cute little high school thing. I thought he was just really protective of me. He would always walk me to classes. Always holding doors open. Just all in all, he was always there. Whenever I needed him. But I realized that any time I didn’t agree with him he would alpha command me.”

Chris’ frown deepened, his mind instantly going back to the conversation from dinner where Natasha had bulldozed over her, “I-I’m sorry Calista.”

“Natasha knew about him,” she sighed, “he goes here too, but she made sure that our schedules were polar opposites, so-so I never see him. He’s a trumpeter. I mean, thankfully I haven’t seen him around, but I know he’s still here…and I just…well, the night I went to break up with him, he alpha commanded me to stab myself.”

Chris’ eyes bulged as they went back to her scar. But he sat, frozen in his seat, “Cali-“

“He said he found out about Natasha…called me a dyke,” she whimpered, not able to maintain eye contact with him any longer, “he said that gays deserve to die…he pulled a knife from his bag and he commanded me to stab myself…I-I did…and he left me at the high school to bleed out in the band room. If a janitor hadn’t have walked by…I-“

But she didn’t get to continue before Chris pulled her against his chest, his own tears blurring his vision, “no one is ever going to hurt you again, omega…I-I won’t let them.”

“I-I don’t want to think that Natasha would do anything like that,” she cried against his chest, fisting his shirt, “bu-but…she knew what he did. She knew how I felt about the commands…and she did it…it just sent me back…I-“

“It’s okay baby,” Chris cried, holding her to his chest, “you don’t have to talk about it okay…you can stay with me as long as you want…we can get your schedule moved around…it-it’s still early enough in the school year…just say the word and I’ll take care of it. Y-You won’t have to so much as see her if you don’t want to, Cal…but it’s entirely up to you. Just tell me what you want, and we’ll do it.”

“I can’t see her, Chris…please…help me.”

“Good evening…”

“Hey…”

“You uh…you’re Chris’ omega?”

She nodded softly, “I-I can stay in his room if you want me to…”

“No, no,” he said quickly, shaking his head, “I just…I didn’t expect to see you. Chris has been kind of hiding you the past few days…”

She frowned, “I’m sorry…Chris let me hide away in his room…I-uh…I’m kind of going through something. With Natasha.”

“He told me,” he frowned, taking a beer from the fridge. When she looked at it, he held it out to her, “do you want one?”

“I-uh…I’m nineteen.”

“You’re not planning on driving anywhere, are you?”

“I-I don’t have a car.”

He smiled and passed her one of the bottles after cracking it open. Opening the fridge, he’d grabbed himself another one, and cracked it open before taking a swig, “from what Chris tells me, you need it then…”

“Natasha doesn’t like alcohol.”

She frowned realizing that she’d rejected the drink under the grounds that her mate wouldn’t like it. Sebastian gave her a sympathetic look, “I can get you something else if you like.”

“No,” she said firmly, putting her hand over the bottle. She picked it up and took a swig, “I-I want to start doing things because it’s what I want to do…n-not what she expects of me.”

“Do you want to drink?”

She frowned. Not entirely put off by the question, but she wasn’t entirely sure about the answer. Did she want to drink?

“I-I don’t know.”

“Well, how about this…I’ll grab you a bottle of water, and I won’t judge you if you don’t drink,” he said in a kind, soft tone. Turning back to the fridge, Cal watched as he grabbed her a bottle and slid it across the island to her, “and in the meantime, I’m going to spill my guts to you, because I need a sounding board, and quite frankly, I don’t care if it’s Chris, Tom, or someone I don’t know…if that’s alright.”

Cal gave him a small smile, happy that he was offering her a distraction that didn’t include her own personal relationship woes, “O-okay.”

Sebastian smiled, walking around the island before sitting on one of the bar stools beside her, “we can even pretend we’re in a bar and don’t know each other if you want.”

“We really don’t know each other,” she giggled, feeling more at ease by the alpha’s joke, “Y-you’re a silly man, Sebastian.”

“Thank you,” he smirked, taking another swig from his beer, “so where did Chris go off to anyways while he left you here?”

“He-he’s picking up a pizza…I asked if we could do a pizza and movie night.”

“You’re getting Chris to eat pizza?” he laughed, “the man hasn’t even looked at a carb as long as I’ve known him and you’re getting him to eat that? Fair warning, I may be invading your movie night just for the chance to see him eat pizza.”

Calista giggled again, feeling even more at ease with the elusive roommate that Chris had told her about, “O-okay…but weren’t you going to tell me about something you needed help with first?”

“You’re a girl, right?”

Calista smiled, unable to stifle her laughter. Instead, she opted for a sarcastic tone as she ‘looked at herself’ in mock horror, “Me? What? When did that happen? All this time I thought I was a guy!”

Sebastian smiled, “alright smartie…well brace yourself! This is about to get real.”

Calista grinned now, using both her hands to brace herself on the counter, earning a look from Sebastian, “what? You said to brace myself!”

“Oh, you’re perfect for Chris,” he laughed, turning back to his beer. He took another drink, and this time, Calista reached for her own bottleneck and tipped it back, enjoying the foreign taste, “so…I don’t know if Chris has told you or not, but I found my mate…and she’s a student in one of my classes.”

“Hmm,” she said passively, “there seems to be a lot of that going around lately.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes, knowing that she was referring to both herself, and the situation where Chris had told her about their roommate Tom falling for one of his students, only he’d marked her and then realized that she was a student, not a professor.

“Anyways,” he laughed, dragging out the word, “I haven’t heard from her since Wednesday…and it’s now the weekend…and our first shoot is due by Wednesday…she has my number, but she never texted me…would it be weird if I reached out to her via her school email?”

“Kind of,” she admitted softly, “Chris told me that she’s got a boyfriend…right?”

“Yeah,” he groaned, “from a rival frat too!”

She frowned, “a rival frat?”

“When I went here, I was in a frat called Phi Sigma Alpha,” he told her softly, “me, Chris, Tom…we all went here…me and Tom were Alphas…Chris pledged as a Rho…but we forgave him for that.”

She giggled at the cheeky comment, just as Chris strolled into the house, the smell of a large pepperoni pizza filling the air.

“LUCY I’M HOME!”

Chris was surprised to follow the sounds of her giggles, finding her still in the kitchen, but not alone. Sebastian was sat beside her, an unopened bottle of water in front of her, and a beer that was half gone beside that. Chris rose his brow.

“I-I wanted a beer,” she said quickly, following his line of sight, “he didn’t force me to drink it.”

“Beer?” Sebastian offered his friend. Chris shook his head.

“No,” he smiled, reaching out for the bottle of water, “if someone is getting an introduction to drinking tonight, I’m going to be the sober one.”

Her eyes widened slightly, “I-I’m allowed to have more than one?”

Chris leaned forward and kissed her temple, “you can have as many as you want omega…I’ll only cut you off if you have too much.”

She chirped happily at his comment and Sebastian gave them a soft look, “see…that’s what I want…you two are cute together…the girl I like…the one I was telling you about…we kissed, and she avoided me all last week. Then on Wednesday she told me she had a boyfriend. So, as I was saying…I went to the guys place…and here’s the thing I didn’t tell you Chris, her boyfriend…a Rho…”

Chris froze, looking at his friend, “what?”

“Kids a Rho…belongs to your frat.”

“Rho’s don’t really do girlfriends, Sebastian…especially not their current line up. I think only one really has a girl right now…and that’s rare.”

“I gathered as much when he wouldn’t come to their door, and their president tried scaring me off!” he grumbled, “you know Curtis…right?”

“Dear god, please tell me Curtis isn’t her boyfriend.”

She looked to Chris, “What’s the matter with dating a Rho?”

“They’re kind of ultra-macho dicks,” he admitted sadly, “I mean…as you can see, we grow out of it…but…it takes some time.”

“No…some guy name Bobby!” Sebastian claimed, “but apparently the girlfriend rule went out the window, because that Curtis kid had his mate there too.”

Chris’ eyes closed and he sighed, “Bobby Pronge?”

Sebastian shrugged, rolling his eyes, “I don’t know the fucker’s last name…it doesn’t matter…the point is, I went there and tried to talk to him like a man. But he wouldn’t show his face…he was too busy fucking some pledge for their sister sorority.”

Calista bit her lip, remembering the name, but not able to place it, “that’s really messed up.”

“Right?” he asked, turning his attention to her, “I just…I don’t know what to do. If it’s weird to message her through her school email, and I don’t have her number, what else can I do?”

“You just have to wait, I guess,” she sighed sadly, taking another drink of her beer, “sometimes you just have to wait out the situation and hope for the best.”

“I don’t want to wait though.”

“Hey…I waited and look what happened to me!” she pointed out, “I ended up getting to know my other mate…”

“Uggh,” he groaned, “that’s just it. She claimed that this fuck head was her mate…after we discussed it when we kissed, we had the understanding that I was her mate.”

“Well, I have two,” Calista reasoned, “Maybe this girl has two mates as well…I mean…I’m not going to lie, when I found out that Chris was my other mate back in May, it sent me into a tizzy. I freaked out…having two alphas is a scary concept. You know? Two ruts to take care of. Will it throw your heat cycle off? All kinds of things!”

“That’s just it, she’s a human, and she’s not bonded like you and Natasha are!” he said quickly, looking at her, “she’s a human and he’s got her convinced that he’s, her mate. She doesn’t hardly know anything about shifters…I mea-“

“Wait?” Calista asked, something clicking in her mind. Her eyes went wide as she looked to Chris, thinking about the sex tape that had been circulating during her Friday class. A human with a shifter. Alpha Chi Rho, “what did you say his name was again? And hers?”

“His name is Bobby…and hers is Alana Moore.”

“It’s Robert Pronge,” Chris confirmed, rubbing Calista’s back. His brow furrowed as his attention went to her, “why? Do you know something, omega?”

“N-no…not at all,” she lied, shooting Chris a look as she turned to him, mouthing that she’ll explain it later, “c-can we go eat our pizza and watch movies? I need to get this off my mind.”

“Yeah…of course, omega!”

Chapter 7

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