Page 10 of Heartless

“Two alphasons and a Clan Alpha,” I corrected him, then shrugged. “The way I see it, this is the perfect solution. Vail gets three times the support, and we put an end to all the secrets and confusion between us.” I flashed them a grin that was pure wolf, even if mine was still sulking under a rock. “Win-win.”

Chapter Six – Vail

I guess I was lucky Callum grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the rose cottage, given I was moments away from melting into the carpet. Because if I’d heard right, Jasper wasn’t just planning on joining Callum in our fake mating - he was dragging Reed along for the ride.

“Obsessive idiot,” Callum muttered as soon as we out of range of Jasper’s stern-faced lieutenants. “It’s never going to happen.”

“It’s not?”

“Got your hopes up, No Chance?” He sneered, then hauled me towards the main building. It was only mid-afternoon, but it was December in the mountains, and dusk was rolling in fast. It threw sharp shadows on the snow, their jagged points like teeth waiting to tear at my ankles. But the monster at my side kept me on my feet, yanking me up the stairs and pushing me through the foyer. Enough students were loitering around for a chorus of whispers and giggles to follow us into the elevator, but Callum barely seemed to hear them. He was too busy stabbing the elevator button and throwing me dark looks like I’d engineered this whole nightmare.

He’d always taken my ignorance as a personal insult, so I didn’t have to wait long to get a sneering explanation. “A Clan Alpha can’t saddle himself with a triad. Even Jay can’t force the Old Pack assholes to go along with that.” He leaned in close, his face fierce in his anger. “You get that, Little Freak? You’d be signing yourself up to three alphas. And none of this daisy chain bullshit your friends promised you. It’d be raw, hard fucking, until Jay had you properly bred.”

My stomach clenched at his crude words, but when I tried to pull away, he grabbed my ponytail, holding me still. “And there’s no way Reed’s old man is letting his line end with him. So, you’d have to whelp a Marshall litter, too.” His black eyes glittered with malice as he pulled me hard against him. “See the problem, pussycat?”

I was panting, but it wasn’t from fear. Callum might have scared me once upon a time, and I’d ducked into my share of broom closets to avoid meeting him in a hallway. But this close to his body, I could feel the deep tremble in his limbs. And his peppery scent wasn’t just angry… it tasted sour, like disappointment. “I get it,” I said in a low voice, untangling my hair from his grip. “No interspecies babies for me.”

My flat expression made him relax on his heels a bit. “The world’s enough of a zoo as it is,” he muttered. “And we don’t need your toxic bloodline making it murkier.”

I ignored him. Slinging slurs at my parentage was old news. Besides, I had a wedding picture in my pocket if I ever needed to remind myself where I’d come from. And a letter from Darkness to remind me where I belonged.

When we reached the alpha floor, I felt my panic rise as I realized we were headed back to his room. The thought of being in an enclosed space with Callum for any length of time was bad enough, but there was no way he was chaining me to his bed again. “I’ve got afternoon classes,” I told him as he herded me towards his door. “I’m going to be late for gym.” I didn’t add that it was one of my self-defense sessions with Reed, and therefore likely to be a blowout.

“Don’t worry,” he said, and gave me a little push in the back. “I’ll make sure you work up a sweat.”

Words to instantly trigger an icy trickle down my spine. I quickly crossed the room, putting the bed between us. When I turned, he had the door closed behind him and a strange look in his eye. From what I’d seen, Callum fluctuated between sleepy disinterest and sneering dislike, but right now he was staring at me like he was trying to peel the skin from my bones. “I still don’t see it,” he muttered, tossing his keys on the desk. “What the hell did you do to him, to make all this worth it?”

I knew he wasn’t really asking me, but right now talking was far preferable to action. “I’m ready to walk away. I told you that. If you just step aside, I’ll be gone, and you and the other guys can go back to how things were before we met.”

I thought I sounded reasonable, even if there was a lump climbing my throat, but a high color bloomed in his pale cheeks. “Don’t act like you can fix anything. We both know you’re only good for fucking things up.” He set his jaw, his gaze flicking to the bed. “Maybe that’s it. Letting you go will just turn it into a chase. But fucking you… that’d have to take the shine off his pretty little omega.”

I gulped. I couldn’t help it. Callum Sawyer was admitting out loud that he planned to rape me. My eyes jumped from his dark gaze to the desk, where his room keys lay next to his letter opener. Run or fight, I needed to decide. Because there was no way I was letting this asshole touch me. “Remember the interspecies thing, Callum. You don’t want to do this any more than I do.”

“I don’t?”

“We hate each other.”

He shook his head slowly. “It’s a thin line, Little Freak.”

“It’s really not,” I argued. “And if you try to do anything, I’ll scream the roof off this room.”

He tilted his head at the heavily paneled wall. “Soundproofed. No one’s going to hear you.”

My second padded box in a day. I still felt like screaming, but in frustration now. But instead, I focused on my hands, trying to force my claws out. “Then I’ll fight you. Maybe you can still take me, but you’ll have to explain some interesting injuries to your Clan Alpha.” As he tilted his head, sizing me up, I thought of the way Jasper had kneeled between my legs and kissed my hands. Of the way he’d looked at me in the cold emptiness of the rose cottage, like I was the only spark of warmth in the room. Things might have been messed up between us, but there was no way he’d let Callum attack me and walk away. “I’m not worth it, Callum,” I told him, my voice steadier. “But Jasper thinks I am, so you’re going to step aside and let me leave.”

A gamble, since no alpha liked to take orders from an omega, but as his lips twisted with a retort, muffled music began to play. His brows knotted as he pulled his phone from his pocket and checked the screen. It took me a moment to realize the ringtone was Missy Elliot’s Pussy Cat.

Urgh.

“Saved by the bell,” he muttered, listening for a moment, before cutting off the call with a grunt. Dropping it into his pocket, he snatched up his keys and jerked his head towards the door. “We’ve been summoned to the principal’s office, Little Freak. Seems Old Man Marrow wants a proof of life.”

***

I kept a good three feet between us, even in the elevator, but Callum didn’t seem to care. His dark hostility was muted as he slouched in the corner, and I sensed he was busy going over something in his mind. I had to wonder if he was stressed about whatever this was with my grandfather. Matings had to be approved by pack leadership, especially when an alphason was involved, which was why Reed and I had gone to such lengths to prove we were a blood-to-blood bonding. The same argument I’d used on Jasper, when I’d explained how I’d ended up the Sawyer Luna-in-Waiting. But after Callum’s revolting rape threat, I was done. Politics. Claiming bonds. Alpha triads. They could all go to hell. I was getting Marnie’s phone, calling Darkness, and then putting these feral wolves behind me for good.

But first I had to survive the Principal’s Office.

Two of the worst experiences of my life had happened in that room. The first was when I signed a document that landed me in the pack lab, putting me at the mercy of a sadistic doctor who stripped me of Jasper’s claiming mark and labeled me a void. The second was when a tracker was inserted behind my ear against my will. All part of Jasper’s need to control my every move, although he claimed it was his mom who’d given the order. Either way, my trust was broken more than once in that office and I approached it now with a churning gut.

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