Page 4 of Wanted Beta

It would get me out of here, but it would also mean staying out until Catherine got home, because I know beyond a doubt, she would kill me if I left a window open so I could climb back in.

I’d never get away with that. I’m not sneaky enough. I’m too prone to talking about everything I’ve been doing. Since I’ve only been here one night so far, and I’m definitely not ready to go back to my dorm room, I should at least try to be on my best behavior.

I’ll just have to make do with Catherine’s super healthy food today.

Tomorrow, I’ll go out to the nearest store.

Sighing, I grab a diet soda from the fridge, and I put a handful of raisins in a bowl. A second sweep of the cupboards reveals a bag of mixed nuts which I open and add a couple handfuls of to the top of my bowl of dehydrated grapes. I pour a low-fat yogurt on top, and I find the silverware drawer.

I eat breakfast in front of a reality TV show in Catherine’s pristine living room.

It takes me all of three seconds to drip yogurt onto the plush rug under her coffee table.

Because of course the yogurt drips weird, flying over the hardwood flooring to land on the duck-egg blue rug instead of dripping directly downward.

Ugh. What a pain.

I set the bowl down carefully and go grab supplies to clean up the mess.

I manage not to drip again, but I do drop the spoon on the way back to the kitchen. Thankfully, it’s easier to wipe the tiny drops of yogurt off the hardwood floor.

Once I’m done with breakfast, and the TV show is replaced by something less interesting, I’m left pacing around, wishing I had a key.

I’m locked in here.

That’s kind of fucked up.

I mean, it’s not as fucked up as being tied to a chair inside a closet that smells like feet, but it still makes me feel trapped, and that makes me anxious enough that I have to go open the window in my bedroom and stand by it, breathing in the cold air of the city to reassure myself that I’m not here against my will.

I called Catherine and told her what happened, hoping she’d take pity on me. I didn’t even need to ask if I could crash at her place, she invited me before I was even done explaining what had happened.

I felt like a fifth, no, sixth wheel over at Secret’s house. She has four mates, and I could tell I was in the way, even if she told me I could stay for as long as I wanted, I knew I couldn’t.

I also knew I couldn’t go back to my dorm room.

I’ve been alone in that room since Secret met her mates, and I know that’s the only reason I accepted Marcus’s study date offer. I didn’t want to go back there alone again, when I could be somewhere else with company.

I knew it was a mistake, I just didn’t realize what kind.

An ill-advised hook-up with a guy who is maybe kind of an asshole is one thing.

I had no idea he was more than an arrogant know-it-all.

I really should have checked his socials.

Secret showed me his Facebook page.

Considering how much hate his rants about women contained, I have no idea how he restrained himself from chopping me into tiny little bits when he had the chance. I’m lucky he only tried to brainwash me into learning how to be a good old fashioned traditional woman.

I shiver a little as snippets of that weird training movie play over in my thoughts.

I’ll probably never forget a word of it, even though I desperately want to.

Closing the window, I tell myself it could have been worse.

It doesn’t make me feel any better.

I don’t know if I’ll ever trust a guy again.

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