Page 26 of Knot Your Rebel

Fifteen minutes later, I’m jamming my key into the lock of Nova’s front door. The car that just dropped me off sits idling at the side of the road for me, I’m assuming to make sure I’m getting in safely.

Pushing open the door, I step through and shut it behind me, twisting the lock on the door and deadbolt before kicking off my shoes. The farther into the house I move, the more I get this odd, uneasy feeling creeping through my bones. Something is off, but when I glance around, nothing looks out of the ordinary. The scent of sawdust clings to the air. It’s one that doesn’t belong to me or Nova. Nerves tingle up and down my arms as my heart rate picks up.

I bite my tongue to keep from calling out to Nova, but I know she’s not here. I haven’t seen her since we separated in the basement of my strangers house.

I peer down at my phone, hoping that there’s at least a little battery left in case I need to call nine one one, but it’s dead. It won’t even turn on. Fuck. I swallow the lump forming in my throat.

Everything looks untouched in the living room, so I make my way towards my room. At the last minute, I veer away from my room to check Nova’s room first. Flipping on the light, I see how my roommate normally leaves it. Clothes are scattered all over the floor. A random bra is thrown over the chaise in the corner. The sheets on her king bed are perfectly ruffled like she’d just slept in them. Books litter her desk. It’s her version of chaotic organization.

Let’s be honest. I love my best friend, but she has no respect for books. She’s one of those people who dog ear’s pages instead of using a bookmark like a normal human.

A few drawers on her desk are slightly open, which gives me another chilling feeling. She never leaves those unlocked, which means that she either unlocked it and forgot to relock it. Highly unlikely. Or someone was here tonight while we were at the party.

Grabbing the bat she has in the closet, I exit her room and head towards mine. What I find is an explosion. Clothes are tossed about the room. My bed is a disheveled mess. The sheets and pillows have been shredded as if a wild animal had gone on a field day. All my books from my bookshelf are haphazardly strewn onto the ground.

A small, yellow piece of paper lying on my desk captures my attention. It takes me three strides to get across the room, and then I’m leaning the bat against the desk before reaching down to pick it up. There are words scrawled on the front. “Being a tease gets little omega’s like you in a whole lot of trouble. Shouldn’t have done what you did. Prepare for the consequences coming your way.” The pen it was written with lies uncapped beside it on the desk.

The note warns me that this wasn’t a random break in. No, someone was here to send a message tonight. I can only wonder who it is. I’d put money on Brad. It seems like something he would do, even though I’ve noticed a new girl on his arm these days in the news. Good riddance.

I read the note one more time, allowing my eyes to scan over each word one by one. Why go through the trouble of trying to scare me when he has a new piece of eye candy hanging around? It just doesn’t make sense.

And how did they even get in? The front door hadn’t been tampered with and definitely wasn’t open when I got home. I walk over to the window in my room. It isn’t open, but there’s a breeze flooding in from the bottom, telling me it isn’t shut the whole way, either.

I’m losing my mind. I have to be. There’s no way both Nova and I would’ve left things unlocked today out of all days. It’s too much of a coincidence.

In all my determination to look around, I realize that I haven’t actually cleared the rest of the house. What if whoever did it is still hanging around watching me? The thought has bile rising up my throat. Taking a shaky breath, I reach down and grab the bat again. I turn on every single damn light in the apartment. Can’t hide if all the lights are on, right?

By the time I’m done, anger brims below the surface. How dare someone break into our house and try to scare me? I may be an omega, but I’m not weak. I can count the number of times I’ve cried or been frightened on my one hand. Grow up with parents like mine, and you tend to grow pretty thick skin.

And if I can deal with touchy alphas who are supposed to be foster parents, bullies at school, and living a life where no one seems to give a fuck whether you’re alive or dead, then I can deal with this. No more will I spend my life letting people get to me.

You let the stranger get to you tonight. I roll my eyes. Why did I like him so much? I should’ve been repulsed by his actions, but I wasn’t. In fact, I enjoyed them.

Did I shut down tonight when I realized someone had been here? No, I fought through it. Was I afraid? It was more caution than fear.

An hour later, I’m putting new sheets on my bed and sliding on the last pillow case. It wasn’t hard to clean up the mess. Luckily, I didn’t have to clean the walls or the floor. The crass words were confined to that yellow piece of paper. No paint or anything, which is good because the last thing I want is Nova having to deal with repainting or deep cleaning shit.

Meandering over to my dresser, I take a mental inventory of the things that are normally there. My mothers wedding ring set and earrings, the few pieces I managed to steal before I left, sit untouched in my small red jewelry box. The Rolex my father used to wear sits in the overly fancy wood and leather box that it came in when we gave it to him three, or was it four, years ago.

You don’t realize how many different boxes are put together to compliment one single piece. Leather boxes, wood boxes, and green boxes are just a few. I open the box, revealing the watch inside. My fingers trail over the cold 18 carat gold case and bracelet. The dial is champagne colored, and there’s sapphire crystal in the face. It’s elegant and cruel like he was all my life.

Why the fuck am I thinking about my parents? My mood slips out the window like a wisp of cold air. The urge to drink until I can’t think straight pours over me. Emotions erupt in a violent shiver. A tear slips down my cheek, and I shove it off my face like I’m repulsed. I’m allowed to feel emotions, I just choose not to. My brain seems to quiet for a few minutes, allowing me to ruminate in the peace of my surroundings.

I didn’t notice it before, but now that I’ve stopped moving, I realize it. There’s an emptiness inside me that wasn’t there before, and a tingle of awareness lights goosebumps up and down my arm when I realize I’m feeling some of my mate’s emotions. It’s a beautiful composition of concern, anger, and sadness. I frown. Why is he sad?

Shaking those thoughts away, I reject the notion of even thinking about him or caring if he’s sad. He put us in this situation, not me. I wasn’t the one who issued a bond mark tonight, forever linking us together. A small part of me wonders if he’s feeding off the emotions I felt when I first realized someone had broken in.

It doesn’t matter.

My thoughts spin to Nova. What if she comes home drunk from hanging out with Gunnar and stumbles in here to find him waiting on the couch in the dark like some fucking creeper? What if he… I swallow. No, I won’t think about that.

But he didn’t mess with her stuff, other than the desk. I wonder if he took something from her. Would she even know what it was? It was a blessing that he only seemed to really target my room.

Since when did our little neighborhood start going to shit? Poor girl has to deal with it now that she owns this place, and a part of me hates it for her.

She’s my person. We’ve been together since we were kids, and our bond has grown over the years. She was the first person to give a shit about me, and so, I always want to protect her from whatever I can. It’s the cancer sign part of my personality peeking out. She will always be my family, and I’ll cling to that fiercely with a death grip until my last breath.

Nova didn’t have to deal with the creeps who hung around or wonder if she was going to get a meal that evening. Hell, I bet she’s never stayed out all night just to get some space for a while when there’s four other foster kids all living under the same roof as you.

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