Page 79 of Toxic

"Great. So. Are you still planning to move downtown to be closer to DevApp?" he inquired in a weird, almost sarcastic tone.

Soren took a deeper drag, not even looking at Alvin.

"Still the plan," he answered coolly.

Alvin shot me a smirk that screamed, ‘I told you so’. Fucker.

I had the urge to… I don’t know, either explode or implode. The end was near. Soren had rented an apartment with Liam. I knew that. There wasn’t a place for me. He hadn’t changed those plans, and I still hadn’t had that conversation with him.

THE conversation!

"Well, whatever, guys. Don and I applied for jobs at D-project. So we probably won’t see each other," he added with a slight chuckle.

"Are you two together?" Soren suddenly asked, still not looking at Alvin. I noticed that this was his way of talking to people he didn't give a shit about—he rarely made eye contact. Now, he was blowing smoke rings into the air.

Alvin shrugged lightly. "We’re working on it. College is ending, there won’t be as much studying, just work. Gotta start a normal life, right? Relationships are fine, aren’t they? No more the Kingdom of Promises thing," he quipped bitterly.

"You’ll find an alternative, I’m sure," I grumbled.

"Gotta save up for my own condo. The challenges of adulthood."

Silence fell. Neither Soren nor I had any desire to dig into his relationship and future plans, for obvious reasons.

"Well, I see Don’s already out. Take care, guys!" Alvin raised a hand in farewell and walked away.

Soren kept blowing smoke into the air, and I still couldn’t—couldn’t get the words out… The longer I wrestled with it, the more impossible it seemed to overcome.

Finally, I stammered, "There’s a party at Yota 2 two days before graduation. Maybe we could go?"

Soren squinted a bit and shrugged.

"Sure," he muttered, releasing smoke in my direction like he always did.

I let my eyes trail over his body. He was wearing a black T-shirt, and I could see his nipples hardened from the cold. My gaze moved down to his side and left hip, where his tight black jeans sat low. A strip of skin was showing between his shirt and pants.

I stared at it, that sliver of pale skin catching my attention. Slowly, I reached out and brushed my finger over it. Soren let out a quiet gasp.

My hand slid under his shirt, moving slowly, teasingly, up toward his nipple. Soren closed his eyes, leaning into the touch. It was our little ritual—when he smoked, he’d let me touch him like this, tilting his head back. I looked at his pale neck, at his glands—different from an omega’s, flatter and smaller. But I felt a strange hunger.

Suddenly, I grabbed him by the waist, pulling him close, almost roughly.

"Sometimes I feel like I’m gonna lose my mind, you drive me crazy, I want you so bad!" I growled in his ear, my lips sucking his glands hard. Soren made a low, throaty sound. Weird—it almost sounded like an omega’s call when they’re inviting a mark. I felt a tingle in my gums, my dick got hard, my mating fangs… I felt a sharp pain, and the tips of my canines grazed Soren’s glands!

I jerked back, practically jumping away. I tasted blood—not sure if it was mine, from my gums, or his—from the cut skin.

What just happened? I stared at him in shock. Damn, we hadn’t even had sex, and my fangs wanted to come out and mark him?! Soren was looking at me strangely too, his breathing quickened, pupils dilated.

"Sorry, I don’t know what came over me," I mumbled. Feeling overwhelmed by my weird reaction, I wiped the blood from my mouth, turned around quickly, and walked off.

This was getting out of control. I didn’t know why this wild urge to mate with Soren was growing so fast. For a moment, I felt like my body was scared—scared of graduation. And it wanted to keep him with me at any cost.

***

That evening, I was alone in my room with Archer when the notification popped up that the exam results were online.

I logged into the site to see the list of students who passed the exam and their scores. I swallowed hard, staring at the screen as the list slowly loaded.

Then I let out a high-pitched squeal, like an omega under stress.

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