Page 12 of Want It All
It was why the Omega Support Agency tracked and monitored us so closely. Well, that was the reason the government gave, anyway. They wanted us registered and contactable for our protection. There were eye-watering fines and jail time for unregistered omegas; that threat was enough to have most omegas on their database within days of emergence.
‘Thank you so much for your time,’ Tristan said, and I realised I’d missed everything the woman had said. ‘We should get going.’ He gave her a wide, warm smile; Sebastian wasn’t the only one who could ooze charm when he wanted.
‘In a hurry?’ Sebastian said, amused, as we walked from the room. His hand stayed on my hip; he didn’t seem inclined to move it, and I wasn’t about to ask him to.
‘Neither of you are going to choose sociology,’ Tristan answered. ‘You’re not interested, and Rose wasn’t even paying attention. Plus, those alphas in the corner were getting on my nerves.’
Sebastian frowned. ‘What alphas?’
I side-eyed him, realising that he hadn’t noticed them. He hadn’tneededto. Tristan had, and that was all that mattered.
I wondered what it would be like to have someone watch out for you like that.
I didn’t realise what the next mixer was until we’d walked into the common room, at which point I knewimmediatelyit was literature becausehewas there.
I knew more about him now: that his name was Byron; that he was the son of Banksia’s new Dean; and that his Honours thesis on the modern Gothic had been published in a prestigious journal soon after he’d graduated. Along with that, I’d watched the scene in the dining hall a hundred times in different postson Banksia’s social media app, seen the horror dawn in his grey eyes after his voice wound through the dining hall.
And I also knew what he’d said after I’d left. That he’d hurt anyone who did anything I didn’t want.
I hadn’t quite forgiven him, but knowing it had been an accident – and knowing he’d tried to make it better by bringing me food for the last few days – went a long way.
He was trying to make himself seem smaller, keeping his hands in his pockets and his arms tight by his side as he spoke to a later-year student, but it was like asking a mountain to shrink. He dominated the room regardless, and not just because of his size. There was something about him that drew the eye; I wondered if he knew it, if the black clothes and the hunched shoulders were his way of trying to fade into the background.
He went still as he noticed me, his stormy eyes tracking from my feet to the top of my head, as if making sure I was all there. They fixed for a moment on Sebastian’s hand, still hot on my hip, before he blinked and returned his attention to the conversation.
I exhaled shakily.
‘Fuck, he’s gorgeous,’ Sebastian said under his breath, dipping his head closer to mine. I eyed him sideways; he shrugged. ‘What? I’m allowed tolook.’
‘He’s …’ I began, then trailed off, struggling to find the right word. He – Byron – was too masculine to be beautiful, buthandsomewasn’t right, either; something about him was too hard for that. ‘Yeah,’ I said at last. ‘He is.’
‘We heard he’s been bringing you food.’
I gave Sebastian a sharp look. ‘Youheard?’
He grinned. ‘Okay, we saw trays outside your room and assumed it was him, because the kitchens will only deliver during term time. We were just checking you were alive, I swear.’
‘It could have been anybody,’ I pointed out, though he was right.
When his mother had visited me, offering apologies on behalf of herself and the university administration in a sincere, stricken kind of way, she’d suggested they set up a camera outside my door – a suggestion I’d accepted.
I may have checked it around mealtimes. For safety reasons, obviously. Absolutely not to ogle the alpha.
‘He emailed me,’ I blurted out. ‘To apologise.’
Sebastian’s gaze flew to my face. ‘Was it a good one?’
It had beenreallygood.Toogood, even. ‘Yep.’
‘So why aren’t we over there?’
I narrowed my eyes. ‘Why are you invested?’
He grinned at me. ‘Who wouldn’t be?’
My eyes darted back to the big alpha. He straightened, and the woman he was speaking to eyed the way his chest expanded.
‘Um,’ I said, my mind suddenly blank.
