Page 57 of Carmichael's Omega

Conejita - Goodnight my love

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Matthew

I could cry with happiness as Gio walks across campus with me. Gio is a trained male. Not as big as Dylan, but still intimidating. The bruises decorating his face from Rique make him look even scarier. When Dylan sees him, he'll finally back off. Not to mention, Gio is an excellent excuse not to attend any parties or activities that Dylan may be at.

"So, Mattie. I'll be here and around campus, but I'll interfere with your life as little as possible."

No, please interfere. I bite my tongue. "OK," I tell him. I pull my sweatshirt more tightly around me. It smells like Cassie instead of Dylan now. Somehow my sister managed to cover everything I own in her scent, a fact I'm embarrassingly grateful for.

"If you need anything, send me a text. Beta gave me your class schedule, and I arranged all of my training to be around those times as much as possible."

"Good," I say. Relief fills me. I still have to walk around campus for class alone, but all the after-class activities will be stymied.

"Beta told me you were trying to transfer to Caluna?"

"Next year," I reply.

"So, if you want to hang with your sister on the weekends, we can go there."

"She lives in a sorority house," I explain. It's why I haven't been up there more than once. I can't stay overnight.

"It's only an hour away from the apartment. We can drive back and forth," Gio says.

More relief. Gio doesn't suck at driving like my sister and I do.

"Hey, Gio? What do you know about Cassie's mate?" I ask him softly as we stop outside of my next class.

Gio is quiet for a minute. "He's a hard male. LoboGris is rumored to have ties with drug cartels deep in Mexico. Other rumors say that they are essentially in a constant state of war with those cartels. It all seems like a mess."

"Will she be safe with him?" I ask quietly.

Gio is quiet for a minute. "He went to ClearHowl to announce his mating to your sister. At least he's not a pussy, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so," I tell him doubtfully. I can't even find the guts to say 'no' to Dylan. What chance does Cassie have against her alpha-mate?

"I'm worried," I confess.

"ClearHowl protects their own, Mattie."

I nod, my nerves ratcheting upwards at just the thought of that dark male on the motorcycle. Cassie is easy to take advantage of. She has no idea how many males Teague and Alpha Alex warned away. When she insisted on going to school away from the pack, Alpha Alex made sure that she chose Caluna, a school with protection for her in place. State doesn't have that luxury for me, unfortunately.

A pang of hurt flutters, and I push it away. I'm the one who insisted on going here. I'm the one who wanted to hide my status as a male Omega. I'm the one who has isolated himself here, without any friends, because of Kenneth and Dylan scaring them off.

"Matt? You OK?" Gio asks me worriedly.

"Gio..." It's on the tip of my tongue to tell him about Dylan. Maybe Gio can even pretend to be my boyfriend to make Dylan back off a little.

"Yeah, Matt?"

"I'll see you later," I tell him. I can't ask Gio to pretend to be my boyfriend. How pathetic is that?

Gio pats me on the shoulder and walks off with a slight limp. Taking a big breath, I go into class, keeping my head down. Dylan has some of his frat buddies in this class. They usually leave me alone, but I can feel eyes on me today. Probably because of Gio.

"Hey, mind if I sit here?"

I look up to see a handsome human smiling down at me. A little confused, I move my bag over to give him space at the table.

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