Page 6 of Cerberus

Then, poof.

Nothing.

Some lukewarm text replies and some talented avoidance, and it was like those two weeks had never happened.

Plus, the worst of it hadn’t even been that he had ghosted me. The worst part had been how hurt I’d been that he’d done it. No one should have been as hurt as I’d been after only two weeks of hanging out with a person, but I’d been feeling extremely hurt. Hell, I was still kind of hurt over it.

Instead of going back down that road again for no reason, I went back to obsessing over Pinterest. It was bad enough that I saw him on campus, and he acted like I didn’t exist. I didn’t need Ross Carmichael taking up any more of my time or emotions.

Besides, common sense told me that I had never been in it for the long haul. Men like Ross Carmichael ended up with women like Kincaid Black or Hastings Martin. Kincaid with her inky black hair, black eyes, stunning face, and curvy body. Hastings Martin with her platinum blonde hair, hazel eyes, beautiful face, and perfect body. Men like that didn’t end up with regular women. Though I didn’t consider myself ugly, I didn’t stop traffic, either. I could easily get lost in a crowd, and I was actually okay with that. Being beautiful had to be stressful as hell, I would imagine.

With my thoughts directed back on Pinterest-and rightfully so-I started scrolling through my feed, thinking now would be a good time to look for some Halloween ideas. Sure, Halloween was still a few weeks away, but last-minute costumes were a pain in the ass. Plus, with Halloween being every college girl’s opportunity to show the goods and not feel guilty about it, a lot of the good costumes were usually taken. While I had no idea what I wanted to dress up as, it’d be fun to look at ideas.

As I was scrolling, my phone rang, and when I saw it was Delta, I answered. “Hey.”

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“Laundry,” I answered. “You know how I do things.”

She chuckled. “I know, but what are your plans for tonight?”

“I was actually going to try to get my laundry and shopping in today, so I could relax a bit tomorrow. Why?”

“Malcolm’s having a few people over for his roommate’s birthday,” she said. “It’s not a real party, just a small group of people to wish Derek a happy birthday.”

While I had nothing against Malcolm, I didn’t know his people. “And?”

I could hear her sigh over the phone. “I want you to go with me.”

“Why?” I asked. “You know that I don’t know any of his friends, Delta. Wouldn’t that seem odd?”

“I don’t want to go, Sutton,” she admitted. “Now that…I’ve got thoughts in my head, I’m starting to feel uncomfortable around him outside the bedroom.”

“Oh, Delta…” My heart hurt for her.

“I know,” she mumbled miserably. “I just…”

Making a snap decision, I said, “Let’s have a girls’ night. Tell him you can’t go.”

Her voice perked up. “Yeah? You want to do that?”

“Yeah,” I told her because heartache really was a cold bitch.

Chapter 5

Ross~

This was not my idea of fun.

Not in the least.

However, I had expected it. With Stone running amok, I imagined a lot of these meetings in our future. Plus, something was telling me that August Remington wasn’t going to just fade off into the night. That dude was bad news, and I didn’t trust him for shit.

“While I can admit that this year’s initiation has been…unprecedented, that does not mean you are allowed to continue to do whatever the hell you want,” Alexander stated, kicking off our reprimand. “There are rules, traditions, and stipulations that make all of this work. There’s structure to keeping The Order running at its finest. You forget yourselves, gentlemen. You are not full-fledged members until you graduate without scandal.”

“If you want to yell at someone, yell at me, Alexander,” Stone told him. “The others weren’t a part of my decision to marry Rylee without the panel present.”

Alexander looked over at Stone. “While it is encouraged that you form a bond with your initiating class, you answer to the organization first, Mr. Lexington. Mr. Harrington, Mr. Voss, Mr. Carmichael, or Mr. Remington should have informed one of us of what was transpiring.”

---