LOGIN“What am I doing? What were you doing letting another man feel you up?” “I don’t belong to you. I can let whoever I want to feel me up. Take a hint Declan.” I ran a hand over her arms and watched as goosebumps rose on her skin. I could smell her arousal, and knew every alpha could too. I was overwhelmed with the urge to carry her away and lock her up for my eyes only. I settled for pulling her into me and burying my face into her hair. Her scent drove me crazy. She smelled so sweet, so safe, like home. “Does his touch make you feel like this? Does his scent make your pussy purr, Maeve?” She gasped, and I watched, satisfied, as a blush crawled onto her face. Without a word, she had given me my answer. She could deny the way we reacted to each other with her words, but the body didn’t lie. She wanted me. ********* One night. One mistake. One bond that will never break. It was supposed to be nothing more than a freshman party with loud music, bad drinks, and no consequences. But when I locked eyes with him, I knew I was walking straight into trouble. I did it anyway. He’s been searching for me, watching me, and obsessing over me. The possessive alpha he keeps buried slips closer to the surface every time I push back and remind him I don’t belong to anyone. But bonds don’t care about pride. And the darker his desire gets, the harder it becomes to tell whether I’m running from him… or provoking him on purpose. Because the truth is, I never forgot that night either. And some knots were never meant to be broken.
View MoreMAEVE'S POV
“Hey! Watch it!” I said when my bag fell to the floor because a girl bumped into me. She was surrounded by two other girls, and I knew they thought they looked put together to themselves, but they just looked like a hot mess to me with their cakey makeup and tacky clothing.
The main girl who had pushed me laughed and looked at her ilk for support.
“You watch it, girl. Can’t you have some respect?” Her voice was shrill and it almost made me raise my hands to my ears.
I knew what was happening, of course. I had run into the HBIC (high-bitch-in-charge). Just my luck, huh?
“You were the one who bumped into me, girl.” Of course, I knew what I had to do. I had to establish myself as the Higher-Bitch. Nothing else would do.
“Seems you don’t know who you’re talking to, huh?” Minion number 2 said with a smirk.
“I don’t know, and I don’t give a shit. Now get out of my way.”
“Or what?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “What’s your name?” I asked the HBIC.
“Oh, now you’re afraid huh. Well, you should be. Because I'm Ashley Jefferson, and Blackwood University is my turf. So, if you don’t want to make your life hell here, I suggest you get on your knees and grovel. Maybe I'll forgive you.”
“You really are a dumb blonde Ashley. You should apologize so I don’t make your life a living hell.”
“Bitch, what did you just say to me?”
There are two simple rules I follow in life. One, never let anyone get the upper hand on me. Two, wield the Collins name like a knight with no mercy.
Right now, rule number two was in play because I had to teach this girl a lesson.
“I said you should apologize. It's rude to bump into people and act all high and mighty about it.” I said, and the girl and her horde of witches laughed.
I knew girls like her. The ones who thought they were untouchable because their daddy was rich, and he always bailed them out of any ditch they got themselves into. Well, not this time.
I took my phone out of my bag and called my father’s secretary, Ali.
“Hey Maeve. What's up?” She asked as a greeting.
“Nothing much Ali. Do you happen to know any Jefferson family?”
The girl frowned, but I just smirked at her. I had only just gotten started after all.
“Yeah. Has a daughter named Ashley, needs your father’s funding for a project. What is the matter?”
“I think you’ll have to tell daddy dearest that the Jeffersons no longer need our assistance. His daughter is a raging bitch.”
Ali finally caught my game and laughed. She didn’t say anything, but she stayed on the phone. Of course, I couldn’t influence what deal my father signed on or not, but Ashley didn’t know that, and her white face brought joy to my heart.
“What the hell are you talking about bitch? Is this some form of joke? Who the hell are you?”
“Ah Ashley. But that should have been the first question you asked. I’m Maeve Collins.”
Minion number 1 swallowed. “Like Collins, as in the Collins empire?”
I smirked at her. “The one and only. It seems one of you has some brain in your head after all.”
“Shit Ashley!” We've fucked up. Her family is one of the richest in the country. And their connections to people in power are unmatched. She can ruin our lives!”
Ashley’s eyes widened as she took me in again, and I knew my dressing was deceptive. The weather was hot, and I had some jorts, a crop top, and some pink sneakers on. My silver hair was packed into a messy ponytail, and my headphones hung off my neck. I looked plain and boring, and that was exactly the point. I didn’t want attention, because I was so not ready to find my place on the Omega food chain in Blackwood, but only if wishes were horses.
“I’m so sorry! It's just a bit of harmless fun amongst girls!” Ashley stuttered out and ran before I could say a word.
I knew word would spread, and everyone would leave me alone just like I wanted.
Bliss finally.
Standing in front of Blackwood University, I knew this would be the perfect place for a girl like me to thrive. I looked back at my driver who had been quiet for the whole encounter and rolled my eyes at the look on his face.
I didn’t overpack for today. I wanted to map out the territory first and know if I would be staying on campus like my mother wanted, or if I would be looking for accommodation elsewhere.
But with my first encounter with miss HBIC, I knew I would absolutely not be staying on campus.
“Hey Nick. I’m going to take a look around. You can take my box to my assigned room and go home.”
“Okay Miss Collins.”
“Tell Mommy Dearest I’m alright, will you?”
“Of course, Miss Collins. But you know she will prefer to hear from yourself.”
“Yeah yeah. Tell her I'll call once I'm settled. Drive safe.”
And with that, I began my exploration into my new home, Blackwood University.
Blackwood University was one of the few that accepted Alphas, Omegas and Betas all together. Other institutions tended to separate the ‘aggressive’ Alphas from the ‘weak’ omegas, and Betas were admitted into these segregated schools.
Right now, as the scents of different omegas and alphas assaulted my senses, I kinda saw a little reason for the segregation. But i would never say that out loud of course.
My mother had to be convinced I her I wasn’t going to leap onto the first Alpha I saw and make him mark me. My mother was a beta who had married an alpha, and she had given birth to two omegas, and an alpha. Poor woman.
I shouldn’t be thinking of my mother right now so I put the thought out of my mind and skipped halfheartedly across the hallway till I burst into a field where the freshers seemed to be a field where the freshers seemed to be socializing.
I was about to go make myself some new friends when I felt goosebumps rise on my skin. I paused and looked around to find the person.
My eyes collided with a man standing by himself with his hands in his pockets. He had the stance of someone who was used to getting everything he wanted. He was very obviously an alpha, and when his scent drifted to me, I stumbled.
Even beneath all the suppressants I used, I could smell him vividly.
He smelt like... my mate???
Maeve's POVHe blocked the door without thinking about it, I could tell, because the thinking came after. He was just there, suddenly between me and the exit, and he looked almost as surprised by it as I was. "Move," I said. "No," he said. I looked at him. "Declan." "Stop running Maeve," he said. "Every time this gets close to something real you run. I'm done watching you do it." The nerve of that landed somewhere that immediately became anger, which was fine, anger I knew how to use. "I'm running?" I spoke. "Do you want to talk to me about running? You, who told me it was a mistake the morning after you bit me, who avoided me for three months with surgical precision, who lied to a scout in your coach's office—you want to stand at my exit and tell me I'm the one who runs?" Something moved through his face. "That's fair," he said. "All of that is fair." "I know it's fair," I said. "So move." "No," he said again. I took a step toward him. "You don't get to do this. You don't ge
Declan's POVShe asked first. I had been ready for that. "Why have you been watching me?" And I had asked back, because it was the only fair response, the only question that matched hers in weight. "Why did you call me on New Year's Eve?" Neither of us answered and the apartment settled around us in the silence, and we stood there on opposite sides of it and I watched her do what she did, which was hold herself exactly where she needed to be and look at me with those brown eyes that the bond had been giving me in impressions for months. She was so beautiful. I had thought it in September and I had been thinking it in some form every day since and standing in my own apartment with her in it for the first time, the apartment that smelled like me and not like her and was therefore the wrong scent as far as the bond was concerned. "You first," she said. "Ladies first," I said. Something crossed her face that might have been the beginning of a smile before she caught it. "I came he
Maeve's POVI closed the laptop and sat there for a moment. Then I stood up, put my things in my bag, and walked out of the library. I had been sitting with the decision for two weeks in the same way I sat with difficult legal arguments, turning it over, examining it from every angle, looking for the flaw that would make it untenable. Looking for the reason that outweighed all the other reasons. I had been thorough about it, the way I was thorough about everything that mattered, and the conclusion I kept arriving at was the same one every time. I was done waiting for a readiness that was never going to feel clean. There was no version of ready that came without the weight of September and the weight of my family and the weight of everything that sat between us. I had understood that on the river path last Tuesday when I had felt him watching from his usual point and had felt, alongside the familiar complicated pull of the bond, something that was simply tired. Tired of managin
Declan's POVThe confirmation came on a Thursday afternoon by email, which was not how I had imagined it. I had imagined a phone call. Dan's voice, that contained excitement of his that he kept professional right up until it wasn't. A moment with weight to it. Instead it was an email with a subject line that read Formal Scouting Confirmation - D. Hayes and three paragraphs of language I had to read twice before it resolved into what it was actually saying, which was that I was being formally considered for the upcoming NHL draft and would be included in the official scouting pool. I sat at my desk and read it three times. This was it. This was the thing I had been building toward since I was twelve years old watching my dad flip through old game footage and telling me stories about what the game could give you if you gave it everything first. This was the thing my father had sat across from me and made me promise not to jeopardize. This was the point, the whole point, the reason
Declan's POVI smelled him on her before I saw them together. It was a Monday, and I was cutting across the east side of campus on my way back from the athletic facility. I had no reason to be on the east side except for the fact that I found any excuse to find a way to run into Maeve even when I
Maeve's POVMy mother called on Sunday at noon as usual. I was ready for her this time. I had spent the week building the version of myself that sounded settled, productive and completely fine, so when her contact photo lit up my screen, and I answered on the first ring. "Maeve." Her voice was pl
Maeve's POVThe first thing I noticed about Tyler was that he was easy, and in my current situation, easy was the most attractive quality a person could have. He didn't make the bond do anything. He didn't make my omega sit up and take notice. He was just a boy in my study group who was funny and s
Maeve's POVI knew the moment he found out who I was. I was in the library when the bond went sharp with shock first, and then it grew into heat, and before I knew it, I was partially blinded by the rage Declan was feeling. It hit me so suddenly that I knocked my highlighter off the table and had












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