Alpha Attention is Dangerous

 "I don't know what you're talking about."

 My voice comes out calm, even though my heart is racing. I keep my shoulders straight. I don't step back. I refuse to look weak, even though my palms are damp and my pulse won't slow, even though the alarm bell from moments ago still seems to echo somewhere deep in my bones, and half the lecture hall is still staring at the sleeve now covering my wrist.

 Jodan is still standing at the front of the lecture hall. His eyes don't leave me. Not for a second. It feels like he's peeling layers off my skin without touching me, like he already knows every lie I've ever told, and is simply waiting to see how long I'll keep telling them.

 Lucien is the first to break the silence. He lets out a soft laugh, smooth and careless, like nothing here matters. "Wow. Straight denial. I like her already."

 Riven doesn't laugh. His lips curl back slightly, like he's holding in a snarl. His eyes are sharp, focused, and dangerous. "She's lying."

 "I'm not," I snap, before I can stop myself.

 The word echoes louder than I expect.

 Every head in the room turns. Whispers ripple through the rows. Alphas shift in their seats, curious now, alert, phones half-raised before their owners think better of it.

 Eryx moves closer, slow and careful, like I might shatter if he moves too fast. "Are you feeling okay?" he asks. His voice is gentle. Too gentle. "Your scent is unstable."

 My suppressants burn like acid under my skin. Heat crawls along my spine.

 "I said I'm fine."

 Jodan lifts one hand.

 The room obeys him instantly. Conversations stop mid-sentence. Chairs scrape as people sit back down. Even Riven stills, though his eyes never leave me, his jaw tight with restraint, like something in him is fighting hard against its own leash.

 "Sit," Jodan says to the others.

 Lucien raises a brow but takes his seat, still watching me like I'm entertainment. Riven stays standing for a moment longer, chest rising and falling hard, then turns away with a sharp breath. Eryx returns to his place, though his concern doesn't fade, his gaze flicking back to me every few seconds like he can't quite make himself stop checking.

 Jodan finally sits down too, but the weight of his attention doesn't lessen. It presses against me like gravity, like the whole room has tilted slightly in his direction and dragged me down with it.

 The professor clears his throat, sweat shining on his forehead. "As I was saying..."

 No one listens.

 I stare at my desk and count my breaths. One. Two. Three. My hands shake slightly, so I curl them into fists under the table. I don't look up again until the bell rings.

 When the lecture finally ends, I stand up too fast. My chair scrapes loudly against the floor, the sound sharp in the sudden movement.

 I don't make it three steps before they're there.

 Lucien appears at my side, leaning casually against the aisle seat like he's been waiting. "Running already? We were just getting acquainted."

 "Move," I say.

 Riven steps in front of me, tall and solid like a wall. His scent crashes into me, hot and sharp, making my head spin. "You shouldn't be here."

 Selene's fingers dig into my sleeve behind me. "April," she whispers, panicked. "This is bad."

 Eryx looks between us, tension clear in the set of his shoulders. "She needs space."

 Jodan says nothing. He just watches, eyes unreadable, and somehow that silence is worse than anything the other three could say.

 "I need air," I say, forcing the words out. My chest feels tight. "Now."

 Jodan finally speaks. His voice is low, steady, commanding. "Stay close."

 It isn't a request.

 I push past Lucien and head for the door. Selene hurries after me, nearly tripping over her own feet. I don't look back, but I feel them behind me. Their presence presses against my back like heat, impossible to ignore, impossible to outrun.

 The hallway outside is packed. Students stop pretending not to stare. Whispers follow us like shadows.

 "That's her."

 "The omega."

 "What did she do?"

 "Why are the alphas..."

 Selene keeps talking, her voice rushed and tight, trying to drown them out. "This is really bad. Royals don't notice omegas unless something is wrong. Or valuable. Or dangerous."

 "I know," I mutter.

 We turn a corner toward my next class.

 They're already there.

 Lucien is leaning against the wall, arms crossed, smiling like this is all a joke. Riven stands in the middle of the hallway, blocking the path. Jodan is at the far end, calm and unmoving, like a king guarding territory he's already decided belongs to him. Eryx lingers near the window, watchful, quieter than the rest but no less present, his eyes tracking every twitch of my expression like he's reading a book only he can see.

 "You're following me," I say.

 Lucien shrugs. "Walking. Following. Depends on perspective."

 "This isn't funny."

 "I disagree."

 A student bumps into me from behind, hard enough to make me stumble forward.

 Riven moves instantly.

 He grabs the guy by the collar and slams him into the wall. The sound echoes down the hallway, loud and violent. Everyone freezes.

 "Touch her again," Riven growls, teeth bared, "and you lose your hand."

 The student nods frantically, terror clear on his face, and Riven releases him like trash.

 Jodan steps in front of me, placing his body between mine and the crowd. His presence is overwhelming. Safe. Dangerous. Both at once. My heart reacts before my mind can stop it, a traitorous little stutter I refuse to acknowledge out loud.

 "You should be careful," he says quietly, not looking at me. "People are watching."

 Lucien leans closer, his voice low and teasing. "I could escort you. Protection has its perks."

 "I don't need any of you," I snap.

 Lucien's smile fades, just a little. His eyes darken. "You sure?"

 I shove past them, my skin crawling, pulse racing. Selene follows, nearly running now, her breath uneven.

 The rest of the day blurs together. Every hallway feels too small. Every classroom feels watched. Every alpha scent feels too sharp. My suppressants burn hotter with every hour, like my body is fighting them, rejecting them, like something underneath my skin has finally noticed the cage and started clawing. By the final class, even the professor's voice sounds distant, muffled, like I'm hearing it through water.

 By the time night comes, I'm exhausted in a way sleep shouldn't be able to fix.

 Our dorm room is quiet. Selene talks herself to sleep, nervously rambling about schedules and security and how this year is already cursed, her voice trailing off into soft, even breathing sometime after midnight.

 I lie awake, staring at the ceiling, heart still racing.

 Then it hits.

 Heat.

 Sharp. Sudden. Wrong.

 I gasp and sit up, clutching my chest. My skin feels too tight. Too hot. My breath comes fast and shallow.

 This isn't normal.

 My heart pounds hard.

 Then I feel it.

 Thump.

 Not mine.

 Thump.

 Another.

 Thump.

 Another.

 Thump.

 Four heartbeats.

 Echoing inside my chest.

 Connected to me.

 I press a hand over my heart, terror flooding me.

 "What's happening to me?" I whisper into the dark.

 The room stays silent.

 But I know, deep down, this is only the beginning.

 I press my palm harder against my sternum, willing the rhythm to slow, to make sense, to belong to me and only me the way it always has. It doesn't. Four separate pulses beat in perfect, terrible unison with mine, each one distinct, each one unmistakably alive, unmistakably not my own.

 I recognize them.

 I don't know how, but I recognize them, the way you recognize a voice in a crowded room before you even see the face attached to it. Steady and commanding. Sharp and restless. Warm and teasing. Quiet and watchful. Four completely different rhythms, and somehow my own traitorous heart has already learned every one of them by heart, as if it's been waiting its whole life for exactly this.

 Jodan. Riven. Lucien. Eryx.

 My stomach drops straight through the floor.

 Across the room, Selene stirs in her sleep, murmuring something I can't quite catch, and for one wild, irrational second I'm terrified she'll wake up and somehow hear the four heartbeats thundering inside my chest too.

 Then a fifth thump joins the rhythm.

 Slower. Colder. Wrong in a way the other four aren't.

 I freeze, every nerve in my body going rigid at once.

 Four alphas found me today. Four heartbeats should mean four bonds, four impossible, terrifying threads tying my life to theirs, four fates I never chose and can't begin to understand.

 There should not be a fifth.

 And yet it beats on, slow and patient and utterly certain, like whatever it belongs to already knows exactly who I am, and has simply been waiting for the right moment to introduce itself.