OMEGA AND ALPHAS

Cal's POV

"Cal."

I didn't stop.

"Cal, are you serious right now…?"

"Cal!"

Rook's voice bounced off the corridor walls. I didn't want to stop walking, or turn around or even explain anything to them. I had not figured out how to explain myself yet.

"Bro, you just told Dad to back off! What is wrong with you!?" Rook again. He had been talking since we left Dad's office. "Like what was that? What was that? Cal. Cal. What was that?"

I pushed my door open.

They followed me in.

Rook threw himself onto my couch, one leg over the arm. Zade closed the door and stayed near it.

"You know what he's going to do now, right?" Rook sat up. "Cal. You know what Dad is going to do!?"

I pulled my jacket off.

"He's going to call the council. Tonight probably. And then it's not just the betrothal anymore, it's succession, it's your position, it's everything and you stood there and..." Rook stopped himself. Ran a hand through his hair. "Why."

I didn't answer.

I sat at the edge of my desk and looked at the floor and tried to locate a single reasonable explanation for what I had done in that office. I could not find one. Everything I came up with had her face in it. No. Lately, I have been acting without thinking. This sudden recklessness. This…

“Cal!?” There went Rook again, interrupting my thoughts.

“What is it?” my voice was low

My eyes searched the room and landed at Zade. He hadn't moved from the door. He was just watching me.

"Wren," he said, bouncing slowly from one foot to another. My chest tightened as he said her name. His eyes burned into my flesh. It felt like he was chastising me without even saying a word.

Rook looked between us. Then slowly… "Oh."

"It was the omega," Zade said. "That's what that was."

"Cal." Rook looked between us, even more confused now, like he was doing maths in his head. "Your Alpha position. Your inheritance. You put everything on the line." He shook his head slowly. "You're telling me it's the omega."

“Stop calling her ‘THE OMEGA!’” I kissed my teeth.

“Why does she affect you so much?” Rook snapped 

"I'm not telling you anything," I snapped back. Now I was tapping my ring finger again. I hated it.

"You don't have to." Zade pushed off the door. "The bond is pulling. That's all this is."

"You don't know what it is."

"I know what she is." He crossed the room and picked up his jacket. "No rank. No pack. Nothing." He said it without heat. I winced at his tone. "Sometimes I feel the pull too. I get it. It can mess with your head. Even I get jealous sometimes, seeing her around that Eli…” I saw his eyes closed momentarily when he mentioned Eli’s name. “But I am not in here blowing up my future over it." He shrugged his jacket on. "Let's all agree to make her reject the bond. Move on. It can't be that bad. Let the Thornes move the ceremony forward. Let us all end this."

He headed for the door.

“We might die if she rejects us…”

“It cannot be so bad, stop whining…” he kept walking away.

It wasn't only the fact that we could die that kept me tied to Wren. All these years I had loved her, now I finally got the chance to love her publicly. I wasn't going to let that chance just slide 

"And if you can't do that," Zade said, hand on the door, still not turning around, "at least don't throw everything away for some fat stupid bitch!"

I saw red. Instant red. I wasn't thinking.

My fist connected with his jaw before I had crossed the room consciously. We went hard into the wall, his shoulder cracking against it and then his elbow came up fast and caught my cheekbone on the way down and the pain lit up sharp and bright, but I did not care at all.

We hit the floor together.

Rook was already moving, grabbing at both of us. "Hey ... stop ... stop it..."

Zade shoved me off and swung and caught my ribs. I grabbed his collar and we rolled and the bookshelf cracked behind us and a ceramic flower vase went off the edge and exploded on the floor.

"Stop it!" Rook got between us, both hands out, breathing hard. "Stop! Both of you!" He shoved at my chest. "You're both fighting over that fatty..."

Bam!

I caught his face with my fist.

"Cal!" He staggered, hand flying to his face. Blood started coming and I didn't know where from and I did not fully care.

"Oh HELL no!" Zade came at me from behind, grabbing my collar and hauling me backwards off Rook.

We crashed into the desk. Papers went everywhere. My lamp hit the floor. Zade had both hands on my jacket and his jaw was swelling on one side and his eyes were dark and we were breathing like we had run ten miles.

"ENOUGH!" Rook's voice came out differently. It was deeper. He was still holding his face, blood on his fingers, and he looked at both of us like we had lost our minds. "Enough. Both of you. Right now."

Nobody moved.

The room was destroyed. The bookshelf cracked. Vase gone. My lamp dead on the floor. The three of us standing in the middle of it like something had detonated.

Rook wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and looked at the blood on it and let out a long slow breath through his nose.

"She felt something tonight," he said quietly. "Didn't she? And you felt it from here."

My jaw was tight.

"Cal." He met my eyes. "We all felt it. All three of us." He gestured between himself and Zade. "Whatever happened to her tonight, we all caught it. But you..." he pointed at me, "...you acting like some sort of rouge wolf because of her."

Zade leaned against the cracked bookshelf. Pressed two fingers to his jaw. 

"That's not the bond pulling anymore," Rook said. "She is locking you."

The room went quiet except for our breathing.

Zade looked at the ceiling.

"We're all in trouble," he said. "Aren't

we."

Nobody answered

Because the truth was louder than any of us could ever say it. We were in deep shit.