"He didn't do anything at first, but I started to notice that other guys started to stay away from me. It left more opportunities for him to get close to me, to sit with me when I was eating or studying in the library. And about a month beforethe end of my first year of college, he asked if I wanted to date him. He was the first guy who had ever been interested in me, in that way, and I said yes immediately."
Evan scoffed at her side. "What an ass. Taking advantage of you like that."
Camelia grimaced, shaking her head as irritation and guilt swirled inside of her. "I was an idiot. It wasn't hard to take advantage of me."
"You don't have to tell us, if you don't want to," James said quietly. He stroked her leg, and Camelia shook her head again.
"I know I don't. But I need to." She took a deep breath, then continued. "Jake was gentlemanly at first. He even held my door when he came to pick me up from the dorms so that he could walk me to class. I was flattered; he was handsome and one of the hot shots on the football team, and he was an Alpha who had taken notice of me and seemed interested in who I really was, not just my status. He didn't even ask if he would kiss me until we had been going out for nearly six months."
Looking back, Camelia could see how masterful he'd been. The careful acts, the grooming. The way that he'd manipulated her into thinking that everything they did was her decision.
"Things moved pretty quickly after that. It was spring semester, and we had sex for the first time on my birthday. I gave him my virginity." Camelia's lips quirked up, noticing when James sent a questioning look her way. "I went home during my heat weeks. My dad didn't like the idea of me being around any of the Alphas who might scent me. Thought that it was dangerous. He was right, of course, but I thought that he was being silly and overprotective.
"Things were fine over the summer between sophomore and junior years, but when junior year rolled around, Jake was...different. He was a senior, he was star quarterback on the football team, and it was like he had taken a whole batchof Alpha douche shots over the summer while I'd been in Europe with my dad. He was aggressive and overprotective, and downright cruel in some instances. Not necessarily directly towards me; not at first, anyway."
Camelia felt Evan stiffen next to her, and she knew that they knew the story was coming to an end. The reason that she had come to Ridgeview in the first place, the secret that she'd been keeping to herself in the months that they had known each other.
"He was never physically abusive to me. He never hit me, or anything like that. But he started to get more possessive as the months went on. Entitled to my time, and what we did together. We had been having sex for months, but he started getting more and more aggressive each time. It was fun, at first; I never knew that I liked it a little rough up until that point, even if it did seem like he took it a little too far sometimes." Camelia offered a smile to Evan, trying to get him to relax a little, but his blue eyes were stormy when he looked down at her, and his arm just tightened around her.
"What happened with him, Camelia?" he asked quietly.
Camelia swallowed. She carefully leaned forward and set her cup of tea on the coffee table, twisting her hands together in her lap as she let out a shaky breath. "I was close to my heat right before winter break, and Jake took me out to celebrate finishing the semester together. I think that he knew that I was close to my heat. He had been getting more and more upset with me for fleeing campus during those weeks; he told me that it was his duty as an Alpha to take care of me while I was in need, and that if I was a real Omega, I wouldn't be denying him that."
Camelia winced, the echo of Jake's rough voice in her head still enough to make goosebumps rise on the back of her neck. "We fought about it. I told him that I didn't think that he was entitled to my heat, or my time at all. He'd been too aggressive inthe weeks leading up to dinner, and I was starting to want a way out."
"You told him that?" James' voice was quiet, a little proud, a lot defensive and anxious.
Camelia nodded. "He didn't like that. He..." Her voice broke, and she swallowed once before trying again. "He threw himself at me. Pinned me to the ground. Told me that he was more than happy to tie me up until I went into heat where nobody could help me but him, and then he was going to make sure that I was his forever."
Evan let out a disgusted sound. "He wanted to Mate you."
"I think so," Camelia whispered. "I never got to ask, and he never..."
"Camelia," James interrupted, his voice soft with growing horror. "Did he...?"
Camelia barked out a humorless laugh. "Rape me?" She shook her head. "No. But it was a close fucking call. The stress of fighting with him had triggered the early stages of my heat, and he had managed to get my pants about halfway down before someone stumbled on the two of us. We were in this little corner of a restaurant that he had booked out for the two of us, and he had dismissed the entire staff when we got there, but the owner stayed to make sure that we didn't steal shit before they had to close for the night." Camelia shook her head, her heart pounding at the memory. "I was fucking lucky. She called the cops before Jake could explain himself, and he ran away before they got there. The cops took me home and..."
Camelia's voice broke again, and a lump in her throat rose. She had managed to stay so calm during the entire story, but now...
"I reported him, of course. Once my heat was over. I remembered everything that he said he wanted to do to me, but Jake's parents were big shots of some kind. Business conglomerate, or whatever?" Camelia shook her head. "Nothingever came of it, and I switched over to online learning for Spring semester that year so that I wouldn't have to deal with him. Got on my suppressants, and then Daddy found out that he was being relocated about a month before the school year ended. Ridgeview had passed its early admission stage for transfers, but he pulled some strings to get me in."
"Did you ever see that fucker again?" James' voice was low and dangerous, and Camelia shook her head, gently reaching out to touch his jaw. She had no doubt that James would hunt to the ends of the earth to find Jake and destroy him if he thought that it would make her happy, especially knowing what she did about his dad.
"No, I didn't. Didn't want to, didn't need to. Nothing came of the report other than the cops coming around a few more times to verify my story, and there hadn't been enough to go on for them to issue a restraining order against him. Moving was the next best solution, especially since I only had one more year to finish my degree." Camelia shrugged one shoulder, her eyes stinging with unshed tears, but her voice surprisingly steady. "I...I didn't want to be at risk for any of that again. So when I came to Ridgeview, the agreement was that I would stay on my suppressants until the year was out, and then my dad and I would sit down to make a decision about what to do from there." She looked at Evan, whose expression burned with fury. "I wasn't planning on the two of you. You fucked up my plans."
It was a ploy to break the tension, and after a moment, Evan softened. A spark of amusement lit his eyes, and he leaned down to press a gentle kiss to her cheek. "I'm not sorry, baby," he murmured.
"Neither am I," James said, his lips brushing against her ear. He pressed close, his chest firm against her back, and for a moment, Camelia drew strength from her Alphas, surrounding her front and back.
"This shit with the Omegas...it's fucking scary," Camelia whispered. She let her voice crack this time, and a tear slipped down her cheek. "I...I don't want to ever be..."
"You won't," Evan said, cutting her off before she could voice the terrifying fear. He cupped her face, lifting it so that she looked him directly in the eye. "Do you hear me? You will never be put in a position of danger from another Alpha again."
"I'll kill every man who looks at you before I let that happen, sweetheart," James murmured.
Camelia knew that he wasn't exaggerating, and though she knew that it should frighten her, the words calmed her racing heart. "We need to do something about it, though, right?" she asked quietly. "We can't just sit by and let this happen."
Evan wrapped his arms around the both of them, pulling them tight to his chest for a hug. "We'll do what we can, baby. I promise."
