It didn't seem to matter that she was dressed revealingly, though. There were more men at the party than she had expected, but none of them were paying any attention to her. Betas, of course, mingling with the girls and enjoying their fawning attention the way any young college man would. The Gamma girls in their pink and ponytails were all chittering away like mice as they flitted around the room, and the occasional high-pitched squeal of laughter made Camelia grimace.
Still, the longer that she sat there with her drink and the less attention that anyone paid to her, the more she relaxed. One beta guy with a Greek symbol on his shirt glanced her way curiously a few minutes into her observation, but he quickly looked away when one of the Gamma girls stepped up to him, capturing his attention with conversation.
Probably from the brother fraternity. Camelia wasn't super familiar with Greek life – the idea had never appealed to her when she was a freshman at Harrison, and then she was too engrossed her studies to evenconsideranother extracurricular activity after that – but she knew that the sororities always had a matching fraternity, and they usually did events together.
Even if this wasn't a formal Greek event, it would make sense if some of the guys were around. After all, when you spent that much time together...you had to be friends of some kind, right?
"Maybe all I needed was to just be around a bunch of girls who wanted attention more than I do," Camelia muttered to herself, snickering into her beer. The drink was warming her with a pleasant fuzz, and it almost obscured the tingle that raised the hairs on the back of her neck as she continued to sit there, signaling a change.
She saw them before they saw her, her eyes zeroing in first on Evan as he entered through the front door, then James close behind him. They both wore cocky, confident smiles, and they were predictably swarmed by a few of the Gamma girls as they made their way into the living room. Evan took their attention in stride, smiling charmingly as he leaned down and whispered something in the ear of a tall, pretty blonde girl, but James seemed unaffected by the advances. The smile on his face faded as his gaze swept the room, as if he were looking for danger. As if he were cataloguing the exits and the number of people in the room. A trickle of curiosity took hold in Camelia's belly as she watched him.
He held himself like someone who was always ready to be attacked, always ready to defend himself. Even the tailored lines of his button-down and designer jeans couldn't hide that fact, and Camelia couldn't stop herself from feeling a twinge of sympathy for this person that she barely knew.
What must his life have been like, to constantly be on the edge like that? She could already tell that James wasn’t the type of person to relax; the lines of tension in his shoulders were familiar, and a tiny part of her wondered what it would take for him to finallyrelax.
Of course, she knew what it was like to be constantly on edge herself, but she had the feeling that James’ reason for constant vigilance were a little different than hers. She could sympathize, though.
The moment that his eyes collided with hers, Camelia swallowed hard. It took everything inside of her not to shrink into the couch and try to disappear from his sight, and the gray depths of his eyes practically glowed. His hand brushed Evan's in a casual touch, pulling his attention, and a moment later, Camelia found herself pinned under the gazes of both Alphas.
Evan continued smirking as he looked at her, but there was something new in his eyes that hadn't been there when Camelia had met them the other day. A certain...wariness, caution. Side by side with a wisp of longing that tugged at Camelia's gut with a surprising ferocity, and she forced herself to take another draw of her beer as she met their gazes unwaveringly. She desperately wanted to look away, but she wouldn't be the first to show weakness.
Not to Alphas.
"Empty," she muttered to herself, when the next drink she tried to take gave nothing. She stood up, shaking her head and steadfastly turning on the two Alphas who were still watching her with an intensity that took her breath away. Part of her wanted to go find Aria, so that she wasn't sitting alone in the middle of this party that was suddenly feeling much more dangerous than it had been a few minutes before. A bigger part of her didn't want to be forced into conversation with whatever sorority girls that Aria was currently bubbling along with.
An even bigger part of her wanted another drink, even if it was only beer.
Camelia hummed to herself as she made her way to the kitchen, pulling out her phone and opening the Uber app as she tossed her empty beer bottle and picked up a new one from the ice bucket. Sorority row was only a few streets away from the university proper, and therefore the dorms; she could reasonably walk it, but she knew that her father would have a coronary if he knew that she willingly went walking around after dark, alone.
She would have another drink, then order her ride. She wasn't going to ask Aria to leave early just because she wanted to get out of the crowd.
The bottle opener that Aria had used when she had handed Camelia her last drink seemed to have disappeared, and Camelia glanced around fruitlessly for a moment in the empty kitchen before sighing in irritation. "Fuck."
"Need a hand?"
His voice was deep and growly, and Camelia's skin tingled as she turned to face James properly. She hadn't heard him enter the kitchen behind her, and her heart rate jumped as he took the beer from her slack hand. He set the stubborn top against the edge of the counter and, with a sharp blow from the heel of his other hand, popped the top off neatly before he handed it back to her.
Camelia licked her lips, mumbling, "Thanks. You didn't have to do that."
"I didn't take you for a beer drinker." Evan entered the kitchen as well, the swinging door closing behind him and muffling the sounds of the party beyond. His blue eyes were looking at her curiously, and Camelia forced herself to lean back against the counter casually even as her heart rate spiked again.
She was alone. With two Alphas and nobody else.Again.
"And I didn't take you for someone who stuck your nose in someone else's business, so I guess we're both wrong," she replied, flashing an easy smile that felt all too forced on her face. Her heart was pounding, and sweat started to prickle on the back of her neck as both of them looked at her, Evan slowly advancing until he was standing on her left, James on her right.
No way out. No way through. Their full, undivided attention.Dangerous.
"This doesn't seem like your scene," James said, his voice low. The observation was keen, and Camelia quirked an eyebrow at him as she lifted her newly opened beer bottle to take a long draw. She didn't miss the way both Alphas zeroed in on the movement of her lips, her throat, and her stomach clenched. An unwitting warmth started to gather between her legs, both confusing and infuriating her.
You arenotturned on by these two. They are douchey and posturing and they areAlphas, Camelia. You need to get away before they smell...before they sense...
"You're one to talk," Camelia retorted, meeting James' gaze steadily even as her body screamed for her to get out. "You looked like you were under attack the moment that you walked into the house."
James' eyes narrowed, but Evan chuckled, breaking some of the tension. "Didn't realize that you were paying such close attention to us, baby," he said. The endearment was mocking, and Camelia turned her attention to him, glaring as her grip on her bottle tightened. She could feel James' eyes burning into the side of her head as she faced off with Evan, but she ignored the way the intense attention made her feel, the arousal that was starting to itch between her legs and whisper for her to take care of it.
She ignored the tiny, dark part of her instincts thatthrilledat having the undivided attention of the Alphas. The part of herthat wanted to drop to her knees, spread her legs and beg for them to fuck her right then and there, toclaimher.
"Don't call me that," Camelia bit out, more venom in her voice that strictly necessary as she shoved the horny,dangerousthoughts away.
