"We don't share any courses together," Camelia finally said, already knowing it was a weak excuse. "They wouldn't be able to keep me protected in my classes."
Carson rolled his eyes a little. "I'm sure if some Alpha is planning on attacking you in the middle of a lecture, the school has bigger problems than just you, sweetheart."
Camelia knew he was right. Knew he was being perfectly rational and reasonable, and was doing his best to meet her where she was for what she wanted out of her life.
And she was very annoyed about it.
"They..." she finally said, begrudgingly. "Might be amenable. To helping me."
Carson nodded, relief washing over his face and making Camelia's stomach twist with a tiny bit of guilt. She knew her father worried about her. She didn't want to make things harder for him by being stubborn...
"When's the soonest you could speak to them?" Carson said, interrupting Camelia's thoughts before they could head down that particular self-deprecating path.
"Um." Camelia looked down at her phone, debating stalling further for a moment before she sighed. "Let me text Evan."
She opened the new contact that he had put in and sent off a quick message as Carson watched her.Are you home?
It took less than a minute before he responded.Yes. What do you need? Are you safe?
Camelia rolled her eyes a little before she responded.I'm coming over. Need to talk to you and James.
She tucked the phone in her pocket without waiting for a response, plastering a smile on her face when her father quirked up an eyebrow at her. "They're home. I'll go talk to them now."
He nodded once. "Call me and tell me how it goes. We can make plans from there."
It was a clear dismissal, and Camelia swallowed against a sudden rush of nerves as she turned and walked into the kitchen to grab her bag. She snagged her car keys and tucked them into her purse as she left, taking a shuddering breath to prepare herself. And steadfastly ignored the tiny flutter of excitement in her belly at seeing her Alphas again.
Chapter thirty-one
Evan
Evan was going slightly insane waiting for Camelia to come to her senses, and he was a big enough man to admit it. At least to himself.
Immediately after she had walked out of their house after her heat, the urge to go fetch her and make her stay was strong. He had eaten breakfast and watched James internally war with himself, they’d had a deep and mildly uncomfortable conversation, and he steadfastly hadn’t left the house to track down their Omega and drag her back exactly where she belonged.
Then they had heard the news that all three of them had been...ah, too busy to pay attention to, and Evan's first urge had been to go find Camelia. She had to know. She couldn't find out accidentally, she needed to learn from them...
He grimaced. Of course she'd known already. She had been a fucking sight, her dark eyes blazing with anger and betrayal as she had barked at both him and James in turn. If he hadn't beenso offended by the insinuation that they had lied to her, he would have been mildly impressed that she had the balls to speak to them the way that she did.Nobodyspoke to either of them that way.
And the fact that the dark hickeys that he and James had sucked into her neck were fully on display the entire time they talked...
Fuck, it had been distracting.
Ultimately, he couldn't decide if it was worse that she had learned about the new law from someone other than them, or that she had thought that he and James had beenkeepingthe information from her. But she had given in so easily once she learned the truth...
Christ, it had been hard for Evan to turn and walk away, no matter how much he could tell that she needed the space.
He had been shamelessly stalking her social media in the days since, which was an exercise in frustration in itself. She didn't use Facebook, beyond a post once or twice a year on hers or her father's birthdays, and her Instagram was sparsely populated with pictures of her and friends from her old university. She hadn't posted anything from the current year, so Evan had found himself stuck looking at pictures that were months and sometimes years old, just for a glimpse of her face while he waited.
And waited.
And waited some more.
God, he was goingcrazy.
James was no better, though Evan hadn't caught him stalking her socials. Yet, anyway.
No, instead, James sat around the house with his headphones in and muttered to himself every few minutes, short sentences that were ostensibly nonsensical. Evan had seen him do thisbefore when he was particularly stressed, but this was a whole different situation.
