Chapter 29

Ollie’s POV

When I blink my eyes open again, I’m in my bed in my bedroom. Ella is sitting in a chair pulled up beside the bed. She was reading a book, which she now places down into her lap. Seeing that I’m awake, she immediately asks, “Why did you let things get this bad again?”

She knows as well as I that my weakness derives from repressing the true nature of my wolf and the mating bond I share with the quadruplets. She was there when the school doctor had scolded me for this same thing.

“You told off Hugh yesterday, and I applauded you for it,” she says. “But I never would have done so if I knew you have been feeling weak again. You need to fix things with him and see him again.”

“Absolutely not,” I say, though inside I know the words are the truth. In a perfect world, I’d be able to bask in my mating bond with the brothers while allowing my wolf to show herself proudly inside of me. But I don’t live in a perfect world. If the brothers discover the truth…

I’m loathe to even consider it. With how badly they’ve been treating me lately, I can only imagine a life of pain and regret.

I need to get out of the pack. When I’m a safe distance away, I can allow my wolf room and we can live freely. Until that time, I have to deal with this weakness, even if it does have deteriorating factors on my health.

What I won’t do is go crawling back to Hugh. Not after what he and his brothers did to me, labeling me an Omega. They don’t care about the hardships they’ve made for my life. They only care about protecting Sylvia’s fragile ego.

“I just need to go for a run,” I say.

“Are you sure that’s enough?” Ella gives me a skeptical look.

No, I’m not sure. At all. But if I let myself sleep with Hugh again…

After what he’s done…

After what he could be doing right now, out all night…

Not that I’m jealous.

“We are jealous,” Scarlet says in my mind, directly calling me out.

She’s right. I could pretend all I want, but the truth is I am jealous. I know Hugh is a playboy who won’t be tied down, but knowing I sent him straight into the arms of other women… It stings. He probably forgot all about me, too. I doubt he’s thinking of his mate at all.

“It’s just sex, right?” Ella asks. “Is it really a big deal to see him again? Just get what you need and get out. Make it feel transactional. There’s no need to get your heart involved.”

Maybe she’s right. Why does it matter what he’s done to me? All I need is to let loose and get off. There doesn’t have to be feelings involved in this at all.

“I guess,” I say, relenting. I am tired. Exhausted, really. It would be nice to not feel this way anymore. “I’ll text him.”

I reach for the burner phone which is sitting inside the drawer on my nightstand and open a message to Hugh. He still hasn’t replied to my text telling him off and likely never would.

Maybe that means he won’t respond to any texts I send from now on.

I don’t feel regret though. He and his brothers have been so cruel to me for so long, and this last issue was the last straw for me. So I won’t apologize either.

Instead, I write a time and date, making it for an evening in a couple days’ time. And I hit send.

If he shows, he shows. If he doesn’t, I’ll just have to find some other way to deal with this cursed mating bond.

Ella sees what I type and send, and though her face is somewhat pinched with concern, she doesn’t voice any of it out loud.

“I brought my laptop down,” she says and gestures to it sitting on top of my desk. “I thought we could try to look up some universities for you. Ones in packs far away.”

I’m eager to do that and immediately push myself up in the bed so that I’m seated more fully upright with my back against the headboard.

I get out my regular phone while she works on her laptop and together we search schools that might accept an Omega. Some, we find, take their own Omegas, but not those of other packs as I feared. Ella is persistent though, refusing to give up or allow me to give up either.

We start with the packs nearest ours but then branch outwards. Then, after nearly an hour of searching, Ella gasps, “This is it. This pack takes other pack’s Omegas in their university.”

“Which pack is it?” I am willing to accept whatever it is, but I’m bracing myself. We’ve already combed through all the more prestigious packs. The ones that are left aren’t known for their academic prowess.

“Nightheart pack,” Ella says.

Nightheart pack, from what I recall, is far to the north in lands trapped in perpetual winter. Despite their pack name, days are longer there, and snowfall happens on the regular. It’s not the ideal place to live, or to travel to for school.

I’ve heard in school that the cold frozen north is having a population decline. Perhaps that is why they are so willing to take whoever they can get from other packs into their university.

Far from a perfect situation then, but one I can still use to my advantage. If this is the only option left open to me, then so be it. I can adjust to the cold. And I can’t imagine the brothers following me to a place like that. There, in the snow, I could let my wolf run free and wild and never have to worry about being found.

“What do you think?” Ella asks me.

“It sounds…” Not perfect. Not even particularly good. But, if it means my freedom, “It sounds like where I need to be. My applications are in the desk drawer. I grabbed one of everything so Nightheart should be in there.”

“I’ll see if I can find it,” Ella says, turning to the desk. “But I bet like every pack they are going to make you send it through the mail.”

“Then I need to get that filled out ASAP,” I say. I have no idea how long it would take snail mail to reach the frozen north, but I imagine I can’t waste any time.

“We might have to go to the guidance office at school to get another copy…” Ella says.

Ug, I dread that if that’s the case. The guidance councilors of the high school’s guidance office are known for being unfriendly to those of lower rankings. They were already short with me before. Now that I’m an Omega… Would they even acknowledge me at all?

“Is it not in there?” I ask.

“I think… oh! Here it is!” Just as she starts to pull out the form, the door handle starts to turn.

Jumping, we both move at once. Ella slams the drawer closed and her laptop shut. I click off my phone.

Ella and I glance wildly at each other just as Wes opens the door. Did we cover the evidence? Did he see?

The brothers finding out my plans would ruin everything!