Chapter 220

The next day, I wake up at 6 am to the sound of my alarm. My first instinct is to trudge down the hallway and check on Mia. But when I sit up in an unfamiliar room on an unfamiliar bed, the reality of the past day comes flooding back to me.

I don’t live at the Pyramid anymore.

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.

I try to do normal things, the type of things I would have done had I never gone to the Pyramid in the first place.

I shower. I sit in the kitchen and have a bowl of cereal. I gather my books. I don’t talk to anyone, and it feels strange. I’m just not used to being alone again yet.

With my books in my backpack, I leave my penthouse and head to class.

It seems like a totally average day. The weather isn’t too hot or too cold. There are some clouds in the sky, but it’s not completely covered.

Since I’m already on campus, the walk to my lecture hall is much shorter than I anticipated. Since I don’t really want to spend an extra half hour sitting in an empty room, or worse, with just the professor, I go for a bit of a walk through the quad.

The birds are singing, so I force myself to stop and listen and enjoy nature and the small things in life. I need to relax. I’m so pent up, like a bunch of energy is buzzing just under the surface of my skin. It has nowhere to go, and I don’t know what to do with it.

Maybe I should jog instead? But no, I’m hauling my backpack around. How uncomfortable it would be to have it smack into my back while I tried to exercise.

I grip the straps of my backpack with white-knuckled fists.

I need to calm down. I need to breathe and relax.

But when I lower my gaze down from the trees where the birds are happily singing, I see a familiar figure walking down a sidewalk on the other side of the quad.

Beau.

My body entirely freezes – all except my heart which begins to pound out of control.

I saw him just yesterday, when he and his brothers cast me out of the Pyramid. Yet it feels like I’ve been without him for far longer than that.

I miss him.

But I don’t dare approach him. I can’t even go nearer. He’s made his opinions on me well known, and even if they are bullshit, I can’t just call him on it. I can’t go crawling back to people who were so callous and cruel to me.

If he wants to talk to me, to apologize or whatever else, he has to come to me.

He won’t do that, I know, but I still wish he would.

I watch him as he walks along the sidewalk, down, down, down. My heart yearns for him to turn his head, to notice me, to give me any indication that I still mean something to him at all.

But he just keeps walking. And then he’s gone.

The minute he’s out of sight, I curse my foolish heart. Why do I care so much if he sees me or not? The brothers were assholes.

I need to put this entire thing firmly behind me.

Even this walk is ridiculous. My thoughts are too scattered, my heart searching for things it simply can’t have. I need to pull myself together.

I drag myself away from the quad and back to the lecture hall. I’m only fifteen minutes early now so there’s at least a couple of other students in there with the professor. I’m not forced to make awkward small talk as I take my seat.

The rest of the day goes by in a blur as I fully dedicate myself to my studies. When my classes are done and I head back home, I’m now ready to dedicate myself to my training. Pushing myself to exhaustion is the only way I can actually sleep.

However, when I exited the elevator, I stopped in my tracks.

The door to my penthouse is open. Not much, just a crack, but enough to scream that someone has been here. Or that someone might be here still.

There’s no question, I definitely locked it when I left.

I clench my hands into fists again. I’ll throw down if I have to. Any number of enemies could be inside: Wyatt, some of Alpha King Hayes’s goons, even the people who took down Tide…

I have been protected in the Pyramid. I’m on my own here.

But I’m not afraid. I’m a warrior-in-training, with a budding wolf increasing my healing ability. Whatever is in my dorm will not take me out without a fight.

I push open the door, and in my defensive stance, step inside.

I dart my eyes across the room, searching for threats. Someone has definitely been here. Some things have been moved. There’s a blanket from the bedroom on the couch.

But it doesn’t look ransacked. It just looks like someone has been… waiting.

The door slams behind me. Someone was waiting behind the door for me to enter!

I swirl around while retracting my arm to throw a punch –

I stop.

The intruder is Beau.

My thoughts fizzle into a confused messy pile. What the fuck is he doing here?

No malice shines in his eyes. The cruelty of our encounter feels more like a dream, when I see him as he is now.

He’s always looked at me with a bit of smug arrogance, that’s just Beau. But over the course of our friendship, something else has developed there too. Something like… fondness.

I see that fondness now as he looks at me. As he tilts his head to one side. As his lips curve upward into a devilish smile.

“Hey, Nanny,” he says.

The absolute bastard, toying with my emotions like he has been. I don’t know whether to smack him or kiss him. I definitely want to do both.

“Come here,” he says, and the decision is made for me. He places his hand on my hip and coaxes me closer. I slide into him, more willing than I want to admit.

Our lips crash together and it’s like we’ve never been apart. Our bodies remember, even if our brains keep trying to mess everything up.

A wordless pact forms between us, signed with mouths and tongues and Beau’s hands slipping under my shirt and sliding it off up over my head.

Don’t ask too many questions. Don’t speak at all. Don’t do anything to ruin this moment of connection, because it likely won’t progress beyond this one perfect moment.

I obey the rules. I don’t question, I don’t even think. I just hold only Beau as he leads me toward the bedroom. Our clothes drop, forming a path from the front door to the bedroom.

When we fall onto the mattress, we’re both naked. Our bodies intertwine. I cling to him and he clings to me.

As we rush to find pleasure in each other, I throw my head back and break the rules just once.

“Beau!”