"A confession." Silas repeated the word. His voice scraped against the sudden quiet of the courtyard.
He stood up from the concrete bench. He towered over me, casting a long shadow that swallowed my small frame. The two Alphas flanking him took a step forward, but Silas raised a single finger. They stopped.
"This is a joke," one of his guards muttered.
"Rita put her up to it," the other added, nodding toward the double doors.
I didn't look back, but I heard them. Rita had rallied a mob. Footsteps scuffled against the pavement as twenty, then thirty students filtered out of the cafeteria and the main hall, forming a tight semicircle. They clutched their phones. They whispered behind their hands.
"She's dead."
"He's going to ruin her."
"Get a video of her crying."
Silas ignored the crowd. He looked down at me, his dark eyes scanning my face for the punchline. When he didn't find one, his jaw tightened.
"I don't do public spectacles, Omega," he told me.
He turned his back and walked toward the east wing entrance.
I didn't hesitate. I followed him.
"Hey! Where are you going?" Rita yelled from the crowd. "You didn't finish!"
"Watch her follow him like a lost dog," Chloe laughed.
I kept my pace steady. Silas pushed through the heavy glass doors into the east corridor. The hallway was empty, bathed in harsh fluorescent light, but the mob of students spilled in right behind me, their sneakers squeaking on the linoleum.
Silas stopped at the far end of the corridor. He leaned his shoulder against the large pane of frosted window glass, crossing his arms. The heavy, suffocating weight of his Alpha pheromones flooded the enclosed space. It felt like invisible hands pressing against my chest, trying to force my knees to buckle.
The crowd halted halfway down the hall. None of them dared to step into his immediate airspace.
I walked the rest of the way alone.
I stopped three feet in front of him. I kept my spine rigid, squaring my shoulders. I didn't drop my chin. I met his gaze head-on.
"You're persistent," Silas noted. His tone held zero warmth.
"I have a task to complete," I replied.
"A task." He tilted his head. "Rita Jenkins sends you to annoy me, and you just obey?"
"I negotiated a temporary peace," I said. "This is the price."
A murmur rippled through the audience behind me.
"Did she just admit it's a dare?" a boy whispered.
"She is so stupid. He hates being used for games."
Silas pushed off the window. He took a single step toward me. The pressure in the air doubled. My Omega instincts screamed at me to submit, to bare my neck, to apologize and run.
I locked my knees. I kept my hands relaxed at my sides.
"You think I care about your playground politics?" Silas asked, his voice dropping an octave.
"No," I answered. "I don't expect you to care about anything regarding me."
"Then why are you still in my face?"
"Because I made a deal." I kept my voice perfectly level. "And I don't break my contracts."
He stared at me. His eyes were completely black in the dim hallway lighting. "Get it over with, then. Speak."
Behind me, Rita shoved her way to the front of the spectator pack. "Louder, Elowen! We all want to hear how much you love him!"
I didn't break eye contact with Silas. I didn't let my voice shake. I didn't let a single tear form.
"Silas Thorne," I began, pitching my voice so it carried down the silent corridor.
He didn't blink.
"I am completely, desperately in love with you."
The words hung in the air, hollow and absurd.
"I want to be yours," I continued, delivering the lines with the precise, flat articulation of a news anchor reading a tragic headline. "I think about you constantly. Please accept my confession."
Complete, suffocating silence fell over the hallway.
No one moved. Nobody laughed. The sheer audacity of an Omega speaking to the top Alpha like she was reading a grocery list paralyzed the entire audience.
"Oh my god," someone squeaked in the back.
"He's going to destroy her," another muttered.
I waited. I watched Silas's face for the explosion. I expected him to shout. I expected him to shove me against the lockers. I expected the brutal humiliation Rita had promised.
Instead, Silas reached out.
His large hand wrapped around my jaw. His fingers were hot against my skin. He tilted my face up, forcing me to look higher, deeper into his eyes.
I didn't flinch.
"You don't smell like fear," he murmured, his thumb brushing the line of my cheekbone.
"I'm not afraid of you," I lied.
"Every Omega in this school is afraid of me."
"I guess I'm the exception."
He studied my expression. The anger everyone expected never arrived. The feral rage the crowd was waiting for didn't surface.
"You're lying," Silas said softly, meant only for my ears. "Your heart is beating so fast I can see it in your neck."
"Biology," I countered. "Not emotion."
A sharp, entirely unexpected sound broke from his chest.
He laughed.
It was a dark, rough sound that echoed down the hallway. The students behind me gasped. Rita took a physical step back. Silas Thorne never laughed.
He let go of my jaw, but he didn't step away. He leaned down, bringing his mouth inches from my ear.
"You want to play a game, Elowen?" he whispered.
"I want to survive high school," I answered.
"Too late for that." He pulled back, his eyes flashing with a dangerous glint. "You just made yourself my problem."
Silas looked past me, fixing his gaze on the crowd of gawking students.
"Rita," Silas called out.
Rita stiffened. "Y-yes, Silas?"
"You wanted a show?" He wrapped his hand around my wrist. His grip was iron-tight, inescapable. "You got one."
"I... we were just joking around, Silas," Rita stammered, her cruel confidence vanishing under his attention.
"I don't joke," Silas said.
He looked back down at me. The corner of his mouth twitched upward in a humorless smile.
"You confessed," he told me, his voice carrying down the hall. "I accept."
My stomach dropped. "What?"
"You're mine now, Omega," Silas announced. "Let's see how long you survive."
He pulled me forward, dragging me past the stunned crowd. The students scrambled out of our way, plastering themselves against the lockers. Rita's mouth hung open. Chloe dropped her gum.
I stumbled, trying to keep up with his long strides.
"Where are we going?" I demanded, tugging at my trapped wrist.
Silas didn't look back. "To seal the deal."
He pushed open a heavy wooden door marked *Authorized Personnel Only* and pulled me into the dark stairwell, letting the door slam shut behind us. The lock clicked into place.
We were completely alone.
And he was finally letting his Alpha pheromones off the leash.
