Chapter 20

Alex genuinely felt a surge of profound injustice.

He desperately scrambled to find words that would cast the blame entirely on Nathan. You are such an absolute idiot. You’re so selfishly, cruelly kind, and why do you have to look so breathtakingly beautiful, why, why are you…

However, the artificially manufactured resentment instantly crumbled to dust. Nathan closed the distance between them. Stopping just a fraction of an inch before their shoes collided, the Beta’s eyes curved into a breathtakingly soft smile.

“Let’s go.”

Instead of walking ahead, Nathan simply waited for Alex to move first. The agonizingly tight grip Alex had maintained on his umbrella handle finally went slack. His hesitating feet eventually forced a step forward. Nathan fell perfectly into step beside him.

The rain had mostly tapered off. Mist-like droplets scattered violently through the air, clinging coldly to their skin. With every step they took, the shallow puddles pooling on the concrete rippled softly. Piercing through the faint, ambient noise of the street, Nathan spoke up again.

“I haven’t seen much of you lately.”

Violently stung by the casually accurate observation, Alex sucked in a sharp breath. His eyes, which had been tracking the pavement the entire time, darted to Nathan’s side profile. To his absolute horror, Nathan, whom he had assumed would be looking straight ahead, was staring directly at him.

Panic spiked through Alex’s chest. Yet simultaneously, a pathetic, foolish thrill of joy blossomed in his heart.

“…Really?” Alex mumbled.

“Yeah.”

Even though they were definitively late for school, Nathan didn’t rush his pace in the slightest, choosing instead to fix an unwavering stare on the Alpha. Alex’s breath hitched. A terrifying wave of tension crashed over him, locking the muscles in the back of his neck into stiff, rigid lines.

“I’ve just been a little busy,” Alex lied weakly.

No matter how grueling practice had been, it was a pathetically flimsy excuse. Especially considering they hadn’t skipped a single lunch together in the past two years. Nathan simply watched the stammering Alpha in complete silence before slowly turning his gaze away. The silence sent a fresh wave of panic surging through Alex’s veins. He was terrified that Nathan had instantly seen straight through his pathetic lie.

“I mean… I actually got set up with an Omega.”

The second the words left his mouth, Alex began viciously cursing himself for offering such a laughably transparent excuse. Nathan froze completely. His pale lips parted in slow motion.

“Really?”

It was entirely too late to backtrack and claim he was lying.

“Yeah. Liam from the team set it up.”

Shamelessly using his teammate as a human shield, Alex desperately dragged the lie out. He felt a deep, sickening wave of guilt for deceiving Nathan, but he had no other choice. What the hell am I even doing? But regardless, he absolutely had to start seeing someone. Because I’m going to give up on Nathan. Nathan doesn’t like me, and he’s never going to like me in the future…

“Are you guys dating?”

Alex blinked rapidly at Nathan’s blunt question.

“Huh?”

“I asked if you’re dating,” Nathan repeated.

Alex shook his head frantically. “No.”

Given that this hypothetical Omega didn’t even possess a name yet, claiming they were officially dating was a bridge too far.

“Why not?” Nathan pressed.

“I mean, we just haven’t seen each other that much yet…”

“Are they from our school?”

Nathan relentlessly fired off the questions without showing a single sign of wanting to resume walking. It felt exactly like a brutal police interrogation, yet bizarrely, Alex didn’t feel offended in the slightest. In fact, he was pathetically, intoxicatingly thrilled by the intense interest Nathan was suddenly displaying.

“Different school,” Alex supplied.

“Introduce me.”

That specific demand completely robbed Alex of his ability to speak. His eyes blew wide, his jaw dropping in pure shock.

“…What?”

“This is the first time you’ve ever dated anyone. I feel like I’ve never even seen you with someone. Is it a secret?”

Nathan’s voice was firm, bordering on commanding. Alex’s mind went entirely blank. He could effortlessly lie to the rest of the world, but deceiving Nathan was a monumentally difficult task. Knowing that a prolonged silence would instantly expose the lie, Alex desperately scrambled to invent a plausible excuse.

“It’s just… it’s a little complicated right now,” Alex stammered.

Nathan remained perfectly still, refusing to drop the issue. A cold, nervous sweat began to pool at the nape of Alex’s neck. He felt like his heart was going to explode from the pressure.

“Since I’ve never actually been on a real date before… we just haven’t been meeting up that much,” Alex babbled frantically, the words spilling out in a chaotic rush. By this point, he was struggling to decipher his own nonsensical excuses. “I mean, what I’m trying to say is, I don’t really know how to… act to make a good impression… so I…”

He wanted nothing more than to sprint away. Completely overwhelmed by a sense of absolute defeat, Alex clamped his mouth shut. Nathan was staring at him intensely, his vivid green eyes narrowed into sharp slits.

The fleeting second of silence stretched out like an eternity, and Alex unconsciously released a shaky, defeated sigh. He was terrified of what Nathan’s reaction would be. If you’re going to lie, at least make it believable? What kind of absolute bullshit is that?

“Do you want me to help you?”

However, the words that actually slipped past Nathan’s lips shattered every terrifying scenario Alex had envisioned.

“With what?” Alex breathed.

“With dating.”

It made absolutely no sense.

“How are you… going to help me with dating?”

“Because I have vastly more experience dating people than you do,” Nathan stated matter-of-factly.

Alex was utterly dumbfounded. Clinging to a desperate, impossible hope, Alex squinted at the Beta. There is absolutely no way.

“Use me to practice on.”

There is absolutely… no way.

He was completely stunned into silence. Entirely oblivious to the fact that the umbrella he had been gripping had clattered to the wet concrete, Alex’s lips parted and closed like a dying fish. The catastrophic reality of Nathan’s words slowly began to bleed into his panicked mind. In that instant, his face ignited in a violent blush.

“You and… me?”

His throat seized so tightly that his voice cracked. His chest felt like it was being crushed in a vise, and his skin burned with feverish heat.

“Do you not want to?”

Nathan’s tone was incredibly soft, almost coaxing. Looking up at the Beta as those long, golden eyelashes fluttered upward, Alex genuinely felt like he was going to lose his mind. There was absolutely no universe where he could ever reject a proposal offered with that devastatingly beautiful face.

“No!”

He fired the answer back with a speed that shocked even himself. But is this really okay? What about Jessica? The sudden intrusion of her name made him feel a sickening wave of guilt, exactly as if he were actively cheating. No, no. It’s just practice. Nathan isn’t going to read anything into it.

But given that he had just fiercely resolved to permanently give up on Nathan, agreeing to go on a mock date felt bizarrely contradictory.

“But you aren’t an Omega,” Alex pointed out weakly, desperately trying to claw back a shred of rationality. The words tasted like ash in his mouth.

“You said you were going to meet a guy. Isn’t that close enough?” Nathan countered logically.

When framed like that, it was a perfectly valid argument. Still…

“Didn’t you say you hated it when people looked at you like an Omega?” Alex pushed gently.

“I said it annoyed me when you joined in with the rest of those idiots. But you already proved you don’t.”

The terrifying memory of his desperate confession violently resurfaced, causing the heat that had begun to fade from Alex’s face to flare back with a vengeance. Looking troubled, Alex jerked his gaze sideways, his hand rising to nervously scrub at the back of his neck. His earlobes were glowing cherry red.

Nathan’s piercing gaze locked onto the back of the Alpha’s hand as it traced over his skin.

“…Okay.”

I’d love to. He tacked the final, desperately shy thought onto the end of the sentence in his mind.

A soft, breathy chuckle slipped past Nathan’s lips.

“When do you want to do it?” Nathan asked.

The simple question sounded incredibly, dangerously suggestive to Alex’s panicked mind, forcing him to squeeze his eyes shut. The horrifying memory of picturing Nathan while committing that shameful act violently assaulted him. As a distinct, heavy tightness began to pool in his lower abdomen, Alex desperately scrambled to think about absolutely anything else.

“Whenever.”

“Let’s do it on Saturday, then,” Nathan decided.

Having reached a satisfactory conclusion, Nathan turned and began walking toward the school. However, instead of immediately taking the lead like he usually did, the Beta took a few steps, paused, and spun back around. Seeing the silent, incredibly fond expression inviting him to catch up, Alex’s fake, strained smile melted away into something genuine.

The crushing depression that had tortured him for days vanished entirely, his footsteps feeling impossibly light.

☂