Chapter 44

“What the fuck did you do to Nathan?” Alex roared, skipping any pretense of a greeting.

—Hello to you too, Alex. How have you been?

David’s tone was infuriatingly casual. That serene, unbothered voice filtering through the receiver made Alex see red.

“Answer the question.”

—So cold. Aren’t you going to ask me how I’ve been?

“I said, answer the fucking question!”

—Keep your voice down, Alex. You’re being too loud.

“Cut the bullshit and answer me!”

—I said, keep it down.

David’s bright, mocking tone plummeted into something dark and icy in an instant.

The spine-chilling shift made Alex suck in a sharp breath. Right then, an empty taxi screeched to a halt beside him. Hitting the mute button for a split second, Alex barked his destination to the driver. Even though it was just a few simple words, his throat felt tight and blocked. His head spun dizzily, as if he had just been slapped across the face. He could barely contain his boiling rage.

Never in his life had he experienced such pure, unadulterated murderous intent.

It was genuinely terrifying to realize that such bottomless fury had been hiding within him all along. If David were standing in front of him right now, Alex would have strangled the life out of him without a second thought. His mother had been right. He took after his father. How else could he be harboring such violent thoughts?

“If you don’t tell me exactly what you did right now, I’ll make you regret it, no matter what it takes.”

—Ahaha, scary threats. Too bad you won’t have the luxury of following through. You should probably check on the state of your precious friend first. Honestly, Alex. If you had just obediently listened to me, things wouldn’t have escalated this far. Who the hell do you think you are to rebel against me?

It was a completely twisted, psychotic logic. Refusing to waste another second on this lunatic, Alex moved to hang up, but David spoke again.

—Did you know there’s a highly entertaining photo of your beloved friend floating around? Looks like something Jessica Bundy kept as a trophy after having some fun with her buddies. Well, I managed to get my hands on it this time.

The moment David finished speaking, Alex’s phone vibrated with a notification. He hastily pulled the phone away from his ear to check it. True to David’s word, it was an image file. The background looked like the dim gloom of early evening. And in the center of the frame…

—I wonder if the brilliant Nathan White knows that Jessica Bundy goes around showing that off to her friends as a bragging right. Well, whatever. He looks hot enough to fuck, so I can see why you might mistake him for an Omega.

The face of the boy in the photo was obscured, half-buried in the mattress, but long, golden hair cascaded over his features. The boy, who appeared to be unconscious or asleep, was completely naked. His slender waist and the lower half of his body were exposed in crude, unapologetic detail.

Bile surged up Alex’s throat. He clamped a hand over his mouth, his lungs seizing in his chest. Paralyzed by absolute horror, his brain short-circuited, entirely incapable of processing what to do next.

This is Nathan? This?

—Turns out, more of my friends want to ‘take care’ of that bastard Nathan than I thought. When I showed them the picture, they begged for an introduction, so I gave them his address. How stupid is Nathan White to date an idiot like Jessica Bundy? Leaking her own ex-boyfriend’s address without a second thought.

Alex was in no state to judge reality. The photo’s resolution was terrible. The figure seemed slightly thinner than Nathan, but at the same time, it looked terrifyingly similar.

It was more than similar enough to convince anyone who didn’t see Nathan on a daily basis that it was him. Tears blurred Alex’s vision. The sheer cruelty of the situation was unbearable.

—One of them actually got rejected by Nathan White before. Said he was pissed that Nathan turned down an offer to be treated as pretty as an Omega. Works out perfectly, doesn’t it?

“I’m going to call the police,” Alex ground out, desperately wrestling down the violent tremors in his voice as he minimized the photo.

—If you do, this picture gets blasted to everyone in school.

Cruel laughter echoed through the speaker. The threat of the police didn’t phase him in the slightest.

—Actually, that sounds pretty entertaining in its own right. Imagine kids shoving this photo in his face every time he walks down the hall. If you’re so desperate to stay by his side that you’d subject him to that, then go ahead. Oh, but wait, is that all? It’ll be all over Facebook feeds, too.

The world plunged into pitch-black darkness. Ashy and pale, Alex dragged a trembling hand across his forehead.

Faced with a catastrophe utterly beyond his control, his entire body shook violently.

David’s venomous words carried a devastating power.

With just one sentence, Alex was forced to envision the exact moment every single student in their school saw that image. Within that agonizing flash of imagination, he couldn’t even begin to fathom how completely Nathan’s life would be destroyed.

No matter how strong Nathan was, he would never survive this.

—I cleaned up your mess for you.

Because of me, he’s going to be destroyed.

—Besides, once he finds out that he was put through that hell today entirely because of you, he won’t even want to look at you anyway. So cut him off for good. Don’t even stand near him. Be a good boy and listen to me. There is absolutely nothing you can do.

“Why are you… doing this to me?” Alex whispered, his voice saturated with hollow despair, asking the question from the very bottom of his shattered soul. Why are you doing this to me? What did I ever do so wrong?

—Why, you ask?

David let out a condescending sigh, as if pitying a fool.

—Because a worthless piece of shit like you, who has absolutely nothing, refused to listen to me. Even when I was trying to do you a favor.

Right on cue, the taxi screeched to a halt. Incapable of even confirming the destination with the driver, Alex sat frozen in a stupor, letting David’s final words echo in his skull.

—Know your place, Alex.

Delivering the final sentence like a death warrant, David ended the call.