Page 74 of Incompatible

Two days later, when I show up at school on Monday, I immediately notice the strange looks Vin and Rob send my way.

Sometimes it’s hard not to understand certain things, sometimes you simply feel them even if you can’t explain them, but on some level I know that theyknow. Maybe Doug or Neville told them, maybe they figured it out on their own.

There’s that specific kind of stare, the kind that carries a mix of contempt and mockery, yet there’s something questioning in it as well.

After two days, their family definitely knows Matt never came home. What happened to him? Of course their debt wasn’t paid off thanks to Alex’s foresight, since I managed to stop the transfer. So maybe they suspect someone else took an interest in their brother?

Besides those two, there are two more Hansons at our school, one omega and one beta, but even in their eyes I catch that same strange look, and a few days later I find a note on my locker.

I hear you’re whoring yourself out. How much?

At the bottom there’s a crude drawing of a bent-over body with clearly spread cheeks and an exaggeratedly open hole.

The only blessing in all this is that Alex doesn’t see it, and with my jaw clenched I manage to grab the paper before he notices, but I already know my story with these people is far from over.

So the whole Hanson family knows what happened to me, and it’s only a matter of time before others at school find out too.

That awareness is far from pleasant, but instead of crushing me it only deepens my anger.

Something dark and hateful keeps growing inside me, and I feel more and more certain that I can’t let Kit escape what he did.

They want to destroy my reputation, I will destroy their lives.

As for my relationship with Alex, it starts shifting in its own strange way.

Alex keeps his word, just like I asked him, he never brings up what happened again, but even more than before he tries to be there for me, tries to help me, tries to steer my attention toward things that feel good, and he still comes over to my house, helping me record videos, promote them.

I also notice a return of what happened a year ago during his visits to my place. Usually, just before leaving, Alex builds circles of pillows on my bed. He does it in silence, and I don’t say a word either. He simply arranges them and leaves with his head slightly bowed.

Sometimes I stand there, staring at them. I know it’s his genuine instinct, his way of wanting to protect me and give me strength. Even though the nest can’t actually calm me because his wrist glands aren’t producing soothing pheromones and Alex isn’t a mature omega, it still holds symbolic meaning for me. I know it comes straight from his heart.

When the holidays come, the school hosts another holiday event, and I perform with the school band.

My parents and brothers show up, Alex’s dad, and of course Alex is in the first row, and I put my whole heart into my song, doing everything I can to perform it well, and people cheer and have a good time, and Alex’s eyes stay fixed on me with that look of admiration that means the world to me, his support wrapping around me like a safe little bubble.

When the last song ends, I bow, and that’s when I notice something… the whole crowd that had just been clapping starts falling strangely silent and everyone stares, stunned, at something behind my back.

I turn around… and my vision goes a little dark.

The stage has a metal frame above it where people hang different decorations that can be lowered like theater curtains, giving various backgrounds for each performance. Most of them show snowy holiday scenes with trees, ornaments, Santa, or reindeer, but apparently someone slipped in an unexpected one between the rolls, and that’s the one that’s being lowered now.

It shows a cropped drawing of a bent-over ass, and behind it someone’s hips, with an obviously aroused dick pushed between naked cheeks, and at the top there’s a huge caption:

School whore Bay. Five bucks a fuck. Don’t miss the offer.

There’s no way to describe what I feel. From the audience I hear rustling and murmurs. The principal lunges toward the control panel that operates the mechanism and quickly switches the sheet to another one showing a cheerful reindeer.

But what’s done is done, and it’s too late. I want the earth to swallow me whole. And I want to kill. I want to walk up to Rob and Vin, because I’m sure it’s their doing, and drive knives into their stomachs.

Multiple times.

The entire school saw my humiliation. My parents. Alex. I turn around and run off the stage, out into the hallway, and I don’t want to stop. I run out of the school, cut across the parking lot, and all I want is to call Ennio right now, but I know I shouldn’t do it from my main phone. I need a burner for that.

So I quickly order an Uber and head toward downtown where the twenty-four-hour stores are.

I put my phone on silent because it keeps ringing with incoming calls, from my dad, and from Alex.

Still, I ignore it, shove the phone into my pocket with a stern expression on my face as we drive into the center of town.