Page 58 of The Drama King (The University Players Duet #1)

"How are you feeling?" Oakley asked, breaking the tense silence first. His voice carried that guilty pleading I was learning to recognize. The Alpha who knew he'd done wrong and desperately wanted absolution.

"Like I've been claimed by three Alphas during a heat cycle they helped trigger," I replied, the sarcasm automatic despite the genuine concern in his expression. "So... complex."

Corvus's mouth quirked in what might have been appreciation of the honesty. "The heat has fully broken. Your scent is stabilizing with the claiming markers. The bonds appear to have taken successfully."

Leave it to Corvus to reduce the most traumatic experience of my life to clinical observations. Biology is destiny. Wasn't that his favorite phrase? As if the chemical reactions in my body negated any possibility of choice or free will.

"We made breakfast," Oakley offered, gesturing to the small table where plates had been set out with careful precision. "You need to refuel after... everything."

The thoughtfulness was almost more disorienting than their earlier cruelty had been.

I was prepared for torment, for manipulation, for the systematic breaking they'd subjected me to for months.

This careful concern felt like another form of manipulation.

Making me question my memories of what they'd done, what they were capable of.

I moved to the table and sat, keeping as much distance between myself and the Alphas as the small space allowed. The food was elaborate. Eggs Benedict, fresh fruit, coffee that smelled expensive. As if they were trying to court me after the fact.

"You have questions," Dorian said, settling across from me with that perfect Alpha confidence that had once made me want to scream with frustration. Now it triggered something else. A sense of security I hadn't asked for and didn't want to acknowledge.

He was treating this like an acquisition, I realized. Like I was a hostile takeover they needed to manage carefully until I accepted my new position in their corporate structure.

"A few thousand," I admitted, staring down at the plate Oakley placed before me. "Starting with what the hell happens now."

They exchanged glances, one of those silent pack communications that excluded me by definition. It was Dorian who answered, as primary Alpha and primary mate.

"That depends partly on what you want," he said, the words carrying weight I couldn't quite decipher. But even as he said it, his posture screamed possession. This wasn't negotiation. This was him allowing me to voice preferences about my own captivity.

"What I want?" I laughed, the sound harsh. "What I want is to turn back time three days and never go into heat in the first place. What I want is to finish my degree without being claimed by the Alphas who spent months tormenting me. What I want is a choice in my own life."

"The reality is that we're bonded now," he continued, steamrolling over my words with that maddening Alpha certainty. "You to all of us, but primarily to me as fated mate. That bond isn't something that can be broken or ignored without serious consequences."

"What kind of consequences?" I asked, though part of me already knew the answer from what I'd been researching.

"Physical symptoms similar to withdrawal," Corvus replied, his analytical precision making it sound like a textbook rather than a threat. "Fever, nausea, severe pain, potentially life-threatening complications in extreme cases. For both sides. Alphas and Omega alike."

But not impossible, I thought, remembering the forum posts about bond rejection. Difficult, dangerous, but not impossible.

"So I'm trapped," I said flatly, testing their responses. "Forced to stay with the very Alphas who spent months systematically tormenting me."

"Not trapped," Dorian corrected, his voice carrying that possessive undercurrent I was learning to recognize. "Bonded. You're ours now, Vespera. We're yours. It's not a cage. It's completion."

The casual ownership in his tone made my skin crawl. This was how he saw it. I'd been acquired, claimed, incorporated into their pack structure. Any resistance on my part was a failure to understand my new position.

"Feels like semantics from where I'm sitting."

Oakley stepped forward, his expression earnest in that guilty, pleading way that was somehow worse than Dorian's honest possession. "We can make this right, Vespera. I know we hurt you before, but this changes everything. We can make you happy. We can give you everything you've ever wanted."

The presumption was breathtaking. As if happiness was something they could bestow upon me, something I should be grateful to receive from my former tormentors.

"And what makes you think you know what I want?" I asked, meeting his gaze directly. "You spent months studying how to break me, not how to make me happy."

His face flushed with shame, but he pressed on. "We were wrong. We know that now. But the bond proves we belong together. Biology doesn't lie."

"No," I said, my voice gaining strength as I dismantled their careful justifications one by one. "Biology is a chemical reaction. It's evolution's way of ensuring genetic diversity and offspring survival. It has nothing to do with love or compatibility or happiness. It's programming."

Corvus's eyes sharpened with interest and alarm. "You've been researching," he observed, his tone carefully neutral.

"Of course I have." I pulled out my phone, letting them see the screen full of bookmark tabs. "Did you think I'd accept this without trying to understand what you've done to me?"

The tension in the room ratcheted up several degrees. All three Alphas were suddenly alert, assessing, calculating. They'd expected compliance, I realized. Expected me to fall into line once the claiming was complete.

"What did you find?" Corvus asked, his clinical detachment not quite masking the concern underneath.

"Enough," I said, meeting each of their gazes in turn. "Enough to know that this isn't the fairy tale ending you seem to think it is. Enough to know that I have options."

Dorian's jaw tightened, Alpha authority asserting itself despite his apparent efforts at restraint. "The bond requires maintenance, Vespera. Separation would cause physical symptoms for all of us."

"I'm aware of the risks," I said calmly, taking a deliberate bite of eggs to show how unaffected I was by their growing alarm. "I'm also aware that people have survived bond rejection before."

"People have died attempting bond rejection," Oakley said, his voice sharp with panic he wasn't quite managing to hide. "You can't seriously be considering—"

"I'm considering all of my options," I interrupted, enjoying the way they flinched at my calm certainty. "Including the option of finishing my degree without interference from the Alphas who made my life hell for months."

The silence that followed was deafening. I could see them processing, calculating, trying to figure out how to manage this unexpected resistance. They'd expected gratitude, submission, inevitability. They hadn't prepared for rejection.

"This is insane," Dorian said finally, his careful composure cracking. "You're talking about risking your life to avoid a bond that could make you happier than you've ever been."

"Are you happy?" I asked, tilting my head with mock curiosity. "Because from where I'm sitting, you all look terrified that your new acquisition might slip through your fingers."

"You're not an acquisition," Oakley protested, but his scent spiked with distress that gave lie to his words.

"No? Then prove it." I set down my fork and leaned back in my chair, projecting confidence I didn't entirely feel.

"Give me space. Let me finish my exams, which, by the way, are next week and I've lost three days to this heat you helped trigger.

Let me complete my degree without interference.

If this bond is real, if it's meant to be, then it should survive a few months of distance. "

"The bond requires proximity," Corvus said, falling back on clinical facts when emotional manipulation failed. "Especially in these early stages. Extended separation could cause irreparable damage."

"To the bond or to your control?" I challenged.

Another tense silence. I could see them exchanging glances, silently communicating their growing panic. This wasn't going according to plan.

"What are you proposing?" Dorian asked finally, his voice carefully controlled.

"I finish my exams. I complete my degree. I figure out what the hell happened to me during those three days when I wasn't in my right mind." I stood up, suddenly needing the height advantage. "And then, maybe, we have a conversation about what comes next. On equal terms."

"That's not how fated bonds work," Corvus said, but his clinical certainty was wavering.

"Then maybe fated bonds are another form of coercion," I replied. "Maybe they're evolution's way of ensuring Omegas can't escape situations they never chose to be in."

The words hung in the air like a challenge. All three Alphas were staring at me with expressions I couldn't quite read. Surprise, alarm, something that might have been respect mixing with growing panic.

"You need to eat," Oakley said finally, falling back on caretaking when everything else failed. "You need to maintain your strength."

I almost smiled at the transparent attempt to redirect the conversation. "I need to get back to my life. I have three major exams next week, and study groups I've already missed. The world didn't stop turning because you decided to claim me."

"We'll help," Dorian offered, but I could hear the possessiveness underlying the apparent generosity. "Whatever you need to succeed academically, we'll provide."

"What I need is space to think without three Alphas hovering over me, analyzing my every response for signs of bond compliance.

" I moved toward the door, needing to establish that I could leave, that I had agency.

"What I need is time to process what happened without feeling like I'm being managed. "

"The bond—" Corvus started.

"Will have to survive some uncertainty," I finished. "If it's real, if it's meant to be, then it should be strong enough to handle me needing time to adjust to having my life turned upside down."

I paused at the door, looking back at three Alphas who were clearly struggling to process my resistance. They'd expected submission, gratitude, inevitability. Instead, they were facing an Omega who knew her options and wasn't afraid to consider all of them.

"I'll be in touch," I said, making it clear that contact would be on my terms. "When I'm ready."

And then I left, walking out of my own dorm room because staying felt like capitulation. Behind me, I could hear urgent whispered conversations, could smell the sharp spike of Alpha distress, could feel the pull of the bonds trying to drag me back.

But I kept walking, each step an assertion of will over biology, choice over destiny.

I had exams to pass and a future to reclaim. Everything else could wait.