Page 30 of Defiant Beta

Then I fall the rest of the way and lie on the ground, dazed from my collision and dizzy from all the blood flowing to my head, but I amsuccessful.

I bounce to my feet with a triumphant fist raised. “Yes!”

A dark-haired girl is staring at me, big brown eyes wide, gripping a bag in one hand. “Hey.”

“How much of that did you see?”

She blinks. “All of it.”

I drop my triumphant fist of victory. “Um, well, pretend you didn’t.” I sniff her sweet almond scent and grip her shoulders, turning her away from the gates. “You don’t want to go in there.”

Her brow furrows. “Why not?”

“Buildings keep getting set on fire. I’m sure there are even ghosts. It wouldn’t surprise me if it were haunted. You wanna go thatta way.” I steer her away, back to the only car in the visitor parking lot, a beat-up Toyota, hoping she wouldn’t mind giving me a lift.

She doesn’t look like she believes me about the ghost, but she’s not fighting me. Why else would someone humiliate themselves by flashing the entire world if they weren’t trying to get away from something terrible?

“Why didn’t you drive through?” I ask.

The school closes for guests at five, but if a prospective new student came knocking, Ms. Arkwright would crank those gates wide open even if it were midnight. She’s not just the head of the school. She’d give a prison warden a run for their money.

Her gaze turns wary. “I wasn’t sure about the place. I wanted to speak to someone first before I decided if I wanted to go in. I’ve been hearing stuff.”

Smart.

“I think I like you…?”

“Mercy.”

“Mercy. I’m Del?—”

A car engine starts up.

I hadn’t seen the black BMW parked on the edge of the visitor parking lot, but it must have been there all along.

Normal people do not hang out in the darkest corner of the city’s omega-only academy parking lot late in the evening.

This behavior is both creepy and alarming.

I grab Mercy’s arm, halting her as I start looking for some way to defend myself. I left everything behind. Everythingbut my perfume. Getting off the school grounds couldn’t have happened if I had a bunch of stuff weighing me down. “Is that your car?”

She shakes her head, eyeing the BMW with increasing wariness. “No. I don’t know who that is.”

Thought not.

I point my chin at the battered Toyota on the other side of the parking lot. “That one?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I don’t have a good feeling about this. You should?—”

The BMW doors open, and three guys climb out. All look like spoiled alphas. Young, arrogant, and probably born with more money than sense. The dark-haired one is holding something in his right hand. I can’t tell what it is until his index finger tenses. Electricity crackles, white and blue light bright in the late afternoon.

A taser.

“Hey there, ladies,” the guy with the taser calls with a hungry smile.

Shit.

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