Page 7 of Defiant Beta

The students range in age from fifteen, when omegas can first perfume, to twenty-one. Delilah Farrow appears older, likely eighteen or nineteen, for her to be a senior.

Too young for a thirty-one-year-old man to be pinning her to the wall the way I just did.

“Maybe you hoped to distract her from wondering what you were doing in the wellness center this late?” Levi suggests.

Yes, and no.

The school's fencing instructor wears black sweatpants, a gray hooded top, and sneakers, his light green eyes focused on me. Levi is proficient in most weapons, particularly daggers and knives. He's quick to learn fighting skills, making the role a natural fit for him.

“That too.” I reluctantly re-focus my mind.

He slowly nods. “Did you find anything?”

I shake my head. “Nothing to suggest it’s Ms. Huffman.”

“She’s a woman for one, and she’s too young,” Xavier says, not for the first time.

“Shelooksyoung, but she’s the right age. I saw the faculty staff files,” Levi says. “We need to rule everyone out. What’d you find?”

“Expensive creams and lotions.” I’d spent an hour riffling through the wellness instructor’s drawers and cupboards.

All doors are locked at the end of the day, but I needed an excuse if anyone saw me and wondered what I was doing. I’d gone for a quick swim, making sure not to dry off completely so that no one could miss the fact that I had been swimming.

The moment I walked out of the wellness center, I felt someone watching me. I should have expected it would be Haven Academy’s newest student, out causing mischief.

By silent agreement, we move away from the wellness center and toward the two-story white cottage on the edge of the campus that houses the teachers' dorms, stopping short of the building itself. We continue our conversation in the shadows.

Like everything else in Haven Academy, there’s been no expenses spared. It’s a mock English cottage that comes with a suite for each teacher. The head of the school has a mini-mansion of her own to call home.

I should be focused on our next target. Instead, my mind is drifting to places it shouldn’t.

Again.

“Delilah Farrow seems intensely interested in setting fire to this place.” I can still feel the imprint of her body against mine. That must be why she’s continuing to distract me. “Why is that?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Levi says as he looks toward the student’s dorms. “She needs to go. I’d rather not trip over an arsonist every time I turn around. Sneaking is a million times harder with someone else sneaking around.”

Yeah.

“We can let someone know she isn’t what she’s pretending to be,” Xavier suggests, leaning against a tree with his arms crossed. “Then she’d have to leave.”

I shake my head. “We’re staying under the radar here. Drawing eyes to Delilah means drawing eyes to us.”

“So, we do it anonymously,” Xavier nods toward the wellness center. “We scoop up whatever she dumped in the lake, and we leave it with a note on Ms. Arkwright’s desk. Problem dealt with.”

“And if someone sees you?” I ask.

“No one will see me.” Xavier’s tone is insistent.

I shake my head. “We can’t risk it.”

It would only take one person to see us—just one—and we’d face more questions than we have answers for.

“We quietly encourage her to leave,” Levi says slowly. “By any means necessary. We make it clear that we know she isn’t who she’s pretending to be, and threaten to expose her if she doesn’t fuck off.”

“And if she doesn’t?” Xavier asks.

It’s a good question. Delilah Farrow doesn’t strike me as the type to be chased off easily.

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