The Bully Alpha's Fake Alpha Mate (BL)-Chapter 49: LOOSING CONTROL

REED

I made it through exactly two more classes before my body gave up on pretending I had any control left and Callcum noticed first, of course he always does.

"Dude, you’re sweating through your shirt," he said during our break between Combat Theory and Advanced Tactics. "Are you sick or something?"

"I’m fine." I answered, my voice harsher than I wanted it to.

"You don’t look fine. You look like you’re about to pass out or kill someone or maybe both."

I wiped the sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand. My skin was burning. Every nerve ending felt raw and exposed.

"Just tired," I lied.

Callum studied me for a long moment. "This is about Asher, isn’t it?"

My whole body went rigid at the sound of his name.

"What about him?" I asked.

"Everyone saw the hickeys on his neck this morning. Your hickeys." Callum lowered his voice. "What the fuck happened between you two?"

I couldn’t answer because I had no idea what had happened. One minute I was declaring war on Asher Graham and the next I was marking him like he belonged to me. Like my body had decided he was mine to claim.

"Reed." Callum grabbed my arm. "Talk to me. What’s going on?"

"I don’t know." The admission felt like a failure. "I don’t know what’s happening to me." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"Are you going into rut?" He asked in confusion and the question hit me like a physical blow.

"I’ve never had a real rut before," I said quietly. "Pre-rut symptoms, yeah but never a full rut. My doctor said it might not happen until I found—"

I stopped.

Until I found my mate.

No.

That was impossible.

Asher Graham wasn’t my mate. He was my enemy. The student who’d challenged me, defied me, and still refused to submit until now no matter what had transpired between us.

He couldn’t be my mate but my body was screaming otherwise.

"Fuck," Callum breathed. "You’re going into rut. Your first one."

"I don’t know, maybe. I can’t—I can’t think straight." I said honestly.

"And the full moon is–"

"Tomorrow night, yeah I know" I answered before he could complete his statement.

Callum’s eyes widened. "Reed, if you’re going into your first rut during a full moon, you need to lock yourself down. Get somewhere safe and away from everyone."

"I know." I answered

"Especially away from Asher."

My hands clenched into fists. "Why Asher?"

"Because whatever’s between you two, it’s clearly triggering your rut and if you’re in rut around him—"

"I know!" My voice came out harsher than I intended. "I know what could happen. I’m not stupid but the damn issue is that it’s a mandatory run and I can’t escape out."

But even as I said it, images flooded my brain.

Asher pinned beneath me, Asher’s neck bared in submissions and Asher’s body accepting mine.

Asher full of me, bred by me, and claimed by me. I quickly shook my head, trying to clear the thoughts.

"I need to go," I said.

"Where? We are not done with this conversation. We have to find a way to exclude you from the run and–"

"And I am done with this conversation. I just need to go somewhere, anywhere. I need to—"

Asher’s scent hit me like a freight train, and I froze mid sentence. He was close, he was somewhere in the building and my body latched onto that scent like a lifeline.

"Reed, don’t—" Callum tried to stop me but I was already moving. My feet carried me through the hallways, following that scent and tracking it like I was born to hunt.

I found myself outside the bathroom where I knew Asher had gone. My hand was on the door handle before my brain caught up.

This is a mistake.

This is dangerous.

This is going to end badly but I opened the door anyway and after I left Asher in that bathroom, I barely made it back to my dorm before I lost it completely.

I slammed the door behind me and leaned against it, gasping for air. My whole body was shaking. My cock was painfully hard and Asher’s scent was still in my nose, on my skin, in my fucking lungs. I couldn’t escape it. I stumbled to the bathroom and turned the shower to cold, stripped off my clothes and stood under the spray but it didn’t help, nothing helped.

My body was preparing for something, building towards something and every instinct I had was screaming at me that tomorrow night, when the full moon rose, I was going to lose control completely.

I braced my hands against the shower wall and tried to breathe. I tried to think about anything other than Asher but my brain wouldn’t cooperate.

All I could think about was his scent, that sweet, warm scent that was almost Omega but not quite. That scent that was driving my rut into overdrive.

What the fuck was he?

I’d done my research on Asher when he first arrived. His records said Alpha. His designation paperwork said Alpha. Everything about him screamed Alpha except his scent and the way my body responded to him.

Alphas didn’t trigger ruts in other Alphas. It was biologically impossible unless Asher wasn’t actually an Alpha but if he wasn’t an Alpha, what was he? The scent wasn’t pure Omega. There was something off about it. Something masked or hidden or wrong.

’Suppressants!?’ The thought hit me hard.

What if Asher was on suppressants? What if he was hiding his true designation? But why would an Omega pretend to be an Alpha? Why risk exposure? Why come to an Academy full of Alphas?

Unless he had no choice or unless he was running from something.

I turned off the shower and grabbed a towel.

My hands were still shaking as I dried off and pulled on clean clothes.

Tomorrow night was the full moon. If Asher was an Omega on suppressants, and those suppressants were failing, his heat would peak tomorrow night and my rut would respond.

The combination was lethal.

An Alpha in rut fixated on an Omega in heat couldn’t be stopped, it couldn’t be reasoned with and it couldn’t control the instinct to claim and breed and possess.

I’d warned Asher to run but even as I said it, I knew it wouldn’t matter because when my rut hit full force, I would hunt him down.

I would track his scent across campus, through buildings, through locked doors if necessary and when I caught him—and I would catch him—I wouldn’t stop until my body was satisfied, until he was claimed, bred, and mine.

The thought should have terrified me but instead, it sent a bolt of pure want through my system that made my cock hard again.

I sat on the edge of my bed and put my head in my hands.

Twenty-four hours.

I had twenty-four hours to figure out how to control this. Twenty-four hours to decide if I was going to lock myself down or give in to what my body wanted. Twenty-four hours before I either claimed Asher Graham or destroyed us both trying.

My phone buzzed and I looked at it. It was a text from Callum.

Callum: You okay?

Me: No

Callum: What do you need?

Me: I need to not go into rut. I need Asher’s scent to stop driving me insane. I need my body to stop acting like he’s my fucking mate.

I deleted the message before sending it.

Me: I’m fine. I just need to sleep.

Callum: Liar but okay. Let me know if you need anything.

I set the phone down and lay back on my bed.

Sleep wasn’t going to happen, not with Asher’s scent still in my system and not with my body counting down the hours until the full moon.

Not with the knowledge that tomorrow night, I was going to become something I couldn’t control, something primal, feral, and dangerous.

Something that would hunt Asher Graham down and claim him whether either of us wanted it or not.

I closed my eyes and tried to breathe.

One more day before everything changed. One more day before I found out if Asher Graham was really my mateor if I was indeed losing my fucking mind.