Call You Mine

Chapter Twelve

For five hours, Arthit slept. Peacefully, serenely—completely unaware that his alarm had filled the room with its shrill voice a few minutes before 5 o'clock, or that someone had quietly rapped against his door an hour later. Surrounded by the scent of his pack—and that of an alpha he had no business trusting—Arthit felt safe and warm, and his sleep remained untroubled until the moment he was slowly pulled back into consciousness.

Arthit moaned unhappily, not wanting to wake up before his alarm, and lazily rolled onto his back so that he could grab his phone off the nightstand. Bleary-eyed, he held it in front of his face and turned on the screen.

7:08PM

The effect was instantaneous. Upon seeing the time, Arthit jumped up and scrambled out of bed, panicked, heart racing from adrenaline pulsing through his veins. Kongpob—his mind supplied—the meeting with Kongpob—he'd missed it by two fucking hours.

"Shit." Now what was he supposed to do? He had no way of contacting Kongpob, which meant he wouldn't be able to get his key back until Monday morning. His stomach roiled. He couldn't stay here overnight knowing that an alpha had a fucking key to his dorm and could quietly sneak in at any time. Even taking a nap had been a huge fucking mistake.

Arthit padded over to the window and pushed aside the drapes, looking across the building at Prem's dorm. The lights were on, thankfully. He took out his phone and brought up Prem's contact information.

"What do you want?" Prem asked the second he answered the call. "I'm busy."

"Are you alone?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I'm coming over," Arthit replied, grabbing his backpack off the desk chair. He tossed it on the bed and went to his closet. "Did you eat already?"

"Not yet."

"Me either. I'll bring food." He yanked two shirts off their hangers and stuffed them in his bag. "What do you want?"

"Whatever you want is fine." Pause. "Did something happen, Arthit?"

Arthit hesitated. If he told the truth—that he'd neglected to get his key back and felt unsafe—his friend would undoubtedly throw a fit and give him an earful about how stupid it was to let Kongpob stay overnight in the first place. If he fibbed a bit, perhaps he could avoid the lecture. "Nothing happened," he said, realizing too late that he still needed a reason for why he wanted to sleep over. "Uh, except...a pipe burst. Yeah, um, a pipe burst and I need a place to sleep tonight—and maybe tomorrow if it's not fixed by then."

"..."

"Prem?"

Sigh. "I'll unlock the door."

"Thanks."

"Whatever."

The call ended with an abrupt click, and Arthit sighed heavily, knowing his friend hadn't believed a word that came out of his mouth. He had always been a terrible liar, unfortunately, and although he used to be able to tell his friends anything, he didn't feel that way now. But was that so terrible? Did he have to share every detail of his life with them just because they were pack? Couldn't he keep some things to himself?

Scowling, Arthit shoved a pair of shorts into his bag and quickly packed anything else he'd need until Monday morning. I should have called fucking Bright or Tutah instead, he thought in retrospect. Except, that would've been terrible too—worse, even—because instead of a short lecture, he would've had to endure their relentless teasing.

Whatever. It didn't matter anyway.

With that in mind, Arthit resigned himself to his fate and made his way out the door, moving quickly down the hall to the elevator; however, just as he stepped off on the first floor, Arthit noticed a familiar figure in the seating area on his right and stopped short, doing a double-take in surprise.