Knot Their Toy: the complete duet, page 1
Knot Their Toy
BOOKS 1 & 2
AJ MERLIN
Vile Boys
Copyright © 2023 AJ Merlin
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Design by Covers By Combs
Contents
Vile Boys
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Wicked Girl
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Epilogue
About AJ Merlin
Vile Boys
Chapter
One
Would it be cheating to knock out my hearing aids so that I don’t have to hear the dean of Winter Grove University keep going on and on about how honored we should feel?
Sure, it would take a bit of planning. With my hearing aids going over my ears and kept pretty securely in place, I might have to fake a bee in my long hair to shake them to the ground, or more preferably, into the black canvas bag between my knees.
In the end, I decide it’s not worth it. Yet.
But still the dean goes on, voice rising and falling with a lull that makes me want to pass out. I take a deep breath, scents mingling to what amounts to smell-soup in my nose. Alpha, beta, omega, spicy, flowery, fruity…it’s all there, and most of it smells like crap, thanks to the muddling in my nose.
The girl on my left glances over at me, eyes wide, when she sees me take a second deep, steadying breath. Her dark eyes dart around my face, then down to where my knee shakes impatiently, and a small frown appears on her face as if she’s worried I’m going to get to my feet and riot until we can leave the ice hockey rink that poses for an auditorium here.
I may be one of the few incredibly lucky scholarship students, but I’m not a heathen. There’s no need to worry when the worst I’ll do is just stop listening.
She looks at me again, and this time I catch her gaze with my own to hold it. She’s an omega too. Being close enough that her knee could brush mine if she wanted means that I can scent her just as clearly as the beta to my right, but this omega looks petrified. As if the dean is about to announce some cut-throat version of the Weakest Link to get a few students out of here and make room for the rich kids and all their money.
Personally, I’ve read the brochure enough to reasonably know that is not going to happen, but who can really be sure these days?
My eyes move from the girl’s, going instead to canvas the chairs around me. For orientation, only the freshman have been cursed to show up and listen to this speech, but I’d thought there would be more than what there are. Don’t most colleges have a few hundred students enroll each year? At least?
Frankly, if there are more than one hundred and fifty students sitting on the chairs in the covered hockey arena, I’ll eat my Winter Grove brochure.
My eyes fall on a brunette boy who’s leaned back in his chair, quite obviously staring at the ceiling instead of looking forward at the dean. His head tilts back, exposing more of his pale throat, and by the way the girl to his left keeps glancing at him and all of that pale skin on display, I can’t help but think that he’s an omega like me, and she’s caught his scent strongly. Clearly, she wants to act on it, but I don’t think she’s about to go all vampire on his neck in front of everyone here.
A low, irritated sigh leaves me, and I drag my gaze back to the dean, away from the boy with his throat on display.
Or rather, the woman who slams the gate to the arena, her dress shoes making awkward scuffing noises on the cover of the rink. She bolts to the dean, her face white, and he pauses in what is probably the most heartfelt part of a truly rousing speech to bend down enough for her to whisper in his ear something I most certainly can’t hear.
At least I’m close enough to see his face go white. And close enough to read his lips, being that I’m in the second row of students, and I lean forward enough to do just that, tuning out every muddy sound of muttering students to watch the way his lips move.
Are you sure? He asks, thankfully facing me enough that I can make out the words. The woman nods, but unfortunately her reply is said not facing me. I have no idea what it is she’s told him.
He draws back, runs a hand down his face, and she continues to whisper in his ear. At last he shakes his head.
Where is the body? I’ll keep the freshmen here until it’s cleaned up so none of them see it.
Body? Maybe there is some kind of Battle Royale going on here that I hadn’t expected.
“Can you tell what they’re saying?” over the buzz of conversation, the girl’s voice in my ear takes longer than it should to properly reach my brain. I look at her, blinking in surprise, and her confidence falters, though I’m sure I don’t look mean. My resting bitch face is more like a resting anxious face on most occasions.
“Kind of,” I admit with a shrug, leaning back and getting a good look at her once more. She doesn’t look as nervous this time, though I’m not sure how she’s going to respond to what I’m about to say. “I think they found a body on campus.”
“A what?” She lurches away from me, as if I’m the one who’s committed a murder, and I fight so hard not to roll my eyes that they burn from the strain. “A body?”
“I think so? I guess, anyway. I guess they could be talking about an animal or something?”
“Nah, not an animal.” The boy behind us leans forward, draping his arms over both of our chairs. I turn to look at him, my brows raised, and when I suck in a breath, his scent hits me. It reminds me of something tropical and alcoholic, and for a moment I think about calling him Mr. Piña Colada. Maybe not out loud. I’m not sure if he’d appreciate that. But in my head, that’s what he is now.
It’s also impossible to block out how incredibly appetizing that smell is. I almost want to lean into him, just for a better sniff, but again, I am not a heathen. I will not sniff the beta leaning on my chair, even though I could say it’s compensation for where he has his arm.
“No?” I ask, brows lifting. “You’re telling me there really is a dead body on Winter Grove grounds? The brochure never mentioned this.”
“Brochure?” I lean forward and grab it out of my bag, lifting it with a flourish at his question.
“Oh.” He plucks it out of my hands and looks it over, brows raising. “I see. One of these brochures. Guess you’re pretty smart, aren’t you?”
Irritation tickles my nerves, and I look at him as I slowly reach out and take the brochure back, to drop it back in my bag. I’d only kept it this long for the map, but now I’m feeling pretty judged about the whole situation. “Aren’t we all pretty smart? Seems like it’s a requirement to go here,” I point out carefully.
“Money is the requirement to go here. Unless you’re lucky enough to get a scholarship. Which you did.” His words are confident, and he’s not asking about my scholarship student status. He’s stating a fact.
“What makes you think that?”
“Because you have the scholarship kid brochure. Not the rich kid brochure.”
There are different ones?
Before I can remark on it, he throws me a knowing smirk from a handsome face, his light blue eyes set under long lashes glittering. “Anyway, it’s a person. A student. My pack says that they’ve been mopping up blood for ten minutes.”
“Blood?” the girl beside me repeats, her eyes back to being as big as saucers. “As in–”
“Looks like someone was murdered.” The boy shrugs and sits back, just as the dean clears his throat.
“There’s been an incident on campus. We’ll let you know when there’s more to tell. Unfortunately, we’ll have to cut this short, and I’d like to ask all of you not to hang around the police as they investigate. You have three more days before classes start.” He offers a wan smile. “And I’m sure many of you are anxious to explore the town. Remember that the lighthouse closes at dusk, and that the lake is much too cold to swim in during the fall. Co
When he dismisses us, I take my time. The boy behind me does not, instead tearing off towards two other students standing by the entrance to the ice rink. One of them grins, wrapping an arm over the boy’s shoulders, but the other looks up, eyeing me balefully as I watch.
He doesn’t look very friendly. With dark hair and dark eyes set on a pale face, he looks like he’s trying his best to tell me to fuck off without words. Not that I’ve done anything. All things considered, his friend was the one who was rude to me.
Finally, the only students left are two girls talking to the dean’s assistant, and the girl who’d been sitting beside me. She jumps up when I do, cementing her place in my mind as a truly nervous creature as her flowery scent washes over me.
At the end of the day, the only thing I can really ask for is to never be such a jumpy, nervous omega. It reminds me of a chihuahua, and the thought immediately makes me feel bad. Maybe something happened to her that I don’t know about? After all, I don’t even know her name.
“What dorm are you in?” I ask, trying to sound friendly.
The girl sucks in a breath. “Maliseet,” she says, after a brief hesitation. “You?”
“I’m in Maliseet too, actually.” I’m surprised to know we’re going to the same place, so I add, “Want to walk there together? I haven’t met my roommate yet, or anything. I just dumped my stuff in there earlier.”
“What room?” She shoves her hands in her pockets and leads the way out of the row of chairs, taking the same gate out that the other students had.
“Four-eighteen.”
A smile crosses her face for the first time since she’d sat down next to me. “Then…you’ve officially met your roommate,” she informs me with a soft chuckle. “I’ve been out most of the day, and I’ve been here since last night. Sorry I wasn’t there when you got in. I’m umm. Briella Navarro.”
“I’m Mercy Noble.” I smile and move to walk next to her, going down the hallway of the campus center the same way I’d come in. “I really wish I would’ve known there was a rich kids brochure and a poor kids brochure,” I add, thinking back on the other boy’s words. “Would’ve been great not to embarrass myself like that.”
“He’s just like that,” Briella shrugs. “All three of them are?”
“You know them?”
“Yeah. Everyone here basically knows them. It’s not a big deal that you don’t.” Her nose wrinkles. “They aren’t worth the time it takes to memorize their names.”
“What’s his name?”
“Foster O’Dell.” She shakes her head as we push open the doors of the campus center, emerging between the theater and one of the class halls.
Before I can ask anything else, or why she doesn’t like Foster, my eyes fall on the crime scene tape that’s placed around part of the courtyard in the middle of campus. Two cops patrol either side of it, and near a tarp that’s long since had its occupant removed, two women talk in quiet voices.
“I don’t suppose you can see what they’re saying?” Briella asks, leaning into my shoulder.
I shake my head, not minding the physical contact from another omega. If she were not an omega, things would be different. But I’ve never been attracted to people of my designation, and physical touch is a pretty common thing for us. “Way too far,” I tell her. “And they aren’t looking this way.” My eyes sweep over the crime scene, briefly finding the three boys that are on the other side of it, looking at what’s going on with interest.
They don’t look at me, and why should they?
“I guess this wasn’t in the brochure, huh?” Briella’s soft voice is amused, and she crosses her arms over her chest. “Or if it was, maybe it was in the small print?”
“Probably the small print,” I agree. “I barely read any of it.”
We stand at the top of the steps for a few moments longer, far from the only students watching the cops work. Finally, however, the dean comes tearing out of the building, and gives us a quick, warning look that’s pretty obvious in its intent.
“Go somewhere else, all of you,” he calls loudly, flapping his hands at the students gathered. “Let the cops do their work. We’ll inform you all of what happened here the moment we know more, all right?”
“Sure he will,” Briella snorts. “Because colleges are known for transparency with their students, right?”
“Oh, absolutely,” I agree, catching sight of the three boys walking away. They don’t go towards Maliseet dorm, however, instead finding a path that takes them towards the lake and the building perched on the edge of it.
The fancy dorms, as I’ve dubbed them. The ones that cost extra to take up space there.
“Hey, so uh…Welcome to Winter Grove University?” Briella turns that nervous grin on me again. “Since I’m sure no one’s really told you that yet. And the dean didn’t exactly get to, huh? I hope it lives up to every single one of your expectations.”
“Yeah,” I agree, rather unenthusiastically as I watch the dean do his hand-flapping in the faces of students who don’t want to move. “Yeah, when I moved eight hundred miles from home to go here, this is exactly what I was expecting. I couldn’t ask for a better orientation, actually. Let’s do it again next week?”
Chapter
Two
Getting up for classes shouldn’t be so hard. Not when I’ve only been out of high school for a little over three months, and here at Winter Grove I get to wake up two hours later than my usual seven a.m..
Not that I do, of course. Instead my brain jolts me awake at six thirty, the absolute silence pressing in on my ears. Without my hearing aids in, I can’t hear the smaller noises of the room like the air conditioner, Briella’s breathing, or anything else. If someone’s walking around above or below me, or throwing a massive rager in the lounge at the end of the hall, I can’t hear it.
Tentatively I reach up and press my hands to my ears, but the only thing it does is make the silence feel muffled.
And it does nothing to help me fall back asleep.
With eyes wide I stare at the dark mass of the ceiling above me, a frown tugging at my lips. Why am I awake? The thought echoes around my skull; the only imaginary noise in my noise-reduced world.
I’m nervous, I realize at last, though the revelation only makes the frown tug harder on my lips. I have no need to be, do I? It’s college, not the marines or astronaut school. I’m a zoology major at Winter Grove and all I want is to be able to get a job at a good zoo. I don’t need to rule the world like half these people do, I’m sure.
I just want to work with otters, lemurs, and maybe the odd maned wolf. In the scope of things, it doesn’t feel like that much to ask for.
My hands fall back to the bed on either side of my head, fingers curling as I let out a breath to try and relax. My first class isn’t until ten a.m., so there’s really no need for me to be up at the ass-crack of dawn.
Slowly I drag the blankets up over my head, ignoring the way my heart rate speeds up just slightly at the thought of the death during orientation.
Or rather, ignoring the fact that the memory is tinged with the scent of tropical drinks and beaches.
When my eyes open again, I’m pleased to see that the sun is up. My alarm still hasn’t gone off, and when I sit up, I see Briella up as well, flitting around the room in the nervous way I’ve come to realize is just her. She glances my way and says something, but she’s not shouting and she looks away again before I can do more than read the word morning on her lips.
