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I stared at Kevin for a few seconds as what he just told me registered. Those few seconds felt like forever as a million thoughts crossed my mind. Kevin wouldn’t lie to me, especially in such a serious situation.

I stumbled back a few steps because of the shock. He hurriedly reached out to catch me in case I fell. I guess he'd heard about my fainting fiasco too. He gently pushed me to sit in one of the chairs and then he pulled one of the other chairs directly in front of me and sat on it.

I looked up at him. His brows were furrowed and his eyes were laced with worry.

“That’s crazy,” I whispered. “How is that possible?”

He smiled with relief that I hadn’t fainted. “There are a lot of things in the world that seem impossible until you look a little closer.”

I let out a shaky breath and propped my elbows on my knees so that I could rest my face in my palms.

Kevin smiled at me and rubbed his hand over my hair. That action always helped to calm me down. I suddenly thought of something.

“Is it okay for you to tell me this? What about Ashton?” I frowned.

“Ashton already let the secret out,” he shrugged. “It’s not a problem if you know about me now.”

“So he had to be the one to say it?” I asked. “Why couldn’t you tell me instead? I think I would have registered it better if it came from you.”

“It’s not exactly my secret alone to tell. Ashton had to make the call on that one since he’s the prince. I was going to tell you eventually, but then you turned out to be his soulmate and that complicated things a little.”

“A little? I still have no clue what the whole soulmate thing means,” I complained.

Kevin let out a laugh at that. “To be fair, you would have figured who I was without me telling you. You just had to accept that it was possible.”

I thought about that carefully, and then it all seemed to make sense. Kevin’s strong friendship with Ashton, the missing Beta, the silhouette as his wallpaper. They all seemed connected.

“You’re right,” I gasped. “It doesn’t make sense, but at the same time, it does makes sense… if that makes sense..."

Kevin chuckled and stretched lazily. “I’m glad that’s off my chest. I feel a lot lighter after telling you. I thought you were going to hate what I am...”

"Kev, I wouldn't care if you morphed into the Loch Ness monster. I could never hate you." I punched his arm playfully. “So you’re the other Beta who wasn’t there.”

“Bingo,” he winked at me. “I asked Ashton not to tell you. I wanted to tell you myself."

I considered that for a moment. “Is there anyone else I should know about?” I asked dubiously.

“Yeah,” he said, rubbing his neck. “Mel…Callie...”

My eyes nearly popped out of my head. “What?!” I shrieked, jumping up from the chair. “You’re joking. Please tell me you’re joking right now.”

Kevin erupted into a fit of laughter at my expression. He didn’t stop laughing until his faced turned red.

“You should see your face,” he hooted. It took me a second to realize that he was actually joking.

I huffed and launched myself at him to get back at him for tricking me like that, but he caught me easily. I still tried to wrestle with him, but he was holding me off pretty easily and he was still laughing.

“Give it up, Liz. You can’t beat me. I’m stronger than you.”

“Oh yeah? Think fast,” I said, letting him go and chucking a thick book at him.

He caught it easily. I threw two more which he didn’t manage to dodge. I grinned triumphantly and crossed my arms.

“I let you hit me.”

“Yeah, right!” I yelled with a laugh.

“Hey Liz, think fast,” he grinned back at me, preparing to throw a book.

My smile disappeared. Oh no, I couldn’t catch to save my life.

I dashed across the room as Kevin put the book down and chased me. If he caught me it was all over. In a few seconds it was really over. Kevin caught me easily despite my best efforts at being a track star.

I collapsed on the ground, laughing in defeat and he sat down beside me laughing as well. I wiped a laughing tear from my eye. It had been a while since we’d had so much fun together.

“This reminds of that time at the beach when you chased me with that bucket of water,” I panted in happy exhaustion.

Kevin was breathing normally. “Looks like you keep losing to me when it comes on to running."

“Well, one of us has the advantage. You Origen, you,” I stated mockingly, glaring at him.

Kevin fake pouted and dramatically placed a hand over his heart. “You’re really using the Origen card?”

“Yes, I am,” I said hitting hit arm lightly. “I let you catch me on purpose.”

“As if,” he retorted.

He ruffled my hair with both hands and I tried in vain to push him away. I gave up with a laugh.

There was a small pause of comfortable silence.

“No matter how far you run, I’ll always catch you, Liz.”

I rested my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes as my breathing returned to normal.

“I’m not sure Ashton would like the sound of that.”

Kevin chuckled. “You’re getting to know Ashton quite well. Since you allowed me to catch you,” he continued disbelievingly, “I’ll tell you who the other Origen is.”

I looked up at him in surprise. “You were serious about that?”

He nodded. “There is one more who goes here.”

I shook my head to stop him. “You don’t have to tell me, they probably want to keep it a secret too.”

Kevin glanced down at me. “Aren’t you considerate,” he smiled. “I can tell the curiosity is killing you though.”

I smiled at that. I was very curious to know who it was, but it would seem unfair to whoever it was if someone else was to reveal their secret.

“You don’t have to worry about that,” he said. “I could have told you about everyone else except Ashton. He wanted to be the one to tell you first.”

“Since I’m his soulmate and all.”

Kevin cringed a bit hearing me say that and then chuckled.

“Anyways, it’s that kid who’s been hanging around you.” He pondered this. “It’s like you attract Origens. It’s weird,” he teased.

My brows furrowed in confusion and I chewed my nails in thought. A kid who was always with me?

I talked with a lot of the students in years below me since I was a prefect. Someone who I talked with a lot? My mind flickered through everyone.

“Hint. He’s new."

He? New? A smiling face flashed across my mind.

“Micah?” I gasped.

“Bingo again. Hey, you’re on a roll,” he laughed.

I couldn’t laugh though. I felt winded.

“Micah is an Origen too?” I asked disbelievingly.

“He was the last time I checked. I should probably check again. He might have turned human overnight,” Kevin said with a shrug.

I peered at him trying to figure out if he was serious or not.

“That can happen?” I asked.

“No, princess. It cannot.”

He placed his hand on my forehead to straighten out the crease between my brows. “He does live near the Royal Realm. He’s hired help.”

“Wait, so he’s not a noble?”

“Nope. He’s an Omega. They’re Origens too, but they’re not ranked with nobility.”

“I always thought it was weird how the noble ranks ended with Psi and not Omega, you know, since it follows the Greek alphabet. I didn’t know that Omegas existed.”

“Omegas usually live in the Common Realm, but some of them, like Micah, live in the Royal and Noble Realms because they work for the higher ranked persons. It’s a hierarchy. The further down you go, the less authority you have. Omegas have none.”

“That sucks. I can’t believe it about Micah. I never would’ve guessed.”

Kevin stared at me intently for a while and then sighed. “Eventually you’ll know everything.”

“But I’m not royalty or nobility."

“Really? I never would’ve guessed,” he teased.

“Smells like sarcasm,” I said, slapping his arm.

“After Ashton marries you, you’ll be royalty,” he pointed out.

My smile dropped at that. “Yeah, about that… Since when did you know that I was Ashton’s soulmate?” I cringed at the word.

“I found out after his party,” he sighed. “The reason why he wanted me to stay away from you was because he didn’t want the king to notice you, but I guess that didn’t help anything.”

I nodded. “It’s like the king knows everything.”

Kevin scowled. “He knows more than he should.”

I guess he wasn’t a fan of the king either.

I turned to him, searching his eyes. “Do you really think I’m Ashton’s betrothed?”

“I-”

Brrring!

The bell cut him off. The hour was already almost up?

“Kevin, I’m so sorry. You didn’t get to have lunch because of me,” I sighed.

“I completely forgot that it was lunch time. Don’t worry about me, you need to eat something.”

He got up and then helped me to my feet. We walked back to where our bags were.

“We still have ten minutes, let’s go,” he said as he handed me my bag and tried patting my hair back into place. It was his fault that it was all ruffled to begin with.

I swatted his hand away. “I’ll do it,” I said smoothing my hair down. “I’ll have to brush it down in the bathroom later.”

He grinned at me and held the door open as I stepped out. We hurried to the cafeteria, which was emptier than usual because lunch time was almost up. We both ordered chicken sandwiches.

After we collected our lunch, I spotted Melissa and Callie at our usual table. When we made eye contact, they both took a sip of their drinks. I knew they were waiting for the tea.

I gulped nervously. Kevin was looking over at Ashton, who fortunately didn’t look so upset. He was still glowering at us, but hey, it could be worse.

As I was about to begin the walk of doom to where my friends were, Kevin caught my arm and leaned down to whisper in my ear.

“Please keep this a secret from Mel and Callie for now.”

“I won’t tell them about Ashton.”

“Or me either.”

My eyes almost jumped out of my head. There was no way I’d be able to hide that from them. Kevin was about to walk away when I grabbed his bag.

“How do you suggest I do that?”

He shrugged with a devious smile and attempted to walk away. I yanked his bag back.

“Kevin, help me out here.”

I was trying not to look at Melissa and Callie, but I could feel the curiosity of their gazes on me. I ended up looking at Ashton and his gaze was getting darker by the second. This didn’t look so good.

The bell rang again, signalling five minutes to class time. “Okay, here’s what we’ll do,” Kevin said in an excited whisper.

“Yeah?”

“We’ll run on three.”

“What?”

“One,” he counted.

“Kevin we can’t-”

“Two.”

“They’re gonna be-”

“Three!”

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