Meetings

The school was larger than I thought. Blair told me there were four sleeping quarters for each rank. The alphas were bigger, but they had the smallest group. I was surprised that Blair was so nice. She gave me a semi-tour. I liked to believe she had matured and this wasn’t a poly only for her to humiliate me later.

We stopped at the door. I turned to her. It had sunk in the past couple of minutes. I was an omega. A lowly omega. I had no expectations when coming here other than being sent back for not having a wolf.

“I’ll show you the Omega Quarters later.” Her brows furrowed. She looked sorry for me. I guess she knew how I felt.

“Thanks.” I pushed the door into Athena’s office.

She looked up from her desk. “Yes, Miss Chambers, I was just about to send someone to come get you.”

I wandered over to her table and sat down.

“Am I really an omega?” I asked.

She sighed and turned in her chair with wheels. She opened a cabinet behind her chair and pulled out a brown top. I dipped my head. Yup, that was my answer.

“It was easy to tell, considering you’d never shifted.” She said.

“You knew before you called me over? Why? I’m as good as human.”

“No, not necessarily. Yes, it’s unlikely you’ll ever shift, but you still have omega qualities. You might not be first in line for breeding, but you can still serve your pack. It turns out Henry Pack is low on omegas.”

Great, I’m here because there was no one else. In most packs like mine, omegas were taken as mates only for breeding purposes. Or fucking purposes. Some weird twist of fate omegas were producing healthy and strong wolves. It wasn’t always the case.  I know the Dale and Sanders packs banned mating with omegas completely in hopes of phasing them out. Dumb luck because it didn’t work that way.

“There’s no reason to worry. Laws have changed, and omegas have some roles other than cleaning service in the pack.” Athena said.

“Yeah, I can become a kindergarten teacher or work in the alpha's house forever.”

Athena folded her fingers together and stared at me. “Did you have other aspirations, Miss Chambers?”

“Yeah, well, I wanted to go to college. Get a degree in nutrition, and a house by the beach for me and my mom for a while. Now I’m stuck here for five years.”

“You’ll get a great education here. And the course you’ve spoken about is perfect. You can obtain it here and help your pack greatly.”

I dipped my head and nodded. It was always about the pack. The good side of being human was not having to be included. I stood up to leave.

“If you ever have doubts about your position in your pack, you can always speak to your alpha.”

Alex. Now I had to bow down to him? Oh, I was so getting kicked out. I nearly burst out laughing.

“I can?”

She nodded, a faint smile forming on her face. I could tell she was a hard woman, maybe she was just being nice because I was new.

“Unfortunately, the alphas are all in a meeting right now.”

A meeting, huh? I thanked Athena and walked out of her office. I found Blair fiddling with her fingers on the waiting bench.

“I see you got the uniform.” She frowned at the brown getup.

“Yeah— do you know where the alphas have their meetings?”

“Yeah, downstairs in the castle basement. It’s really private. Why?”

“I want to see Alex.” I doubted it was that hard to find a basement.

“Wait, no!” Blair darted in front of me, holding her hands out. “You can’t just barge into a meeting.”

“Why not? I just want to see him, let him know I’m here.”

“Are you crazy, Chambers? Of course you are! Alex is an alpha now. Worse, he’s around airheaded alphas who won’t hesitate to send you to the nurse.”

I should have taken the fear in her eyes seriously, but all I wanted was a sneak peek of my best friend. Just like the first-year beta girls. I bit my bottom lip and stared at her. My mind was made up.

Blair groaned. “You’re on your own, Chambers. This has to be a new record for dying on the first day!”

She flopped on the waiting bench outside Athena’s office.

“I’ll be right back. Alive.” I laughed on my way down the hall. The stone stairs were the third door to the locked door at the end of the hall that read ‘Remembrance Hall.’ Exploration for another day. 

The more steps I descended, the more I regretted this. How far down was this basement? There had to be five hundred stairs to get through. I could hear yelling and slams or fists hammering down wooden tables. My heart rate picked up. What if Blair wasn’t just pulling my leg? What if Alex had changed? Gosh, what if he didn’t even recognize me? I barely had boobs the last time he saw me. Now, I had hips and a defined waist.

The door was right in front of me, yelling blurring from the inside.

“That’s an unfair advantage you’re setting Dale to win.” Someone blasted.

I let out a deep breath. “There’s no way I’m walking down five hundred stairs not to walk through that door.”

My hand was on the door handle, and my heart was in my throat. I nudged the door in and the barking and yelling ceased. I wanted to turn and bolt. It was worse because I was going so slowly.

“What the fuck?” A feminine voice spat.

The door opened on me. My eyes quickly scanned the room for him. How dumb would I look if Alex wasn’t even here? He was, though. Stood over a long medium table with a map plastered to it. His brows formed a frown, disgust crystal on his face.

“Alex?”

“This better be good.” A guy in the room growled.

Alex straightened his spine, and his pale blue eyes relaxed. The disgust cleared away, and my heart started beating again.

***

Alex scurried around the table. The shouting and overlapping conversations started again.

“What the hell is going on?”

“Nothing. Carry on without me.” He grabbed my arm, turned me and shoved me out of the room.

“Alex!” A girl cried before the door slammed on her.

I tripped when Alex released me. While turning, I tripped on my own feet and stumbled into the wall. The shadows of the basement cast an eerie element on his face. I swallowed. I thought he recognized me. He took a step forward. I should learn to listen…

“Gabbie?” He closed the distance between us.

I nodded. He planted his hands on either side of me on the stone wall.

He looked down at me and chuckled. “I can’t believe it’s you.”

He wrapped me up in his arms. I let out the breath I’d been holding.

“Oh my gosh, I thought you didn’t remember me.” I fisted the back of his shirt and buried my head in his biceps.

He laughed, “You’re still an idiot. There’s no way I could forget you.” He said into my hair. “I almost thought you wouldn’t make it here.”

The door slammed against the wall, separating us.

A girl in a super short black leather skirt— it did not look uniform— glared at us.

“There better be a good explanation for this.”

She had on the same shirt as Alex, white with a red sash. This was the alpha group.

“Not now Leiah,” Alex said dismissively.

“Not now? You just walked out of a meeting? To… to hug her?”

Alex threw his head back and groaned. “This is Gabbie, my best friend. We can talk later.”

Leiah blinked and recoiled. “Best friend? I’m your mate.”