by J. L. Wilder
Until one caught her attention.
“Zach and I are definitely entering the games,” the voice said. “He sent a letter yesterday letting me know that he wanted to do it.”
Haley looked up. The speaker was a tall, slim girl with wavy blond hair. Haley had seen her around, but they had never had any classes together. Clarisse, she thought, though she wasn’t entirely sure how she knew the name.
“I’m sure you’ll win, Clarisse,” one of the girls with her said. “Everyone knows Zach is the strongest alpha at Shifter U. And everyone knows you’re the prettiest girl here.”
Clarisse smiled smugly as if she were being told things she already knew.
“What if they’re judging on more than just looks, though?” Clarisse’s other companion said. “What if you have to demonstrate some skills?”
“What are you saying, Nora?” the first girl asked. “You think Clarisse doesn’t have any skills?”
“I’m not saying that,” Nora protested. “It’s just...well, she’s not exactly at the top of our class, that’s all.”
“The alpha games aren’t school.”
“Calm down, Janie,” Clarisse said. “It’s all right. I’m sure Nora didn’t mean any harm, did you, Nora?”
“No,” Nora said, sounding almost pathetically grateful to have been rescued from Janie’s onslaught.
“She just thinks she stands a chance at winning,” Janie said bitterly. “But her alpha’s a weakling. He’s nothing like Zach.”
She sounds like she has a crush on Zach, Haley thought.
Then she remembered her encounter with Zach in the woods. Zach might be a strong alpha, but he definitely wasn’t loyal to Clarisse. Haley couldn’t help wondering if he’d ever fooled around with Janie. I’ll bet he has. I’ll bet that’s why she’s so eager to see him win. Maybe she even thinks he’ll break up with Clarisse and run away with her.
For a moment, Haley found herself feeling sorry for Clarisse.
“Hey,” Janie said. “You’re Haley Miller. Aren’t you?”
She had been noticed.
Haley nodded. “Yes,” she said.
“Why are you looking at us?” Janie demanded.
“Janie,” Clarisse said. “Don’t be rude.” She turned to Haley. “Do you want to come over and have lunch with us? Or are you too busy studying?”
“I can take a break.” It had been days since Haley had had a conversation with anyone, and it would be nice to get out of her own head, even if it was with these girls. And maybe she would be able to find a window to let Clarisse know about her alpha’s two-timing ways.
Haley picked up her sandwich and book, crawled out from under the pine, and joined the girls on the lawn.
“You’re the top omega in our class, aren’t you?” Nora asked. “I saw your name outside the Dean’s office.”
“I’ve always been good at school,” Haley said, feeling embarrassed and a little bit trapped. Omegas were supposed to be humble. If Margaret was to be believed, that was Haley’s biggest flaw.
But Clarisse shook her head. “You should be proud of yourself,” she said. “I’ve seen you around. Always in the library. Always with your nose in a book. You study harder than anybody else on campus. That’s why you’re graduating at the top of the class.”
“That’s why she doesn’t have an alpha,” Janie said bitingly. “All work and no play.”
Haley felt her face grow hot.
“Janie,” Clarisse said. “That’s really rude.” But a smile was playing at the edges of her lips as if she actually found what Janie had said highly amusing but she didn’t want to let it show.
She turned to Haley. “Do you have an alpha?” she asked.
There was no point in trying to lie about it. Haley shook her head.
An expression she couldn’t recognize crossed Clarisse’s face. Was it relief?
“I told you she didn’t,” Janie said.
“That’s okay,” Clarisse said, and now her smile appeared genuine. “Different people choose different things to focus on while they’re at school. Right, Haley? Not everyone is here to find herself an alpha. Getting an education is just as important.”
It wasn’t just as important, though. Everyone knew that. The entire purpose of Omega University was to prepare omegas for pack life. If you didn’t find an alpha, if you didn’t start or join a pack, then what good was your education? Haley might know more about omega life than anyone else at school, but as things stood, she was never going to get to put that knowledge to use.
“Who do you think is going to win the alpha games, Haley?” Nora asked.
“I don’t know,” Haley said. “I’ll probably cheer for my roommate.” Even though she and Margaret were fighting, they had been friends for too long for their bond to be erased. They were practically sisters. Since she couldn’t compete herself, she wanted to see Margaret do well.
Clarisse and her friends exchanged glances.
“Who’s your roommate?” Clarisse asked mildly as if it couldn’t have mattered less.”
“Margaret Hargrove,” Haley said. “Her alpha is Terrence Kincaid.”
“I know them,” Nora said. “They were two of the first in our class to become mates. They’ll probably do really well in the Games because they’ve been together for so long.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Janie said. “It doesn’t make a difference how long you’ve been with someone. It only matters how strong your bond is.”
Sounds like something a girl who’s sleeping with someone else’s alpha would say, Haley thought.
“Clarisse is competing with Zach Porter,” Janie said boastfully. “You probably know who he is.”
“I think I’ve seen him around,” Haley said. “He’s the big alpha with the cropped red hair, isn’t he?”
“That’s him,” Janie said. “He’s the top of the alpha class over at Shifter University, and there’s no way he isn’t going to win the Games. And Clarisse is definitely the most deserving omega.”
“Aren’t you two entering?” Haley asked innocently.
“Oh, Janie doesn’t have an alpha,” Clarisse said dismissively.
Janie’s lips compressed into a thin line, but she didn’t appear to be embarrassed by the comment.
“What about you?” Haley asked Nora.
“I’m entering,” Nora said. “But Jeremy and I probably won’t win. He’s really sweet to me, and I’m glad he’s my alpha, but he’s not a strong fighter. We’re only doing it so that we can say we were a part of it all.”
“You shouldn’t write yourself off,” Haley said. “You could win. You might end up performing a lot better than you expect to.”
“No, Nora’s right,” Clarisse said. “Jeremy is a sweet guy, but he’s much too small to be any real competition. And he doesn’t have a competitive disposition either. It really takes a special kind of omega to submit to an alpha like him.” And she smiled condescendingly at Nora.
Nora smiled back, clearly under the impression that she had been given a compliment.
Who treats their friends like this? “Well, I think you’ll do well, Nora,” Haley said stoutly. “And you’ll have a friend in the audience.”
“Thanks, Haley.” Nora grinned.
Clarisse frowned. “We have class to get to,” she announced and got to her feet. “We should get going. It was nice to meet you, Haley.”
“Nice to meet you too,” Haley said, though she wasn’t at all sure she meant it. It had been interesting to eat with new people, and she had been happy to have someone to talk to. But she couldn’t, in all honesty, say that she had found new friends among them.
Clarisse seemed impossibly catty. She clearly thought she was better, more deserving, than either of her friends. And yet, she has an alpha. There was nothing humble about this girl at all, but an alpha had chosen her.
How did that square with Margaret’s theory?
Janie was a big question mark. It was definitely possible that she was complet
ely innocent of the crime of sleeping with her friend’s alpha. But even if she were, she seemed strangely obsessed with him. And Haley knew that Zach was a cheater.
What was a nice girl like Nora doing with friends like these?
She doesn’t respect herself, Haley thought. She doesn’t know how much she’s worth. It was a common trap for omegas, and Haley had always prided herself on never falling into it.
I wonder if Margaret thinks I should be more like her.
Clarisse, Janie, and Nora began to walk away toward the main part of campus. Haley detoured to throw away her sandwich wrapper and then followed behind them at a distance.
“You see what I mean?” Janie was saying. “She’s no threat at all.”
“She doesn’t even have an alpha,” Nora put in.
“She can’t be written off,” Clarisse said. “She’s at the top of the class.”
With a shock, Haley realized that they were talking about her.
They must not know I can hear them. Haley knew her hearing had always been uncommonly good, even for a shifter. Though the girls were several yards in front of her, she could hear them as clearly as if they were standing right beside her.
Clarisse was still talking. “We had to at least find out whether or not she was entering,” she said. “If she were, she could have been a serious contender. It would have been a mistake to ignore her.”
“I knew she didn’t have an alpha,” Janie said.
“How did you know?” Nora asked. “Have you ever even spoken to her before today?”
“No,” Janie admitted. “I just heard. People talk.”
People named Zach, I’ll bet, Haley thought. He wouldn’t have been able to tell his girlfriend that he had been in the woods with Haley. But maybe he could tell Janie.
I wonder if she thinks she’s going to be able to compete in the games with him. Maybe she’s completely playing Clarisse.
“Do you really think she’d be able to beat you?” Janie asked Clarisse. “You’re prettier.”
“I don’t know,” Nora said. “She’s not bad looking. And she is at the top of our class. That’s important.”
“No, she wouldn’t be able to beat me,” Clarisse said. “You heard her just now. She thinks Nora would be tough competition. She’s not at my level, clearly. But I had to make sure. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Since she doesn’t have an alpha, she can’t enter the competition.”
“And you’re sure to run away with the prize,” Janie said jubilantly.
“I can’t see who else is going to take it,” Clarisse said. “Even if there are some girls on campus who could compete with me—”
“There aren’t,” Nora chimed in loyally.
“Well, even if there were, there certainly aren’t any alphas who could compete with Zach. He’s the best of all of them. I’m lucky I’m his.”
“Luck had nothing to do with it,” Janie said. “A guy like Zach would only choose to be with the best.”
Haley had heard enough, and she didn’t want to be caught listening. She peeled away, even though they were heading for the building that housed the class she was supposed to be attending right now. She couldn’t stand the thought that they might turn around and see that she had been behind them the whole time, even though they probably did think she was too far away to have heard what they were saying.
Ordinarily, Haley would never think of skipping a class. In fact, in her four years at Omega University, she had never once done it.
But now her mind was too full of all the things she had heard. She had thought of the Alpha Games as a fun sporting event when she had thought of them at all. But Clarisse was taking it all very seriously.
I wish I could compete.
It was the first time the thought had occurred to her. But she knew, as soon as she had thought it, how sincere the feeling was. All the studying she had done, everything she had learned—it would be perfect in the Alpha games.
Clarisse was right to worry about me. I would be a strong contender.
And she would be able to prove, once and for all, that there was value in the qualities she had.
But she wouldn’t be allowed to compete because she had no alpha. And without an alpha at her side, without an alpha leading her, an omega was useless.
Chapter Eight
JASPER
“This is not going to work,” Tom said.
Dean raised an eyebrow in his direction, clearly amused. “No one is making you come,” he pointed out.
“Okay,” Tom said. “But there’s no telling what the two of you will get into over here if I don’t.”
“We’re not here to make trouble,” Dean said. “This isn't a panty raid.”
“Trouble follows you around, Dean,” Tom said.
Dean grinned. It couldn’t have been more apparent that he was taking Tom’s accusation as a compliment.
Jasper, meanwhile, did his best to ignore both of his brothers. He was on a mission.
They had dressed in three-piece suits, the only ones they owned, in hopes of being taken for professors at a glance. Jasper knew they had the build to pass for men several years older than they actually were. So far, there had been no trouble. They had been able to make their way across campus relatively unnoticed.
“We should go into the woods behind the school,” Tom suggested. “Then we’ll be able to keep an eye on the campus and see when the right time is to approach someone.”
“I thought you weren’t helping with this,” Dean said.
“I came to keep you guys out of trouble,” Tom said. “That means getting this done as quickly as possible so we can all go back home. Though I don’t know how you’re going to explain to the Council that you suddenly have an omega overnight.”
“I’ll say we met at the last social,” Jasper said. “If we both tell the same story, they won’t be able to prove it isn’t true. They’ll have to just assume we took our time registering ourselves.”
They reached the woods. Tom jogged the last few feet and concealed himself behind a tree.
“Nervous?” Dean asked, taking up a position beside his brother.
“You’re crazy if you’re not nervous,” Tom shot back. “You realize, don’t you, that the last four years of our lives will be for nothing if we get kicked out of school right now?”
“Oh, who cares,” Dean said. “We’re only betas. It’s not like we need to be versed in shifter lore and culture anyway.”
“We do if we want to join a pack.”
“Well, who the hell wants to join a pack?”
“Can you two shut up, please?” Jasper said, feeling irritated. It was at times like these that he wished he had the authority to give orders to his brothers. This was an important moment, perhaps the most important of his life so far, and here they were bickering about pack life. It was insufferable. “Help me watch for a girl.”
They fell quiet, staring out at the campus.
“So, what are we looking for exactly?” Dean asked. “Short, tall, red hair, skinny, curvy? What’s your type?”
“Someone on her own,” Jasper said.
“Well, that’s not creepy,” Dean snorted.
“I’m not going to drag her into the woods,” Jasper said. “I just need someone I can talk to without her friends interrupting before I can get it all out. This is a complicated situation.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Dean said. “All right. Let’s see who comes by.”
But luck did not appear to be on their side. The girls passing by their lookout point did so in clumps of three or four, laughing and talking amongst themselves. It seemed impossible that they would ever find anyone on her own.
“It’s like they travel in packs over here,” Tom murmured. “Fascinating. You always think that a pack can only have one omega, one alpha. The alphas over at Shifter U never seem to get too close, do they? They’re so competitive that it’s always kind of unpleasant between them. But these girls seem to be real friends.”
“Are you
studying them?” Dean asked in disbelief.
“As long as we’re here, we might as well try to learn something,” Tom said defensively.
“Learn whatever you want,” Jasper said. “But do it quietly. I don’t want them to hear you talking and realize we’re here.”
Tom fell silent.
And in the silence, Jasper realized he could hear another voice.
A deep male voice. One that seemed like it didn’t belong on this campus.
It was coming from behind them.
Maybe it was a professor. Maybe it was someone who had every right to be there. And it’s not as if we have the moral high ground when it comes to being where you aren’t supposed to be.
But Jasper couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something wrong with that voice. And if there was anything he knew about himself, it was that his instincts were usually worthy of being trusted.
He turned to his brothers, pressed a finger to his lips, and cocked his head toward the sound. He watched as they listened, saw the moment they heard it too.
Jasper turned and crept deeper into the woods, and his brothers followed.
DEAN
Jasper had the best hearing of the three of them, but Dean’s nose had always been the keenest, and he smelled the whiskey when they were still about a kilometer away.
There was something wrong with that smell, just as there had been something wrong with the sound. Whiskey didn’t belong on this campus any more than a male voice did. Omegas were supposed to keep their bodies clean. It was even more important for them than it was for alphas. If an omega was drinking alcohol, it was a serious infraction.
Would one of them really do that?
He had to see for himself.
As they crept closer, two figures emerged through the trees.
The first was a woman. She was on her knees, surrounded by piles of reeds. Dean saw that she had been soaking them in the river that ran in front of her. He’d had no idea that Omega U’s campus also had a river.