by J. L. Wilder
“The alpha,” someone answered.
“Correct. Easy enough. Now, who comes second?”
“The second.”
“Very good. And on down the line through the group of betas. Now, which pack member is at the bottom of the hierarchy?”
“The omega?” Georgette guessed.
“No,” Grant said. “And that’s the point I want you all to take away from today’s lesson. The omega isn’t at the bottom of the hierarchy, because she’s outside the hierarchy altogether.”
Again, a scoff from Cait.
“Enlighten us with your view on the matter, Cait,” he invited.
She turned and addressed the rest of the class. “Well, he makes it sound so nice,” she said. “But it’s really not nice at all if you think about it. We’re outside the hierarchy because we’re not full members of the pack. Because they don’t even think of us as people. We’re sex objects to them. That’s what he’s really saying.”
She turned back and raised an eyebrow at Grant defiantly.
He smiled mildly. “We’ll have a social experiment,” he said. “For the rest of the week, in our class, we’ll experiment with the idea of social structure in a pack. I want you all to imagine that Cait here is the lowest ranking pack member, and to treat her accordingly. At the end of the week, Cait, you’ll give us a report on your findings and tell us whether you found it worse to be the lowest ranking pack member or to be an omega.”
“I can give that report right now,” Cait said. “There’s nothing worse than living as an omega.”
“I’m sure you think you could,” Grant said. “But the reason I chose you as the subject for this experiment, Cait, is that you need to learn how to submit. You need to learn that what you believe, and what you want, is not always what’s most important. And you need to stop trying to gain the last word in every situation. Believe it or not, you’re only hurting yourself with that kind of behavior.”
Cait scoffed again, but Grant was finished with her. He turned to the rest of the class.
“There will be no violence directed toward Cait,” he said. “Anyone deviating from that rule will face harsh consequences indeed. And she isn’t here to take orders from any of you or to do your work for you. Your role in this experiment is merely to try to think of her as a lower social order. This will help you develop an understanding of the concept that, as omegas, you will live lives where people are far less important to the health and unity of the pack than you are. There’s nothing more heartbreaking to me than an omega with low self-esteem.”
He surveyed the room. Some of the girls were taking notes on what he had said. Some were gazing up at him raptly. A few seemed disengaged.
And then there was Cait.
She stood out like a sore thumb in the front row. She was slumped down in her seat again, staring at her shoes.
She’s unhappy, he realized. That’s where the bad attitude comes from. She’s a really unhappy person.
Well, it only made sense. She was an omega, and she was rejecting her station in life. The one thing that had the potential to make her happy, and she was pushing it away.
At least she was there. As long as she was at Omega University, there was hope. If she ran away from school and went off on her own, Grant knew that she would be beyond saving. But as long as he had her there, there was a chance he would be able to make her see wisdom.
You probably think I hate you, he thought, looking down at her. You probably think I’m a heartless bastard. If only you could see how the only thing I want is for you to live a good life.
Chapter Five
CAIT
Fucking asshole, Cait thought as she left the classroom. Bad enough that she was stuck there with all those brainless omegas. Bad enough that she actually had to attend a class called Pack Dynamics and Alpha Appreciation. Alpha appreciation! That wasn’t education. That was just alphas brainwashing omegas into doing whatever they said. Just like alphas always did.
All that was bad enough. But to have to be taught by this complete bastard of a professor...that was more than Cait could stand.
He had singled her out. That was obvious. And it was equally obvious why he had done it, she thought. There could be no reason for it except for her stint at Shifter Academy. He had heard what she had done, no doubt, and he had decided to punish her for it.
She smiled bitterly. She must have really upset the alphas at this institution, and across the road, by daring to challenge their precious hierarchy. God forbid an omega doesn’t stay in her place at the bottom of the totem pole, she thought. God forbid anyone challenge the status quo.
They were scared of her. That was what it was. They were scared to know that she wasn’t intimidated by them. And that man, Professor Larson—he thought that by humiliating her and making a show of her, the way he had, he could stop her from trying to assert herself any further.
But he doesn’t know me very well.
He didn’t know that men and alphas had been trying to control her all her life. He didn’t know that she had always resisted and that she fully intended to continue to do so.
She climbed the stairs to her dorm room. Of course there were no elevators on this campus, and no nice low buildings like they had over at Shifter University. Of course they would force the omegas to climb up nine flights of stairs just to get back to their rooms.
The door was open when Cait returned. Her roommate, Sarah, was sitting on her bed and flipping through a magazine. She looked up when Cait came in, but said nothing.
Cait suspected that Sarah was a little bit afraid of her. She had seen the way the other girls looked at her on this campus—as if she were some kind of renegade, somebody dangerous and disturbing. Sarah hadn’t been in the room last night—she had come back first thing in the morning to change for class. Cait wondered if she had chosen to bunk with a friend after learning that her new roommate was going to be the rebel who had tried to infiltrate Shifter U.
Cait tossed her backpack onto the bed. “What did you have today?” she asked.
Sarah’s eyes widened.
“Look, you might as well talk to me,” Cait said. “I’m not going to infect you.”
“Herbalism,” Sarah said quietly.
“Using plants for medicines?” Cait couldn’t help rolling her eyes. “You know there are real medicines out there, don’t you?”
“They’re designed to be used on humans,” Sarah said. “Everyone knows that. Our shifter natures respond better to natural medicine. Even something like a simple painkiller can have an adverse effect on the biology of a shifter.”
“You sound like you ate a textbook,” Cait said.
“You don’t have to be mean,” Sarah said. “Just because you don’t want to be here, that doesn’t mean nobody does.”
Cait swallowed the retort that rose up in her throat. Sarah was right. There were girls who genuinely wanted to be omegas, to learn about the role and do all they could to fulfill it. Personally, Cait thought those girls were brainwashed, but that was no reason to be mean to them.
And especially not someone I’m going to have to live with for the next nine months.
“You’re right,” she said contritely. “I’m sorry.”
“That’s all right,” Sarah said.
“Were you avoiding me last night?” Cait asked. “Is that why you weren’t here when I arrived?”
Sarah hesitated. “Yes,” she admitted. “My friend Georgette lives down the hall, and she said you would be weird and toxic.”
“I think that girl’s in my Pack Dynamics and Alpha Appreciation class,” Cait said. “Does she have long straight black hair?”
“That’s her,” Sarah said.
“Well?” Cait asked.
“Well, what?”
“Do you think I’m weird and toxic?”
“Oh.” Sarah blushed. “I don’t know. Not really. I mean, I do think you’re weird if you want the truth.”
“Of course I want the truth,” C
ait said.
“Well, I don’t understand why an omega would try to go to Shifter U,” Sarah said. “It’s not like there isn’t a school for us right here. You didn’t have to try to break into theirs. And you must have known you’d be caught.”
“All we learn over here is how to suck up to alphas and birth babies and things like that, though,” Cait said. “Do you realize that across the road, they’re learning real life skills?”
“Those are life skills for us,” Sarah said. “Submitting to alphas and producing children is what omegas are supposed to do in life.”
“But that’s so stupid,” Cait said. “Don’t tell me you really believe that there’s only one possible path in life for an omega.”
“I believe there’s an ideal path,” Sarah said. “I’m not saying it’s literally impossible for omegas to choose something else, but I do think that no omega will ever be as happy with another choice as she would have been if she had opted for the traditional route. That’s why I’m here.”
“You sound like my professor,” Cait grumbled. “I can’t believe they have alphas teaching at Omega University. That’s messed up. I’d bet a million dollars there aren’t any omegas teaching over at Shifter U.”
“Of course not,” Sarah said. “Omegas aren’t fit to teach anyone besides other omegas.”
“You don’t see how demeaning that is?” Cait demanded. “What, because we’re not as smart as betas and alphas?”
“Intelligence has nothing to do with it,” Sarah said. “It’s about pack structure. The role of the omega is to take instruction, not give it.”
“That’s sick.”
“You can’t honestly be telling me that you want to be a professor,” Sarah said, disbelief clear in her voice. “No omega could want such a thing. We’re not wired that way.”
“I can do whatever I want to do,” Cait protested.
But deep down, something about what Sarah had said had struck a chord within her.
The truth was that Cait didn’t want to be a professor. In fact, the idea of taking on any kind of leadership position was uncomfortable.
But that’s not because I’m an omega, she reassured herself. Not everyone is meant to lead. That doesn’t mean their role is to follow.
The important thing was having options. And Cait definitely wanted to have options in life.
And she definitely never would, as long as she was at Omega University.
“Well,” she said to Sarah, “the good news is, you’ll have the room to yourself over the weekend anyway.”
“Why? Are you going home?”
“I wish.” Even home would be better than Omega U, especially now that Bart was away. “No, my class is going on some campout excursion thing. Professor Larson gave us a handout about it at the beginning of the hour.” She unzipped her bag and fished out the piece of paper she’d been given. “The Wild Wolf Excursion.”
“I’ve heard of that,” Sarah said. Cait was surprised to hear a note of envy in her voice. “That’s where you get to go live wild in the woods for two days. You get to run with wild wolves and try your hand at getting your own food.”
“You’re kidding,” Cait said. “They’d never let omegas hunt. Are you sure we don’t all sit around talking about breastfeeding or something while the professor hunts and then brings food back for us? That sounds more like what Omega U is all about.”
Sarah shook her head. “It’s good that you’re here,” she said. “You have an unfortunate misunderstanding about what omegas are.”
“Meaning what, exactly?”
“We don’t just sit around and let alphas do everything for us,” Sarah said. “There’s a lot of work involved in being an omega. A lot of responsibility. We’re the ones who have to nurture the children in a pack. It’s also important that we take care of our own needs because it’s so important to everyone in the pack that the omega be healthy.”
Cait flopped down on her bed. Lately, she felt torn between hating the things that were expected of her and wondering whether she had ever truly known what was expected of her. There was a part of her that had assumed that once she completed her course of study at Omega U, she would have to hole up in a bedroom and start breeding right away.
But maybe that wasn’t true.
If omegas were truly free to hunt, to explore the wild...did that change how Cait felt about being one?
No. Because as soon as she pictured embracing her life as an omega, the inescapable detail crept in.
Bart.
Even if being an omega didn’t have to be pure hell, being his omega certainly would be.
That was the thing girls like Sarah would never understand. She probably didn’t have an alpha all picked out and ready to go for her, so she could fantasize about a decent, caring man who would provide for her every need and make her feel safe and cared for. She didn’t have to live in fear of an alpha who would use his power to cruelly dominate her and destroy her life.
Professor Larson couldn’t possibly understand that kind of fear either.
But maybe there was something Cait could do to show him what it was like when you followed your nature without heeding the call of common sense.
In almost every aspect of life, omegas were the ones who were vulnerable, and men—alphas—had all the power.
But there was one exception. There was one way in which Cait knew she had power over him. It was the same way in which she had always had power over Bart. It was the very power Bart sought to neutralize by dominating her, taking her fully under his control.
She had the power to seduce Professor Larson.
Alpha Appreciation, my ass! Oh, she’d show him some alpha appreciation, all right. And when she was finished, she would leak the news of their little affair to an administrator, who would surely fire Professor Larson for his indiscretions. The staff would see nothing but an alpha taking advantage of his power, and they’d never imagine that she had been the one to orchestrate the whole thing.
But he’ll know. He’ll know, and I’ll know, and he’ll think twice before he tries to make a spectacle out of any omega ever again.
It would be the perfect revenge. He would always know that he had brought it upon himself, that his attempts to dominate her and put her down had led to his professional demise. And if Cait were lucky, maybe it would even lead to some kind of new awareness among the Omega U administrators of how stupid and unfair it was to have alphas in positions of authority over the omegas at the school.
She could hope.
Cait went to her closet and pulled down the duffel bag she kept there. She would start packing for the campout. The informational paper she’d been given said to pack long pants and sturdy boots—hiking gear—as well as several changes of clothes. They would be spending the majority of the retreat in wolf form, but there would be several interludes during which they would shift back to their human forms, and they would want to be prepared for that.
But Cait ignored the advice.
She hesitated only a moment before pushing her long pants to the back of the drawer and reaching for her only pair of short shorts. If she wasn’t dressed appropriately, she supposed Professor Larson would just have to make her stay back while the rest of the class hiked.
And wouldn’t that just break my poor heart?
She gathered all her makeup together. She wasn’t supposed to own makeup—her father had always thrown it out when he’d found it, but he hadn’t always been able to find it. Makeup was a human thing, he’d told her over and over. An alpha prefers a natural look.
Cait was more than ready to put that notion to the test.
She knew she was good looking. She knew she had the kind of body men liked. If she had questioned it at all, the fact that Bart wanted her would have taken away all her doubts.
Bart doesn’t even like me. The fact that he wants me for his omega proves my attractiveness pretty definitively.
She would be able to seduce her professor. She was sure of it. And h
e wouldn’t have the slightest idea what was happening until it was too late.
The only way it won’t work is if he actually does have some moral hang-up about sleeping with his students.
But she was sure that wouldn’t be the case. Hadn’t he demonstrated clearly in class that he had no problem with the idea of flexing his authority over her? He was a controlling man, an alpha to the core, and it seemed clear to Cait that he was proud of it. He probably wouldn’t even be surprised to be hit on by a student. It probably happened all the time.
I bet he’s sleeping with a bunch of the girls. Why else would an alpha bother coming to teach at Omega University, if not to be surrounded by hot young omegas? She nodded to herself, feeling even more resolved in her plan. I’m protecting the other girls here at Omega U by taking this guy out. I’m doing everyone a favor.
She finished her packing and zipped up her duffel, placing it at the foot of her bed. She had been positively dreading the trip this weekend, dreading the prospect of spending an extended amount of time with Professor Larson. But now that she knew what she was going to do, she was looking forward to it.
Sarah set down her magazine. “I’m going for a walk,” she said, and then hesitated. “Do you want to come?”
“I’m confined to my room,” Cait said.
“Now you care about the rules?”
Cait laughed. “Maybe next time,” she said.
She was glad she had broken the ice with Sarah, glad she could actually talk to her roommate, even if they didn’t seem to agree on very much. And Sarah was right—breaking rules wasn’t something that mattered to her that much.
But you had to pick and choose your battles.
Cait was about to seduce a professor. The best thing she could do was appear to be a model student until then. With luck, the administration would believe her when she claimed she had been trying to turn over a new leaf.
Chapter Six