Page 5 of The Omega Archives: Part One

There was only one favor I’d ever ask of Rita. I barely needed to say a word. She knew exactly what I was talking about.

She knew everything.

It was hard for her not to know after she found out after a disastrous moment of me losing my suppressants during our first year living together.

There was nothing to bond two roommates together than one almost going into an accidental heat.

Purchasing suppressors and blockers was also not the most legal of pastimes. Sure, an omega could always be prescribed if you had enough money or if you were willing to have your name on the books from a doctor’s office– ie. making me a danger to society and officially on an Omega list somewhere– but I never could go that route.

Over the past few years, my up and down reactions as well as anxiety from getting the pills on the black market steadied out with the help of Rita and her wide variety of friends. Working in STEM, she easily tracked down someone who knew someone to sell them to me straight from the lab– with little to no questioning.

It wasn’t as if Rita was an omega, nor had the time to harbor one, even if the guilt of her also somehow getting caught kept me awake most nights after a new order of them finally came in to keep my secret a little while longer.

Rubbing her eyes, Rita shook her head. “Is it getting bad?”

“I can make it through the week,” I answered honestly.

She let out a deep breath. “I’ll call him this morning again. Hopefully, he can ship them out from the lab overnight.”

“Thank you, Rita.”

“Uh-huh. Now go and leave me to sleep through my second alarm.” She slumped back on the bed.

I chuckled and shut the door before walking the two blocks I walked to work at Prestford University Library in my same uniform of business casual slacks and blouse.

To anyone else, I would look just like a student on a campus. Or if they knew me enough, they’d see me as what I was, just another junior library assistant who was hired after begging for the job the moment I stepped onto campus and saw the student help wanted sign.

I wasn’t a student, but somehow, thankfully— maybe it was the desperation in my eyes— they made an exception, much like Rita did when I ripped a piece of paper off her “Roommate Wanted” flyer when she was still in her junior year of college compared to her Ph.D. now that kept her at the college and with me.

Intentionally or not, I was grateful Rita stuck around with me as she continued her studies as truly another beta on a beta and alpha-filled campus exceeding all expectations.

Because in a world filled with alphas, omegas, and betas, the alphas always won.Always.

Omegas came last.

Omegas weren’t even technically allowed to go to school here. At the very least not without a chaperon guiding them throughout every single day. They would be too much of a distraction to the rest of the student body.

Not to mention that omegas were, and I quoted, “slaves to their hormones,” and likely wouldn’t be able to complete their courses.

I looked around at the slightly hung-over student body already in the library this morning. Most were hunched over their computers and extra-large eco-friendly paper cups of coffee from the caffeination station in the corner that the junior assistants took turns refilling every one to two hours with how they went through it.

I wanted to roll my eyes.

“Good morning.” The front desk library assistant called out in a high-pitched trill.

She was about my age compared to the older workers, and she gave me a tired wave as I made my way through the front door. She clicked off the circulation desktop in preparation to hand it over to the next person.

Hopefully, they’d arrive to relieve her soon, though that person was never me.

The front desk was too visible, too risky.

“Morning, Jane. How was the night shift?” I kept my voice light and quiet.

Already a few overtired undergraduate students were filing in behind me with their extra-large cups of espresso from the cafe around the corner.

I stared after them, smelling the hint of caramel and spice.

Jane sighed, resting her temple against her fist. The angle made the dark circles under her eyes all the more prevalent. “No one in the stacks, thank goodness.”

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