Page 31 of Clawless

I gulped, my throat already dry, and I hadn’t even begun my warm up. He seemed to take pity on me, because he quickly put me through a set of stretches and then moved on to the kicks and punches we’d covered last lesson. I tried to lose myself in the exercise. To sink into the movement of straining muscles and the sting of a well-placed jab. But I couldn’t get past the jittery feeling under my skin.

Reed called a halt after about ten minutes, and I grabbed my water bottle in an effort to dilute my frustration. “You’ve got two things on your side, Vail. You’re quick – slippery, even - and you’ve had some training.”

I tossed my bottle aside and pulled a face. “And no one will expect an omega to fight back.”

He scratched his neck and looked a bit shame-faced. “Yeah, that too, I guess. But every advantage needs to be honed. You’re quick, but a shifter is stronger. Even another omega. And that won’t change until you shift.”

I planted my hands on my hips. “Explain.”

“It’s simple biology. Well, not simple, but it boils down to muscle mass and bone density. Every time you shift back to your human form, you retain some of that extra bulk.” He looked me over and shook his head. “Bulk’s the wrong word. But you become a little stronger. Quicker. Your senses are sharper, too.” He shuffled his feet, looking like he wished he hadn’t started this conversation. “If you don’t believe me, try wrestling your Head Omega.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. But the thought of throwing down on the prim Penny made me hysterical. In fact, I laughed so hard my stomach ached. And then I was crying.

Fuck me.

Reed was instantly at my side, his hand on my sweaty back. “What is it, Vail? Shit. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“No.” I forced myself to suck back the sob in my throat. “I’m sorry. This is really stupid. I don’t even know where the tears came from…”

“I’ve an idea,” he said, and there was an edge to his voice that made me look up. His eyes were hard, his gaze burning into the metal at my throat. “He’s a fucking asshole.”

I scrubbed my hands over my wet cheeks. “No, it’s not that. I don’t even notice I’m wearing it, really. Well, not around you, anyway.” I walked over to my bag and grabbed my sweatshirt, pulling it on with an inward curse. Just when I was starting to prove I didn’t need claws to be tough, I melted into a pathetic mess. I turned back to him and blew out a breath. “I’m not some helpless female who can’t take care of herself. I’ve been doing that for years. Even before I moved in with my foster family, I went for weeks where I was alone. And it was remote. I couldn’t just call up a friend if I got sick or scared.” I rubbed my damp palms on my arms and lifted my chin. I wasn’t sure why I was trying so hard to convince him. “I’ve been through a lot worse than this, Reed.”

“I know you have.” That flash of pity I was hoping to avoid was suddenly there, and he took a step towards me. “I’m going to tell him to take it off. And if he won’t listen, I’ll go to my dad.”

I gave him a small smile. “It’s okay. I just… woke up on the wrong side of the bed.” I winced at how true that was. “Can we cut the lesson short?”

“Sure.” He watched as I grabbed my bag, and I could tell he wanted to say something else, but I was already hurrying to the door.

And the irony wasn’t lost on me that I was acting like he was radioactive, instead of the other way round.

***

I managed to pull myself together enough to get through my afternoon classes, although as I walked to my last period, I pulled my scarf so tight I felt light-headed. Biology was always a challenge, but finding out I was genetically inferior from other shifters just made it that much worse. To say nothing of my freshman classmates, and their new game of Who can touch the radioactive female?

But I’d just settled into my seat when Miss Fisher announced a special guest. My heart dropped. Was she really going to subject us to another show-and-tell session with Jasper and Pearl? I had zero interest in watching them dazzle the freshman class with their alphadoucheness, and felt myself twitch in my seat. But the familiar face that appeared in the doorway made me squirm for a different reason.

The last time I’d seen Alpha Turner had been in the pack lab. He’d been called in to try to reach my wolf with some Old Pack arousal technique, which had been the best part of a very bad experience. His technique had been gentle. His kisses enticing. And if I’d been anywhere other than paralyzed under the control of a freaking Dr. Frankenstein, I would have decided it was a therapy worth repeating.

Because Alpha Turner – with his vibrant red hair and chicory coffee eyes, minus the sweetener - was one very attractive shifter.

As he entered the classroom, he exchanged a few polite words with the teacher, then turned to the class with a friendly smile. It was probably his standard professional face, but it had quite the impact on the hormonal freshmen. The moon-eyed girl next to me gave a helpless whimper and melted into her seat, while more than one growl rose from the males in the room. It was only when he caught my gaze that his smile faltered, and I knew he’d recognized me from the lab.

“Back in your seat, Zack. Eli, enough with the growling!” Miss Fisher gave the freshmen an exasperated look. “Alpha Turner has kindly come to talk to us today about biology and dominance. But if you can’t control yourselves enough to listen politely, I have a pop quiz I’m happy to hand out instead.”

Alpha Turner shot some of his mega-watt charisma her way. “It’s really okay, Miss Fisher. This is actually a great way to start the class.” He turned back to us, his gaze skimming over me, before settling on the riled-up boys at the back. “What is dominance? Tell me what it means to you.”

A few answers, punctuated with growls, were offered by the males - mainly about kicking ass and lording their status over other wolves. Alpha Turner nodded. “It’s true dominant shifters demand the first choice of food, mates, and territory. But let’s think about non-shifting wolves for a moment. They live in packs, but for these traditional wolves, it is simply their family unit. Parents and pups, usually. The concept of dominance only really applies to roving wolf packs, and they are more of a myth than a reality. Until you introduce the human element into wolves – the part of us we think of as shifter. Why?”

“Because we have bigger packs,” someone called out. “And we mix more than wolves.”

“Correct. Your school unit isn’t a family unit, but a larger pack unit. Which is made up of different ranked wolves, from various bloodlines. You have a pack alpha, your parents, an alphason, your teachers, and other dominant influences. This setting is more like wolves in captivity than those in the wild. And it changes the nature of power in a pack.”

He paused, and when I looked down, I realized my notes were making sense for a change. But as the topic turned to submission, I felt that jittery feeling blooming in my belly. “In the wild, amongst those traditional wolf packs, the concept of submission doesn’t really apply. Why? Because the alpha and omega wolves co-dominate the pack. The simple reality is they are the parents of all the pups. And like your parents, they are both role models to their offspring. There are things your mothers give you that your fathers can’t, and vice versa.”

“But it’s real for us. It’s not like there are any omegas running shifter packs,” a boy said from the back of the class. “I’d like to see one of the cuties try to take on a Clan Alpha and his blood claw.”

More than one pair of eyes swung my way, but Alpha Turner kept his focus on the back of the room. “You’re thinking in terms of traditional shifter dominance again. But some of the strongest alphas only gained their true strength after they’d bonded with their mate. If Miss Fisher doesn’t mind me wandering a little into the History sphere, consider Nathaniel Marrow, the first of the blood claw alphas. We know he was a ruthless leader and a skilled fighter, but what else do we know about him?”

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