Page 64 of For All My Effort

Since I wasn’t allowed to leave the house during certain hours, even with my alphas, it made me want to leave all the more. To be petty and go on a walk. To demand my alphas take me on a date in a blatant ‘fuck you’.

Instead, I was being mature. And patient. That meant doing everything covertly.

My mates kept me informed on everything that was being done and I think they knew that I was feeling a little left out. Seb was going out and talking with board members and Jackson was working on our pack’s contingency plan and Han was using his cyber skills to shut down propaganda sites in support of the ban and Zeke was keeping track of every possible mention of me in the media to find public allies.

Me? I was searching the app, trying to find out what everyone else in the world was doing. The issue was that the app was made up of mostly betas, the omegas hiding under anonymous names, and the betas were focused on their own battle for rights against the alpha designation.

One night, I told my alphas my plan to create an omega only mod. Like a discussion board within the app, proclaiming myself as an omega and wanting others to join in so we could finally figure out our voice.

It was a risk.

My alphas had been thinking about it, discussing it, and all the while I kept making notes for how I’d set it up, desperately hoping that they’d understand this was something I needed to do.

All of that led us to a pack meeting in the living room. I was sitting on the floor, my back leaning against the bottom part of the couch, between Zeke’s legs as he kept his hands over my eyes for a surprise. Apparently, I wasn’t to be trusted to keep my own eyes closed, which had made me roll my eyes since I refused to admit they had a point about my potential for looking.

I heard my alphas shuffling around and tried to get comfortable. The hard floor on my ass wasn’t great for long term.

“No peeking,” Zeke chided.

“I wasn’t.”

“Sure. Let me guess. The floor is hard?”

“It is!”

“Hannah, you’ve been sitting there for a minute. Maybe two.”

Something was set down on the short table in front of me, a soft noise that meant they were trying to hide it but couldn’t quite achieve it. I rubbed my hands on my thighs, telling myself that they might’ve enjoyed the joke of me peeking, but they’d be actually upset if I had. Right?

“Okay, Zeke—”

The rest of Jackson’s words were lost as I shoved Zeke’s hands away from my face. In front of me was a laptop, a new one. It was already out of the box and unwrapped which meant the alphas had already set it up for me.

Before I could even get my thanks out, Han said, “This is a special laptop. I’ve rewritten the rules of the gateways to make it seem like the access is coming from a different location.”

I stared at him, waiting for him to explain everything he just said in a way that actually made sense.

“When you use this laptop, no one will be able to trace it back to you.”

I nodded, understanding that bit now. “Why do I need that?”

“You’re going to set up that mod,” Jackson said, “using that computer only. The site might keep you anonymous among its members, but we’re worried about infiltrators. This way, if anyone breaks through the site’s protective layers, you’ll still have the laptop’s anonymity.”

“Will I need to create a new profile?”

“Definitely. Don’t follow your old account. And anything you might have admitted about yourself as that account, try to change slightly.”

I was so excited, I was nodding along, hoping my agreement would get me closer to actually being allowed to start. My hands were sliding across the closed laptop, almost petting the smooth surface as I waited.

I was finally going to be able to do something. My fingers felt like they were actually tingling with the anticipation of typing. I already knew which profiles I wanted to reach out to that might be willing to help. Higher, more trafficked accounts could put their weight behind an authentic solution.

A lot of these chats were places for people to vent without getting in trouble. Some of them actually created plans. In order for people to join and attend, they’d want a recognizable name and profile in support of the event to prove they weren’t walking into a trap.

I knew there had to be more omegas on the site than just me. I might have outwardly rebelled, but there were other omegas who complied maliciously. They would make outrageous demands, using the full force of the omega needs bullshit to get whatever they wanted. Others feigned compliance just to buy themselves some time. Pretending they were simply searching for the perfect pack and just not quite finding the right one yet. And I thought of Koda who was able to hide her omega designation in plain sight. She couldn’t be the only one.

If I had been smarter back then, I would have befriended those omegas. At the time, I hated that they weren’t rebelling like I was. I thought the only way forward was to publicly beat against the laws built.

“What kind of mod am I creating?” I asked. I had grand plans for an omega only mod, my imagination showing how amazing it would be if omegas could save themselves. But no matter how much I envisioned leading an omega-charge, I had no idea how to actually plan an event.

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