Page 25 of Moon Kissed

“Nah,” said some guy kicking back in the front row. “Beating out all these fools sounds good to me.”

The atmosphere shifted as their natural competitiveness took over. Groans and moans were suddenly replaced withsmirks and excited grins, and why wouldn't they be excited? If their letters of rec weren’t good enough to get them to the top, they now had another chance to claw their way up.

“I have a question,” I broke in. “If everyone is on equal footing, why are we still separated into different tracks? Omegas and betas can learn leadership, diplomacy, and martial arts just as well as the rest of us,” I said. “Let the entire school and everyone in it compete together on the same playing field, and then we’ll know who’s truly the best.”

A chair scraped the floor behind me. “That makes sense. We—”

“No, it doesn’t,” Hall snapped, “and don’t either of you forget your place and speak out of turn in my class again.”

Paxton quieted while my eyes narrowed to slits. Everyone else spoke out of turn and he hadn’t barked at them. But then, everyone else was an alpha.Asshole.

“Why?”

“Excuse me?” Hall whirled around.

“Why?” Nyx repeated. He reclined back in his seat, his leg slung over the desk. He had lost his shirt sometime between breakfast and homeroom, and no one was asking him to find another. “Why doesn’t that make sense?”

Hall’s brows crumpled like he didn’t understand the question.

“You just said power should be something you earn, not something you’re born in to,” Nyx continued. “So why can’t the betas and omegas earn it?” Nyx looked to Paxton and tipped his chin at him. He was backing up his friend, not me, but that was fine if it got Hall to answer the question.

“Okay, there seems to be some confusion here,” Hall said, clutching his podium. “The ranking system has also been done away within the beta, epsilon, and omega tracks. So, they in fact, will be learning and working based on merits within their owntracks as it should be, Mr. Nyx. You know as well as I do that an omega cannot lead a clan. It would be cruelty, not fairness, to have them waste their hope on the fantasy that they can. Understood?”

Nyx just tipped his chin.

I shook my head, trying and failing to hold back another eye roll. The way Wolf Nation was set up seemed complicated to outsiders, but it wasn’t. It was actually absurdly simple.

As was our creed, we were all one people under the banner of Wolf Nation. Wolf Nation was the official pack that made up all the clans and all the shifter wolves in North America. Making up Wolf Nation were the separate clans of the elemental wolves. The moon wolves clan. The water wolves clan. The earth clan. The fire clan. The sun clan. The wind clan, and the metal wolves.

Each clan had their own territories and piece of land where they called home. Those territories tended to align with their elements. Warmth and sunny weather for the sun wolves. Homes along rivers, lakes, and beaches for the water wolves.

There were also the different elemental powers for each wolf. Water wolves controlled the element like a puppet master tugs the strings. Wind wolves can both summon gale force winds and snatch a whisper out of the air. Fire wolves wielded fireballs. Sun wolves could summon light as bright as the sun—blinding all in their path. Metal wolves can cover their entire bodies in a metal coating, making them indestructible. Earth wolves can move a boulder with their mind.

And then there were the moon wolves like me— Actually, no. There were no moon wolves like me.

Every moon wolf had the power to phase. Walking through solid concrete was as easy as dipping a toe in water. But I was different.

My phase power was linked to the phases of the moon. On the night of the full moon, I was as solid as anyone else. But asthe moon cycle claimed me night after night, my body faded and faded until the new moon when I could disappear completely—wielding the power of invisibility too.

All of that sounded amazing, especially because for everyone besides me, the strength of their elemental power had nothing to do with being alpha or omega. A fire omega could wield flames a hundred times hotter than an alpha of their clan. But in our world that meant nothing. That same weak fire alpha could order that omega to jump in a lake, and then the real power would reign once again.

With that being true, only alphas were allowed to apply for and occupy leadership roles, important positions, or even the highest-paid positions. Clan alpha, engineers, doctors, law enforcement, scientists, politics, or promotion to the highest position of alpha council—the council that led and ruled all of Wolf Nation.

Those jobs were for alphas and alphas only, and they competed for those jobs right here in the academy.

Epsilons had only one career path available to them—priestess. As for betas, they got to be nurses, firefighters, paramedics, teachers, writers, musicians, artists, and more. One could say betas were the ones to envy. While they were locked out of the leadership roles and could only rise as high as an alpha’s second-in-command, if a beta wasn’t interested in any of that crap and wanted to pursue a more creative path, they were free to do so.

No one ever encouraged an alpha or epsilon to roam the European countryside painting the scenery. I wasn’t even allowed to go two feet past my front door without six bodyguards, because they had to protect the mother wolf from the vampires. Killing me would wipe out our race in one swoop, giving those ice-cold rats what they’ve always wanted.

No, the people who really had it bad in Wolf Nation, were the omegas. Those poor bastards were only allowed to have the jobs that no one wanted. The grunt work, the dirty work, the worst-paid with the lousiest hours. And there was nothing they could do about it. Every time they tried and protested their treatment, an alpha made an example of them.

Not a violent example, but a humiliating one.

The last spectacle I witnessed—years ago—was of an omega dissenter that had gathered a big following. They were protesting in the streets day and night—demanding equal treatment.

My father was clan alpha at the time. He came out to the square that day, holding tight to my hand. I followed behind him as he faced the crowd, and placed a red, rubber ball on the ground.

He had the omega leader step forward... along with a five-year-old alpha girl. The crowd was already howling with laughter before he spoke. Father said whoever picked up the ball first could have whatever they wanted—including his position as clan alpha.

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