Page 22 of Want It All
I couldn’t say that I disagreed. Tina had taught me that omegas were the heart of any pack lucky enough to have one, but that wasn’t the way most alphas thought. Our world saw omegas as commodities, as trophies, as vessels for knotting and breeding. It was a rare alpha or beta who could comfortably take a knot, and an omega could bear double the number of young any other designation could manage.
And male omegas?
They were the blue diamonds, the painite, the rhodium – the rarest of the precious. There was a short history of packs resorting to crime – even as far as murder – for the chance of bonding a male omega. I had no idea whether any existed in Australia; if they did, I imagined they’d keep it quiet.
You didn’t tell people you’d found a unicorn, after all; there would always be someone who wanted it more than you.
I swallowed an extra dose of blockers, shoving a spare blister pack in my bag, then showered as quickly and as thoroughly as I could. I winced as my scent filled the bathroom, sweet and strong in the shower steam. All the apartments were equipped with industrial air purifiers for that very reason. They were always running – controlled centrally – but I turned up the settings to try to flush my scent from the room. It was particularly thick; I guessed it was because of Rose. While my mind wanted to be her friend on its own terms, my body was preening like a bowerbird, preparing to entice the pretty omega with shiny things – or, in this case, my scent.
I slathered myself in cancellers and pulled on clean clothes, gathering my wet hair back from my face. As an extra measure, I sprayed myself – clothes, hair, and all – with another layer ofaerosol cancellers. When I was done, my nose burned from the metallic scent, but it was better than the alternative.
I stuffed my laptop and textbook into my bag, then locked my door behind me. I surreptitiously sniffed myself again, relieved to find I couldn’t catch my scent at all. Satisfied, I made my way to the library.
I didn’t see Rose at first. A group of students gathered around two desks, and I could see Pravin’s dark head bent over some printed journal articles. I waved to him as a head popped up over a partition and I beelined for a pair of warm brown eyes.
Rose had chosen a corner desk, which I hated because any asshole might have sat down and boxed her in. But asIwould be the one to do that, the feeling passed quickly. I could hear the murmurs of the group’s conversation – they werenotstudying – and Pravin had his ear buds in, his long fingers tapping on the desk in a rhythm which suggested he was listening to something slow and soothing.
Which was to say that when Rose shot me a shy smile and saidhey, it felt as if we were in our own little bubble, and her smile was just for me.
You’re insane, I told myself, but a better word might have beenobsessed.
‘Hey,’ I said, and sat down at the desk next to her. I gave her as much room as I could, moving my chair back so she had space, but I couldn’t help angling my body towards her like a flower turning its face to the sun. ‘What did you want to study?’
She frowned. ‘Everything, I think. I can’t afford to fall behind. Not if Heathcote is going to target us like that.’
I’d already told my mum what happened in class. My mum couldn’t tell me anything confidential, but my dad didn’t need to be as careful, mentioning that there had been a couple of complaints about Heathcote in the last few years, and that it would help the administration if there were more. I’d submittedone already – anonymously, of course. I didn’t want to help solve one problem but then cause another for my mum.
‘I think he’s already been warned,’ I said. ‘Wouldyouwant to piss off Tristan Grace?’
She laughed. ‘No. That alpha has dominance fordays.’
I made a noise of agreement, because she wasn’t wrong. It was hard to quantify dominance. It was a feeling, more than anything else – until it was used, and then it was like an invisible wall pressing down. All alphas had it, but some had more than others; it was the force behind an alpha’s bark and pack leaders, the intangible pressure tosubmitto someone stronger. Tristan might not have been the biggest alpha in the room, but I was realising he had dominance up to his eyeballs. ‘Should we start at the beginning of the textbook, then?’
‘That seems sensible,’ Rose said, and I had the sudden notion that her little half-smile would be the death of me.
The textbook had some study questions at the end of each section, so we went through the first chapter together, taking turns to read aloud, and then talked about the questions. Rose didn’t need me, not even a bit; I was getting the far better end of the bargain. She already knew all this stuff, and I was only holding my own because of my late-night cramming.
She edged closer as we talked; I tried not to notice. My nose was full of her light perfume. It wasn’t herperfume– not that sweet, addictive omega scent that bloomed with arousal or pleasure – but rather a synthetic floral scent that clung to her clothes and skin. It was nice, but I wished that nose plugs were a thing, because it was heating me in places I shouldn’t have been hot, not in a library.
I mean, I was a literature graduate with aspirations of editing at a publishing house.Of courseI wanted to fuck in a library. But not while a bunch of random students sat a few metres away, and not outside my pack.
I wasn’twaitingfor a pack. I’d messed around plenty before ...Before. But there were some things that I wanted to save for them, fantasies I wanted to make true with a side of love and devotion. I knew, somewhere deep inside,bonedeep, that I wasn’t made for a pairing; I knew I’d be a pack alpha, be one of the multiple parts that made up a whole, whatever that happened to look like. There was no standard when it came to pack dynamics; the types of connection were as varied as the numbers.
But I wasn’t about to scare away the first omega I’d ever been interested in by getting a littletooriled up by her perfume amongst the bookstacks, so when her hand brushed mine, I shifted back.
Only for her to follow me, moving closer when she turned the page, and that feeling hit me again – that sense of delicious,dangerousanticipation.
‘Everything okay?’ she murmured.
I swallowed, my eyes fixed on her profile. ‘All good,’ I answered, lying through my teeth.
This wasn’t justgood.
This wasincredible.
HavingByronGriffithsstareat me was the most electrifying, heady sense of power I’d ever experienced.
He’d almost jumped out of his skin when my hand brushed his, monitors shifting as he moved away. Despite that, his body still angled towards me, his eyes fixed on the side of my face, his gaze almost tangibly hot.
