Page 15 of The Demon's Pet

But deep inside me, something wanted to fight, and even if I didn’t know what it was, I agreed with it.

The wolf spirit in me stirred in response, but I could feel her reaction. She wanted to bend to the pack, to stay with the pack. And as omega, she would bend her head to any alpha.

So what was this thing in me that wouldn’t?

As we walked to the ceremony down the dirt side road by our cottage, I saw many others coming out as well.

Young girls and women in omega white, representing purity. Alphas in long black robes. Beta males in blue and females in red.

Everyone in their place.

People excitedly buzzed all around us, speculating on who would pick whom.

I heard girls behind me discussing which alphas were the most handsome at the ordination ceremony and who they would want to be picked by.

Females could only be betas or omegas, but alphas only chose from omegas for some reason. Beta females weren’t considered as in need of protection and thus could “settle” for a beta male, who would, at marriage, become alpha of their home.

I wished I’d been made a beta. Then I would have been spared this humiliating outcome.

In my head, I dreamed of being like Bruce Lee in one of my favorite martial arts movies, pulling out a weapon and taking out a whole room of people, all alphas.

Then I shook my head. I needed to stop having stupid fantasies, but they were all I had.

I looked around and caught the eyes of one of my childhood friends, Ben, a blond-haired beta I used to sit with at lunch. He looked away from me, turning his nose up slightly.

He hated me, not because I was an omega, but because I hated it.

Everyone hated me because I kept putting a fucking wrench in the “plan” when I was supposed to put my head down demurely and satisfy an alpha.

But for now, I kept my head high, marching toward the ceremony as we all moved onto the main street, people flowing together from side streets like streams into a river.

The excitement was building. I noticed other omegas around me from the other side, the nicer side, of our village. They glowed with anticipation, though I could scent fear on some.

Tuning into my wolf, I focused on the scents around me. Perfumes made at the village apothecary. Cottons and linens and silks because people wanted to show off.

There were torches all along the road, so the smell of smoke was thick in the air, along with the spicy scent of fall.

Something dead yet rich-smelling all at the same time. Mulch and dead leaves and fallen apples.

I let the river of people carry me to the brightly lit chapel next to city hall, which had a huge field in front of it, at the center of which the ceremony would take place.

Standing at the doors of the chapel was Bran, one of the newly anointed alphas. The other alphas were standing on the steps, still keeping themselves raised above all of us so we could appreciate them in all their glory as we walked forward.

Bran glanced my way, and his grey eyes were unnerving even as his gaze was interested and warm. His hair was carefully groomed, and his tall, muscular body looked well in the robes of an alpha.

So why did I feel nothing for him?

I was a little jealous that the angel I’d seen before had put his hands on Bran’s head.

I wanted to knock my own head at my wayward thoughts. If alphas were bad, then surely angels, the alphas of all alphas, had to be the worst.

Sam was probably pompous, cruel, stuck-up, and abusive like the alphas here.

It was good that he was gone, though a slightly hollow feeling in my heart said that not all of me felt that way.

Sure, I’d only met him for a moment, but something about him would resonate with me for a long time. The way he looked at me like something he was studying, not just something beneath him.

Then he’d called me an idiot. I needed to remember that, after all, and keep Sam out of my mind.

---