Casey walks over to me, lightly touching my forearms and forcing me to lower my hands. “Yes, you have to go,” she tells me, her voice gentle in all the ways that mattered. She might be dramatic and over the top sometimes, but by now, she knows how to calm me down and set me back on the right path. “It’ll be fun. Even if we don’t get any offers tonight, you and I will make our own fun. Think of the food! I heard Raeka and Mercedes talking about everything that’s going to be there—”
Now, if there’s one thing that’ll make me feel better, it’s food. I’m a simple girl, really.
“There you are,” she says with a wide grin. “Let’s get you dressed. The others are in the front hall already. We don’t want them to leave without us.” She walks over to the bed and picks up the dress by the hanger, lightly touching the fabric with her fingertips. “It is a super pretty dress. Alphas or not, any guy who sees you in this is going to go insane.”
Her purple dress has two straps going over her shoulder, a small tight band just below her chest, where the dress flares out a bit, all the way to the floor. She wears her heels, making her appear a good three inches taller. Unlike me, she’s a natural in those taller shoes. I trip more often than I manage to make a safe step.
Casey unclips the dress from the hanger, tossing the hanger back onto the bed before she turns to me and waits. She probably doesn’t trust me to change by myself, seeing as how I’m having some vicious second thoughts about tonight.
I sigh and give her my back as I start to undress. We’re omegas, so we shouldn’t feel too modest around each other, but that was something I never got over.
“You know,” my friend says as she waits for me, “if you do end up with a pack, you’re going to have to get over this.”
All I can do is sigh yet again. I don’t hate alphas for being alphas, but I do find the idea that a pack of alphas wanting me is so far out of the realm of possibilities that it’s simply too far-fetched to everbea reality. If my parents didn’t want me, why would a pack of strangers? Why would anyone take one look at me and decide, just like that, they want me and me alone?
Casey tried over the years to up my confidence but, well… I don’t know if I’ll ever be as confident as her.
Once I’m wearing only my panties, I blindly reach behind me for the dress, and Casey hands it over as she says, “Just promise me something. If, by some chance, there are alphas interested in getting to know you tonight, give them a chance. Mercedes found a good pack. It’s possible for omegas like us. Good packs are out there.”
She’s only trying to be comforting, which is why I bite my tongue and don’t say anything in return. Out of the two of us, Casey is more like Mercedes than me. I’m… I don’t know who I’m like. Omegas like me, the ones flying under everyone’s radar, aren’t ever the ones who are the focus in the grand love stories or the movies.
When I don’t say anything, she prompts me, “Promise me.”
I stick one leg inside the dress, then the other, shimmying as I pull it up along my body until it rests comfortably around my chest. The dress, strapless, is padded, so no extra bra is necessary. Casey wordlessly helps me with the zipper, and I’m slow in whispering, “Fine. Sure, I’ll give the alphas a shot, but I won’t hold my breath.”
She finishes zipping it up, and when I spin around, I find her looking at me sadly. “You’re amazing, Dulcie. You might not believe it, but you are. We both are. Hell, every damn omega here is. We just have to find the ones who can see it. That’s what makes it so exciting—just like every omega is different, every alpha’s different, too.”
I chuckle. “I doubt there are alphas getting ready for tonight thinking they don’t want to come home with an omega.” In fact, if I had money, I’d bet every single alpha who’ll be there tonight thinks their lives are about to change. Hopeful, conceited, and smug.
“Hey, you never know. Stranger things have happened.”
She’s only trying to make me feel better, I know, but I still can’t help it: I roll my eyes so hard when she says that.
“Now, throw on some shoes so we can get this show on the road already. I’m starving and ready to stuff my face full of sugar.”
Stuffing my face full of sugar does sound nice. I don’t know what food is going to be there, but there has to be some candy too, right? I mean, it is Valentine’s Day. There should be those little hearts at the very least.
Too bad this dress doesn’t have pockets. I’d stuff my pockets full of those little candies and bring as much home for later as I could.
The heels rest on the foot of my bed, but I could not force myself to go for them. In the end, I pull out my old, ratty flats and slip them on, all while Casey watches me with a single cocked eyebrow.
“Really?” she asks. “Those are really what you’re pairing with that dress? Okay, okay. Who am I to judge what is clearly a master at work?” She offers me her arm. “Come on. Let’s go. We got a shindig to get to.”
I stifle a laugh as I hook my arm through hers. Who says that these days? Did my best friend turn into an eighty-year-old omega when I wasn’t looking?
As we leave my bedroom, I’m full of anxieties and worries. Tonight is supposed to be fun. A mixer. No pressure. We’re supposed to talk to alphas, and if said alphas are interested in us, they’re supposed to write us a valentine that we’ll get in themorning. Delilah, our new headmaster, will oversee the courting process that happens after. It’s way better than anything we could have hoped for before, back when New Omega Academy was known as Solus Academy.
I don’t know what no pressure is, though. I can’t relax. In fact, when we make it to the front hall, where the others are waiting, all dolled up and looking gorgeous, I kind of want to throw up.
Hey, at least my feet are comfortable.
Chapter Two – Monroe
Redd and Lev are the most excited I’ve seen them in years, maybe ever. Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited too, I’m just better at hiding it. I have to be. I’m the pack leader. The head of our ragtag pack that formed before Redd and I were newly-presented orphans who wound up at the same academy for alphas.Lev’s our beta, so he ended up at a different school.
The state took Lev away from his parents’ pack when they proved they couldn’t take care of him. Redd was orphaned when his parents got into a bad car accident. And me? I don’t remember what happened exactly. It was never in my file, but I never had a life outside of the orphanage and the academy. I’ve never known what it’s like to have parents, regardless of whether they loved or hated me for what I am.
Currently, the three of us stand in a long line before the doors of the Omega Garden. Night had fallen. We have our numbered invitation—and our IDs, which will be checked against the number of our invitation by security before we’re allowed to head inside.
