Page 1 of For What It's Worth
Chapter One
I’d always believed an omission of details didn’t constitute as a lie.
Or was that a lie?
Either way, it was too late to change my mind. Today was moving day: the busiest day at Braker Academy as all the students moved into their dorms and said goodbye to parents, roaming around campus looking for the best places to eat, study, and hang out. I was technically a junior, although this was my first year at the Academy after spending the last two years at the state’s community college. Luckily for me, I didn’t have anything to unpack. The school provides us with the rooms, beds, and nightstands. All I had was underwear, socks, and all the pillows I’d managed to acquire and stuff into suitcases that were probably supposed to hold cherished belongings.
Since I didn’t belong to a pack, or even a prospective pack, I had the room to myself. The space barely fit all the stuff the academy put in here, but there were worse things than having to turn in a small circle in the shower so my whole body got wet. The benefit to a room to myself? I didn’t have to worry about being surrounded by alpha pheromones.
That led me to my lie: I wasn’t technically a beta.
In all fairness, no one asked whether I was or not. To attend the formerly named Alpha Academy (now the Braker Academy finally allowing Betas to attend) every student had to get their pheromones tested so they couldn’t lie on the application about their designation. New dorm buildings were built so the two designations wouldn’t have to mix. I just so happened to be a rare omega that didn’t send out the proper pheromones signaling my difference from a beta. Was it my fault the test didn’t plainly demand an alpha, beta, omega answer? No.
I was an omega at a school where I didn’t really belong, but there was no way I was going to go to the Omega Compound. Despite the claims, it wasn’t a school in the same way as Braker Academy. Omegas learned how to take care of the house and children and how to please their bondmates. And I respected them for it. Even wanted that one day. But I wasn’t ready to stay in the house all day. With the chance to go to Braker Academy, I took it.
After graduating high school—which, to my knowledge, no omega had ever done—I spent two years attending a local community college on the state’s dime because of my superior grades. It may have also helped that a new legislation passed a few years ago to help betas attend higher levels of education.
Braker Academy opening their doors to betas was the most recent result of this. Social pressure to include betas even at fancy-ass academies forced their hand, not that I was complaining. There were still protests and plenty of disgruntled alphas, but I grabbed this opportunity with both hands and refused to let go.
A knock on my door pulled my attention away from stuffing all the pillows that didn’t fit on the bed into the closet. While I may not smell like an omega, I definitely had all the omega quirks, like hoarding pillows so I could make a nest with the scents and fabrics I liked. I just needed to make sure everyone thought I had a weird pillow fetish, or something, if they ever came into my dorm.
I opened the door just wide enough for my body to squeeze through, closing it behind me and forcing the female that knocked on my door back a few feet. Much taller than me, she wore an athletic outfit, showing off her toned muscles. Her skin was even lighter than mine, more white than tan, with dark red hair I wasn’t sure was natural considering how perfect it looked.
“Oh,” she said, looking at my door with a frown like she had expected me to invite her in. When I didn’t offer her an explanation to my antics she seemed to jump into motion, forcing a smile. “Well, hello. I’m Knox, an alpha. Now, I know what you’re thinking, and yes, I am in my fourth year and also the person in charge of the dorms in this building, but that’s no reason we can’t be friends, right?”
On instinct, I sniffed the air to confirm she really was an alpha. Omegas had the strongest noses, able to scent designations more easily than the others which was probably why she felt she had to tell me her designation. I was sure if I went to the Omega Compound, I would’ve learned why that was, but I would rather discuss Lagrangian mechanics.
“So, even though I know who you are,” Knox said, tapping the clipboard like it held all answers, “it really is more polite if you introduce yourself. That way I don’t seem as creepy when I know all the information about you like your name and age and designation.”
I waited for a moment before actually introducing myself because I wasn’t sure if Knox was going to continue speaking. But she paused and then raised her eyebrows as if queuing me to speak. Instead of offering any sort of introduction, I gave her the information she already had, as if I was verifying what she knew.
“Koda. Nineteen years old. Beta.”
Technically, the designation tests all stated Beta, so it wasn’t a lie when I filled it out on the form requesting a dorm. Technically.
Knox’s nostrils flared as she scented me. I got over my nerves a long time ago when it came to alpha’s scenting me. Some professors scented new students, landlords did the same with new occupants, and then there were just the social norms of alphas tending to randomly scent the air as if they were waiting for an omega to suddenly appear. Of course, it helped in these instances that my inner omega didn’t care to try and entice her by flaring my scent. Knox’s alpha scent of pepper—the spice not the vegetable—didn’t call to me. Not gross, but nothing to get my inner omega purring.
“Great.” Knox clapped her hands together. “Now I have your scent. I’m going to go and make the rounds, but I want you to know if you need anything, I am on the first floor, room one-oh-one. And I also have a note you’re a scholarship student, is that correct?”
Pure luck had me graduating from high school at the same time as politicians pushed to help betas attend higher levels of education. Good grades, a path in astrophysics, and maybe some luck got me a partial ride to Braker. Considering I had two years—three if you included the summer classes—worth of classes done, a partial ride was all I needed.
The money left over from my initial grant to attend the state college was how I paid for food, my phone, pillows, and even kept a savings for once I graduated and the academy kicked me out of the dorm.
My eyebrows rose, as if tempting the Alpha to criticize how I got my place in her posh school. “Yes, I am.”
“Okay, well if you have any issues with the deposit or questions about the requirements to keep your scholarship, the counselor for you is in the main office across campus. Elder Building.”
“Got it.” I moved to head back into my room, but Knox stopped me with a hand on my shoulder causing all my muscles to tighten on instinct. Scenting, I was familiar with. Touching? Not so much.
“Wait. Aren’t you going to the orientation? It’s across the campus, so you need to leave now to make it on time.”
I was about to tell her I had no intention of going to an orientation, especially this one with both alphas and betas but decided against it. Better to just make myself scarce and ignore any lecture or disapproving stare Knox might have had in store for me. She seemed the rule-following-to-the-letter type.
“Yes, I was just heading out before you knocked.” I grabbed the key on my makeshift necklace, forcing my body to fold in half in order to lock my door. It wasn’t just the fact I was hiding an unusual amount of pillows in my room—but another omega quirk—demanding that without a proper secondary room for a nest, the whole room became one. Which meant any alpha trying to enter without my permission would enrage my inner omega. And if the stories—and my instincts—were true, an omega rage usually ended in the omega and all nearby alphas dead.
“Good. I would walk with you, but I want to make sure everyone else in the hallway is on their way. Why don’t you head that way and I’ll look for you when I arrive?”
I had no intention of actually going to the orientation, but I gave Knox my brightest smile and headed off. There was a coffee shop not too far from this building that sold some nice pillows I didn’t own yet. Might as well get them now because I wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about them. Plus, I hadn’t had any coffee since I bought the espresso when I arrived on campus this morning and that was like, four hours ago. I needed a constant line of caffeine in my system to maintain control over both my omega and beta instincts. Really, I just needed it to stay alive, so the coffee shop it was.