Page 8 of For What It's Worth
The beta, to my dismay, left, and Aidan had to step over the back of the chair in order to take the seat in my row. After sitting down, he had the audacity to look at me with innocent eyes. “What? Enzo’s on your other side.”
I looked over at Enzo, who had made himself comfortable in the seat I had just kicked the beta out of.
He shrugged his shoulder when I looked at him, crossing his arms over his chest like he was daring me to say something to kick him out.
“Well, Lorenzo didn’t force a student out of his chair. You did.”
“Koda, I’m going to make an exception and explain this for you.” Aidan leaned over the thin arm separating our chairs and pushed his face so close to mine all I could see were his eyes. Dark green eyes framed by the lightest of blond eyelashes. “I’m not going anywhere. You can complain all you want, but then you’re going to miss Jens’ lesson. Of course, then I might feel bad for distracting you and convince Jen we have to invite you over so he can give you a private lesson. Is that your goal, sweet girl? Are you trying to get us to invite you to our house because I can think of plenty of other ways for you to get that invite without hurting your education.”
My throat dried up so I couldn’t respond. Every one of my instincts told me to mark Aidan—scratch him or bite him or something to mark him as mine. Omegas weren’t stronger than alphas, but I would challenge any alpha to try and tell his or her omega ‘no’ to something they wanted. It was an omega’s version of power, and I wanted that over Aidan.
I dug my fingernails into my own palm, hoping my marking instinct would calm down even if it was my skin. Aidan and I were in a staring contest that felt slightly like a battle of dominance. Warm fingers wrap around my hand and forcibly uncurled my own fingers. Without looking, I knew the rough hand belonged to Lorenzo.
“Enough you two. Jen is starting.” When neither of us looked away, Lorenzo added an alpha command into his tone. “Koda, look away.”
My eyes instinctively followed the command although I did throw out a snort so both males knew I wasn’t happy. And just to be extra petty, I planned to ignore them for the rest of the class.
Chapter Eight
The plan was mildly successful. And by that, I meant successful because I ignored them but only mildly because I was constantly aware of both Lorenzo and Aidan. I had tried to make myself small to ensure I didn’t accidentally rub my arms against either of theirs. There was a good chance I was overreacting to physical contact but also a slight chance I would get wet at their touch—especially after the whole dominance thing with Aidan—and I was not going to risk my future on a quickie.
It was like emotional whiplash. The scent of both alphas next to me was calming, even if I didn’t want it to be. I knew I shouldn’t have been comfortable next to them. One wayward touch had the potential to expose me, and I tried my best to care about that fact while inhaling their delicious scents.
And even though my first plan wasn’t great, I decided to make another: with class over, I was going to figure out what the hell had gotten into these males.
I packed my stuff up as slowly as I could, continuing to ignore the two alphas on either side of me. Professor Jenson didn’t have another class until later, but he usually waited around after his lectures to talk to any students that needed it. Typically, that time was used up by flirting females and this time was no different. I could almost laugh at their desperation if I didn’t understand the lure that was wanting Professor Jenson.
There were seven women hovering around the professor’s desk as he organized something on it. He wasn’t even looking up as he listened to one of them speak, nodding his head along, even as his eyes never strayed from his hands. Regardless of his apparent lack of interest, the first inkling of jealousy blotted in my stomach.
I glared at the offending females. Anger of their annoying presence fought my jealousy that he was actually listening to them. They obviously weren’t paying attention to the lesson if they already had questions they couldn’t have asked in front of the class. And that was why I was angry. Mostly.
“You’re starting to growl, sweet girl.” I turned my glare at Aidan but cut off the near-silent sound emanating from me. “No reason to look at me like a momma bear denied both types of honey-goodness. Go get your alpha.”
I snorted at Aidan’s words—already getting used to the way he spoke—but didn’t dignify it with a response. When I looked back toward Professor Jenson, he was sitting in his chair, leaning his elbows on the desk and listening to whoever was talking to him. Did it bother me that the females were directly at boob height and all he has to do was flick his eyes straight ahead to look at them?
Yes.
Was I going to do anything about it?
“Koda, how can I help you?” Professor Jenson asked me after I had basically run down the stairs to get to his desk, unaware of having given my feet the command to move. There was something about the look he gave me that made me think he totally watched me speed the hell down here and shove the female in front of him directly out of the way. Of course, I was basically working on fumes, so I hadn’t concocted a very good plan on what was going to happen once I had his attention.
“Actually, Professor Jenson, I really need to speak to you about a private matter.”
“Then you should schedule time with him,” some brunette said. I didn’t recognize her, which probably meant she hadn’t answered a single question during class. Or it meant the class had a lot of students, but I liked my previous thought better. Her shirt was a deep cut V with some design of eyes in the proximity of where her boobs were, and if I wasn’t so bothered by her presence, I would think she looked hot. “I was in the middle of speaking with Professor Jenson, and there’s actually a line of us that was here before you showed up.” In a move I thought was supposed to tell me she meant business, the brunette crossed her arms and popped out a hip.
Keeping my eyeroll internal was borderline impossible. I wouldn’t be surprised if I actually did roll my eyes a little. At least my omega side wasn’t butting in yet. My inner omega might have wanted to handle the whole situation with more attitude, but as far as she was concerned, I was taking the first steps into claiming Jenson, so she was content letting me control the situation. And it was a situation because I had created one all to get away from his two other packmates.
“Perfect.” I set my backpack on the floor and pushed some of Professor Jenson’s papers out of my way before sitting my ass down on his desk like I fucking owned it. Crossing one leg over the other, I made myself comfortable.
“What are you doing?” a dark-skinned girl next to me asked. Her tone was more confused than angry, but I still needed her to leave.
“Just waiting my turn.”
“Are you going to let her sit on your desk, Professor Jenson,” brunette complained.
I looked over my shoulder at Jenson, who was already staring in my direction. The heat in his eyes wasn’t from anger. But I could still smell the beta females tainting his clean scent. Turning my attention back to the females, I gave them my best ‘you need to walk away’ look. It was a mixture of anger, disregard, and straight-up hope they would simply obey. If I let my inner omega out a little, they would’ve known to back off, not only on instinct, but with ingrained reactions all betas had to leaving an omega alone. It was a simple consequence of being a beta in a society that preferred omega. Which was why I made sure to keep her reigned in.
“We have a pack meeting,” Lorenzo said beside me. What should have shocked me from the proximity of his voice only made me feel more confident in my claim that these females needed to leave. “You all need to leave.”