Once they arrived home, both subs piled out cheerfully and said shy goodbyes to the alpha before heading back to Cassie's room to gossip over how laid back Markus had been and whether or not he had suffered a horrendous head injury lately.

Markus himself slipped away to his own bedroom to lie on his bed and go over the trip in his mind, committing all the little details to memory. The omega's cute voice singing, his eyes staring up at him, his soft hair in his lap... and the feeling of his tiny body pressed against the back of him as he hid from that cree- Markus shot up and leapt from his bed, throwing his door open and tearing down the hallways until he arrived at the omega's room. He quickly rapped his knuckles on the door but there was no answer. After peeking inside he retreated and tried Cassie's room.

"Oh, hello again Markus" This time the ringlet-haired sub greeted him in the doorway but he brushed past her and grabbed the omega by his forearm, dragging him out the door and back to his own room and then into his en suite. The omega had told Cassie not to worry and let himself be led obediently into the small bathroom.

"Lift your sleeve" The alpha ordered.

"W-What?" Sam gave a surprised look,

"Let me see your arm"

"O-oh" He lifted his sleeve carefully and watched Markus pick up a loofa and a bar of mint soap, leading him to the sink and running warm water over the numbers penned onto his arm before beginning his gentle, methodical cleansing. The omega blushed and held as still as he could, enjoying the rare tenderness from his mate.

When Markus was finished, he dried Sam's arm with one of his soft towels and pulled the sleeve back down.

"There." He spoke softly, "Now, don't let me ever see a man come within three feet of you again - or there will be consequences" The threat was growled, low and deep and Sam had to suppress a moan. "Off you go"

Sam nodded and stumbled out.

~

The second week started uneventfully as all the new wolves seemed to be settling into their new classes and blending into new friend groups. Although Cassie often felt Karliah's eyes boring into the back of her head - She thankfully hadn't made any more attempts to touch her and for that she was half grateful... and half disappointed. Her wolf had plagued her with quite a few dreams now of a blonde woman toying with her body... teasing her until she would awake drenched in sweat and panting, desperate for more. She didn't know how much longer she could wait for Karliah to come to her...

~

Mr Dale pulled out the whiteboard-on-wheels and began to write the day's topic on it. Once he stepped back there was a murmur throughout the room as they all read the word on the board in large block lettering: COLLARING.

"Right, let's see what you kids know about this - anyone want to tell us something they know?" He looked around the room and no one put their hand up, the subs looked uncomfortable and a lot of the doms genuinely didn't seem to understand the significance of the topic. Mr Dales sighed and grabbed a stack of plain paper, he wandered down the aisles handing it out until everyone had a piece. "Right, let's make a spider diagram of any little pieces of information - you don't have to know everything, just give me a little bit and I'll fill in the rest" he said, leaning back against his desk, black marker in hand. Cassie raised her arm and he nodded for her to speak.

"Collaring is what mean doms do when their subs refuse to be marked" She made sure to give Karliah a pointed look as she said this and then turned back to the front.

"Well, I guess you could see it that way, although I don't know if that's how we'll write it in the diagram..." Mr Dale added, "How about we put 'Collaring is an extreme resort, brought in by a dominant because they refuse to leave their sub unmarked'? I think that's better than saying it's because they're mean" He smiled and Cassie nodded. As he wrote it on the board all the students added it to their diagram. "Anyone else?" The teacher turned back to the class and saw Sam's hand up, a look of surprise flitted across his face at the shy boy and nodded at him to say his piece.

Sam looked around the room nervously before he spoke,

"C-Collaring hurts" His voice was barely audible but thankfully Mr Dale caught it and was able to repeat for him,

"Yes, Lunar Collars do hurt and I would never recommend using them on your partner" he gave a stern look over the doms but many of them just gave him a bored stare in reply, "but you know kids, there are other collars. Ones that humans like to wear-"

"With ribbons and lace!" A red headed sub piped up suddenly with a smile, before realising she had interrupted and sinking into her chair.

"Yes! Exactly, there are Dominants who use collars without magical effects you know-"

"What good does that do? How does it stop other wolves from taking what's yours?" Markus barked from the back, many subs jumped in their seats but Sam the worst, he looked terrified.

"I would appreciate it if you all would let me finish before throwing your two cents into the pile" Mr Dale snapped, causing the subs to jolt again and the doms to huff. "Now, first let's add the non-magical collars to our diagram - and to answer your question Markus, they serve just as well as a lunar collar in respects to warding off other wolves because lunar collars are more for keeping the... sub from straying to the other wolves rather than the other way around." He smiled meekly and added a line to the diagram on the board. "But if you're worried about your mate's loyalty, I would never suggest a lunar collar either - It is an outdated and frankly inhumane weapon of abuse and for all the emotional, psychological and physical pain you will cause your mate, they are far more likely to hate you than submit to you once you remove it". He added this to the diagram too in two separate parts. His students diligently copied down his notes.

"Sir?" A sub called from the back with his hand in the air.

"Yes, Jasper?" Mr Dale swung around on his heels.

"I-Is your mate... collared?" He blushed as he spoke, it wasn't bad manners to ask about someone's mate but this was a bit personal - Which is why every other teenager in the room hoped that Mr Dale would answer. The man in question gave a small chuckle before he spoke,

"Not that it's any of your business - And the lot of you really don't need to get quite so excited - but yes, my mate wears a non-magical collar... although he is also marked" He smiled softly at the thought. Many of the subs smiled dreamily at the thought of a pretty collar to wear, showing off their ownership for all to see. "Anyway, back to the topic at hand - Anyone else have anything they want to add?"