“’kay, Grandma!”, I answer, shoving my feet over the edge of the bed, feeling the cold floor. Thank god we have air conditioning.

I waddle over to my closet, choosing today’s outfit, comfy but not too warm, although I still wrap a light brown orangish hoodie around my waist. Better safe then sorry, I guess. I grab my two already packed suitcases and put them next to the door so dad can carry them down easily. Going back in I grab my hand pun and sax, looking around for the last time, hoping I didn’t forget anything.

Going downstairs, I signal dad that I’m ready and he can grab my stuff.

I eat breakfast, pancakes with syrup and fruits with orange juice.

I chuckle, wiping a little syrup off my sisters face. Mum asks me the thousandth time if I have everything and wants to go over the packing list again. She seems really nervous and anxious, sending her ‘baby boy’ far away, without anyone he knows.

No one I can talk to and who can help me. She even let me take a self defense course, saying that I’m a beautiful omega boy and that she doesn’t want me to get raped.

Like seriously, raped? Why would someone rape me and why would a few hours of training save me from a horny idiot twice as strong as me? I might be a drummer, but I’m submissive and we really aren’t build for fighting.

I can convince her for letting me go and not writing her twice a day, ‘cause that would be really ridiculous. When she looks over the forms again, I get up and to the bathroom to brush my teeth with my favourite strawberry tooth cream, which for the record, isn’t only for children.

Half an hour later we’re ready to go, so I say goodbye to mum who has to pry my little sister Sonja off of me. She’s so damn cute and looks just like me, although she’s a beta and has brown eyes. She’s only four so her chubby cheeks won’t be like this forever, I better squish her one last time, right? She giggles, making grabbing movements with her little hands until she realizes that I won’t come back soon and starts to cry, waving after us as we drive down the street.

I sigh, leaning back against the seat.

“Already miss them?”, dad asks.

“Yeah. Who wouldn’t?”, I ask. “But that’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance, I can’t just waste it. Thank you for signing me up, by the way. But you really should have told me.”

He glances over to me briefly. “If they wouldn’t have taken you you would have been destroyed, not that I thought they wouldn’t. They would be crazy.”

“You have to say that, you’re my father. You’re biased.”

“Believe what you want, it doesn’t change the fact that they indeed, took you, does it?”

I grumble, turning around and look out of the window. Dad turns on my ‘Favourite Songs’ CD from when I was younger. How can I stay angry at him like this? I pout, leaning my forehead against the cool window.

It’s a long drive, over three hours if the traffic is good. We’re assuming it’ll be a little over four hours but we still have a big time buffer.

I already heard that the rich kids shoved us out of their way in the furthest corner of the castle, me and the other human with a scholarship. I have no idea whether it’s a girl or a boy, but I hope for the latter. I’m really hoping for a boyfriend, cause although I’m male, I’m an omega, which is really rare. Oh, and I'm (obviously) gay.

Only less than 0,05 % of us are like me. And not every human has a second gender. I’m also an omega which means my future boyfriend or even husband will probably be an alpha, often a little unpredictable and wild if they get into rut, the same as a heat for omegas. They’ll be horny all the time and can get us pregnant so fucking easily.

So always safe sex for me.

What they don’t really care for, or even despise in the state. Not the getting pregnant, by the way. Also, when an omega smells an alpha in rut they will get into the same state as them, same the other way around, so very likely mate. What is permanent, like in bonded together forever.

Even if that happens it normally goes fine in the end, they learn to live with each other.

But that doesn’t mean you should choose the next best person.

By the way, the changes for a female alpha are the same as for a male omega.

We finally reach the school and dad helps carrying my stuff to my room. Or that’s what we planned on doing, but seems like they didn’t prepare anything for us. I told my father to put down my luggage in the big central room where my instruments are standing.

He hesitates shortly, but does as I wish. The school doesn’t care about the ones that don’t pay, so they sent us all necessary information beforehand.

I decide to wait for the other student before I choose a room, looking around our area for a bit. It’s actually quite big with a big central room where to only the two of us have keys and stairs that lead up to a second, third, fourth floor and a free area on top, in typical medieval style, made out of stone.

I breathe in the fresh air and look around. All you can see is the dark wood surrounding us and the outskirts of the city with the street that connects us with it. The trees are still green and the castle is just beautiful.

I guess in fall it’ll be even prettier, with brightly coloured leaves and I can only imagine how it looks like in winter. I heard near here is a ski area, you only have to drive for about one and a half hours.

I guess I’ll be coming up here often to paint, or to practice one of my few instruments you can carry up the stairs. Ever tried to carry a cello or drum set up a circular staircase? I can’t practice the e-guitar up here too because there’s no electricity.

I walk down the stairs, searching for a store room and cleaning supplies. I takes a while, but I find one in the basement. Yes, we even have a separated basement. It’s getting ridiculous.

I finish cleaning the windows of the first floor when I hear a key in the door. I step backwards, hiding behind a curtain. You never know who enters. A few moments later I can hear voices and the rolling of suitcases, until it’s suddenly silent again. “Somebody here?”, a boy asks. I already like his voice. It’s deep and nice, but not too hoarse or deep, it’s just right. I hesitate, glancing at him from behind the curtain. Well, at least he looks nice? And he’s an alpha. He has short blond hair and wears a dark green sweatshirt along with dark blue jeans and black sneakers. I can’t see his face, his back is turned to me. I silently step out from behind the curtain and walk over, making him jump by softly touching his back. He turns around quickly, startling me. I take a step back to give him some room. He smiles at me and I blush immediately. His smile is very nice, his eyes seem to be shining. “H-Hi”, I say. “My name’s Berry. How was your ride?”, I ask him. “Hello to you too, Berry. My name is Canton, and my ride was nice.” He chuckles, “How are you? And were you cleaning the room?”

“I-I’m fine. A-And yes, I did clean the room. They didn’t even bother to open the windows before our arrival, it was stuffy and smelled really bad. You can look around if you want, we can choose rooms later and clean them together.”

“Sounds like a good plan. Shall we share a room or do you want your own room? I always shared with my siblings and I guess it’ll get lonely otherwise.”

“You realize I’m an omega? Otherwise I wouldn’t mind sharing at all.”

“You’re a male omega? Those really exist?”, he asks. "Wait, you are male, right?"

“Yeah, obviously? To both.”, I say, coming nearer so he can sniff my pheromones more clearly. He leans in, sniffing me, until he touches my neck with his nose rubbing it where the scent glands are. Not only scent glands, but also nerve bundles that make you feel good. Like, really good, you normally stimulate them while having sex or to calm us down. I gulp, feeling slightly aroused. I can smell him too, a rich, a little musky smell, but mostly old books. He seems to realize what he’s doing only a few seconds later, giving me room quickly. “You smell nice.”, he says, still a little dazed from my smell. It seems to sink in what he said, and he blushes deeply. “You smell nice too.”, I grin. “Believe that I’m an omega now?”, I ask.

He nods, still slightly flushed. “It’s alright, you can smell me whenever you want, unless you’re in rut or I’m in heat. By the way, I like to cuddle. Wanna watch a movie this evening?”, I ask him.

Why the fuck did I say that? He nods. Thank you, gods. That could have gotten awkward.

“Now hurry on, explore our area and show me your room preferences. We can share the same living space and sleep away from each other only when we’re in heat or rut, alright? I only go into heat every few months if I don’t want it to be otherwise. What about you?” I picked up the cleaning supplies and started walking up the stairs, him following me. “Normally only twice a year, in winter and summer”, he says. “I only left it a few weeks ago and it won’t be until the middle of January.”

“Yay, many cuddles for the next few months!”, I shout. He laughs. “Were these instruments downstairs all yours?”, he asks. “Yeah. Some belonged my grandfather and he taught me how to play them before he died, the e-guitar was my neighbors and he gifted it to me when he knew he had cancer and wouldn’t live any longer than a few weeks. I bought the guitar from my pocket money when I was fourteen, after I often played in a music shop, they gave me a discount.”

“So you can play all of them?”, he asks.

I grin. “Of course.”