“I don’t think I understand this assignment anymore…”

“Ilex,” River said gently. “Struggling to find a reference doesn’t mean you need to give up entirely.”

“What if I really want to?”

“No,” Rowan grunted. “We’re suffering together here. No one gets to quit.”

Their study session had followed a cyclical pattern for most of the day: they made an ounce of progress, someone got stuck on something, River reassured them or Rowan gave them a kick up the arse, rinse and repeat. Whatever there was to be said about their methods, words were getting put down on paper and that’s all they needed.

By lunchtime, their brains were fried.

“Text me your orders and transfer me your money,” Sky demanded, standing up with an exaggerated stretch.

They had agreed on a local sandwich place - take-out so they could keep their hold on their table in the student study zone: the ground floor of one of the blocky buildings spread out about campus. It was in hot demand at this point in the term.

Sky had the biggest arms, therefore he could carry the most sandwiches. River, Rowan and Ilex kept their butts on the benches either side of their table strewn with laptops and printouts.

“So, anything new with your scenter?” Rowan attempted to sound casual, but there was a nervous look in his eyes. He was keeping quiet watch of the area around them. Awaiting Elliott’s magic appearing act.

“Not really.” We ground against each other on a dance floor till I came on him.

“Oh, yeah?” Liar.

“Yeah, same as before.” River shrugged. “Waiting out the fade.”

“Alpha stink lasts ages,” Ilex commented. “Or, so I’ve heard.”

Rowan nodded. “What’re you on now? Ten days at least?”

“Nine.”

“Not that you’re counting.” He gave her a strange look, as though he weren’t sure what to make of her, or maybe her situation.

”It’s been an interesting experience,” River offered, diplomatic as she could be. “And I’ve learned a lot.” She arranged her papers into perfect rectangles in front of her, dropping her eyes from their interest.

“But?”

“But I’m ready to be rid of it now.” Not ready to be rid of the alpha that supplied it, perhaps. But ready to be treated like a normal omega again. If there was any such thing.

“Ouch,” Ilex laughed awkwardly. “I’d be real hurt if someone said they were sick of my scent.”

River rolled her eyes. “Willow loves you.”

The boys shared a mischievous look and leant in over the table top. Ilex whispered, “Maybe Elliott loves you.”

“He doesn’t know me,” she whispered back.

“It’s hard not to know you, River, you make a friend out of passing birds.”

“I just-” She cleared her throat, overcome with a need to explain herself, but also desperate not to let the words out. Not to admit that she wasn’t as confident as she appeared. “I feel like if I don’t make the effort with others, they won’t make it with me.”

“Why would you think that?”

She gave them a dull look. “You know why.”

Ilex blasted her with his best cheeky grin.“I would have still been your friend, even if you hadn’t forced me.” The teasing fell flat, and Rowan winced.

“You wouldn’t have approached me first, and you know it.”

“I- The thing is-”

“No one wants to be the dominant hassling an omega,” Rowan blurted. “It feels like the safe thing to do is… you know-”

“Handle these things with care,” Ilex supplied.

“Yeah. Don’t come in too intense or eager.”

“We’re intimidating.”

“Yeah.”

“Not intentionally.”

“No,” Rowan echoed.

“And maybe… the safest solution of all… sometimes…”

“Is to avoid the problem completely,” River finished for them.

Rowan’s eyes rounded, sad. “You’re not a problem, River,” he said, soft and sore. River shrugged instead of replying.

“I just want omegas to feel at ease around me,” said Ilex, “but I don’t know how to approach without overthinking everything.” He slumped forwards, chin in hands. “What if I’m too close or I’m too loud?”

“Should I shake their hand or is that unwanted touch and sweat scent?” Rowan added. “Is it rude to not shake their hand?”

River sighed, tucking her curls behind her ears. “You know you could just ask me these questions, right?”

“You’re different.”

“Yeah, River, you take no prisoners. You’re not scared of us or even an alpha.”

“I’m still an omega.”

“Then… what is the answer?”

River took a deep breath. “Approach, but leave an arm’s length distance - your arm’s length, so they know you’re not going to touch them if they don’t know you. Talk at the volume you would with a submissive beta. Don’t touch them in any way that will cause skin-on-skin if you’re not friends. It’s not rude to not shake their hands, it shows you’re considerate. Anything else?”

Rowan was still scrawling her answers down on a scrap piece of paper but Ilex had more to ask. “What if there’s two of us and one of them, won’t that seem threatening if we approach out of nowhere?”

“Then split up, have one come over and one hang back. Explain what you’re doing. Don’t be creepy.”

Ilex nodded. “Got it.” Rowan did, he had filled the paper with scribbles.

Sky returned with the sandwiches, and the boys discussed what they had learned between enormous mouthfuls. River listened to them, nibbling, and hoping it would mean more dominant friends for lonely omegas.

×

In preparation for the party River pulled free a cream miniskirt from her barely-closable wardrobe. It sat firmly in the category of clothes she wouldn’t wear to anything but a house party - events that were at least partially invite-only and she knew the invitees. Everyone was a friend or a friend-of-a-friend. Despite her best efforts to assimilate, she was still an omega. And an omega in a short skirt could guarantee unwanted interest from dominants. It wasn’t fair, but it wasn’t safe to pretend things were anything else. The skirt was embroidered with tiny flowers spread sparsely around the material, and it fit like a glove, the hem resting just beneath the crease where River’s thighs met her butt. She tucked a thin white tee into it, added a gold-coloured necklace with a daisy charm, plus some matching bracelets, and slipped her feet into strappy heels that almost brought her to the height of a submissive beta.

She shared an uber with her housemates, who she had invited, and they got to Hawk’s building fashionably late. It had once been some kind of workshop or small factory, converted into a bunch of open-plan flats, when they got inside, they found all the doors welcoming in partyers.

“River!” Hawk called over pounding music and jumping bodies. River didn’t have to squeeze to reach him, her scent brushed back anyone in her way. The dominants gave her wary, sometimes accusatory, looks. “You made it!”

“Wouldn’t miss it!” River shouted.

“Let’s get you a drink!” Hawk nodded towards a kitchen through one of the doors. “We all put our collections together for a sick bar.”

It was a pretty impressive display of bottles, all opened and some a little crusty-looking. She accepted a shot and Hawk poured himself one to match. On the count of three they downed them and performed a synchronised gag.

“Okay, let’s switch to something sweet,” Hawk gurgled. He snatched a bottle of Sourz from the line-up and mixed it with lemonade in two plastic cups. “Cheers!”

They bumped cups and sipped. Much easier on the throat.

“River!”

They turned in unison to watch JJ wriggle his way through dancing bodies.

“Hey JJ!”

“What’re you drinking?”

Hawk offered his cup with a cocky grin. “Have a taste.”

JJ looked him up and down pointedly, smirked, and accepted the drink. When he swallowed the cupful in one go, Hawk bit his lip on a chuckle.

“How do you two know each other?” River asked.

Hawk retrieved the Sourz bottle and emptied it into what once was his cup. “We don’t, but please feel free to introduce us.”

River laughed. “JJ, this is Hawk, and this is his party.” Well, his and all of his neighbours within the building’s.

“Hi Hawk.” The eyes JJ gave Hawk over the rim of the cup as he took a neat nip of the Sourz should have come with a warning. Something above PG13, at least. “Nice party. I came with Cypress.”

“Ah, the loudest complainer the rowing club has ever had the misfortune of listening to.”

JJ’s brows bounced. “You row, too?”

River answered for him. “He’s co-captain of the club.”

“Ooh, a man with authority.”

Hawk laughed loudly and River slipped away, uninterested in watching her friends devour each other with their eyes, and soon their mouths.

Her new drink went down far too easy, but Sierra appeared at her side with a bottle of vodka to tip in a couple of shots worth and she shook her head in faux disapproval. They danced together, without any skin contact, of course, until Marigold shimmied in close with the clear intention of getting the dominant beta’s attention.

River yelled over the music, “Sierra, this is Mari, take care of her while I go to the bathroom.”

Sierra’s grin was all white teeth and pointed canines and Mari fluttered under the intensity of it. River left them to wrap themselves around each other.

“Have a mini!” was yelled into her ear on her way to the corridor.

“Huh?” She turned, and a small bottle of gin was pressed into her palm.

Beck, a submissive beta that she had met through the Art Society, was swigging from a tiny plastic fireball bottle. He waved it at River as though to cheers.

“Later,” she promised. “I need to slow down!”

He laughed and bumbled away, leaving her holding the mini gin. When another friend attempted to hand her a shot, she palmed it off on them and kept walking.

She stumbled into a bathroom, possibly Hawk’s, and locked the door behind her. She didn’t actually need to go, she just needed a moment to breathe, the alcohol was already meddling with her to a point that she struggled to keep her head still long enough to assess her appearance in the grubby mirror.

She took a few breaths, in through her nose and out through her mouth, and patted a bit of cold water on her forehead and cheeks. She was fine, she just needed to take it easy. Dance off the effects of her drinks so far…

Sliding out of the bathroom, she was halted by an enormous dominant hanging around outside. She jerked back, but not before he could comment, just loud enough to be heard over the rabble, “That’s some powerful alpha armour you got.”

River shrugged, stumbling a little, and hurried back to the group of people shuffling and grinding to the music. Familiar faces welcomed her, and another cup appeared in her hand. She sipped at it slowly, carefully, and bopped to the beat.

Her thoughts were swimming in the goop that her brain had become after an hour… or maybe more? She’d politely turned away a lot of gifted drinks, and accepted a couple - she needed to drink something. Dancing was drying her out. Beck was back, he spun her and swayed them together. She needed the help, her body was barely co-operating with staying upright. She stumbled and felt a flash of panic in her stomach. Sick? No. But the realisation that she’d had far too much.

She tried to excuse herself, babbling something against the side of Beck’s sweaty head. He didn’t understand her, but when she pulled away he let her go with a glassy-eyed grin.

Back in the bathroom she hid. It stank now. Others also hadn’t handled their drink well. She put the lid down on the toilet seat and tried to pull herself together. Her hands and feet were shaking. She wanted to go home, she wanted to curl up somewhere she knew she was safe. She was scared.

River pulled her phone from her pocket. She stared at the screen until someone rattled the door handle.

“Shit.” She hit dial.