Chapter 4: Liability

Voices pulled Anaya from the darkness. Her eyes fluttered open slowly and she blinked repeatedly as she adjusted to the brightness. Her body was still sore and aching in ways she couldn't quite untangle.

The voices were close… too close and she realized with a start that she wasn't alone.

"She's waking up," someone whispered.

"Finally. I thought she'd sleep all day."

"She's a mess. What the hell happened to her?"

Four faces were staring down at her, their eyes wide with curiosity. She scrambled back on the bed, her broken ribs screaming in protest.

Pain shot through her and she bit her lip to keep from crying out.

"Easy," one of the girls said, holding up her hands. "We're not going to hurt you."

Anaya's heart pounded in anxiety. She looked around the room—the same room she'd been dumped in last night. She had met it empty yesterday but now four girls stood near her, dressed in the same uniform, all staring at her like she was a zoo animal.

"Where.." she started, then coughed to clear her hoarse voice. "Where am I?"

"The Omega dormitory," another girl with a soft voice said. She had brown eyes and a round face, and her scent was soothing. "You're at Valkyr Academy. You were brought in late last night. We came back and found you here."

Anaya's mind caught up with last night's activities. Hospital, Council and Academy.

She pressed a hand to her chest and sighed. She wondered about the bond. The what and whys.

"You don't remember?" another girl asked impatiently. She was tall, with sharp cheekbones and full lips. She pursed those lips and raised her brows at her. "They really did a number on you, didn't they?"

Anaya shook her head but couldn't come up with words to explain her predicament. What was she supposed to say? That the Council saw her as a threat?

The gentle girl—the one with brown eyes—stepped closer. "I'm Mira. This is Sera, Tessa, and Daphne." She gestured to each of the girls in turn. "We're your roommates and we're all Omegas."

Anaya looked at them. They were all beautiful, in that delicate, soft way that Omegas were supposed to be. Petite, beautiful and submissive.

She was none of those things.

"You're the one everyone's talking about," the impatient one—Sera—said, her eyes narrowing.

Anaya's stomach dropped. Was it a good thing to be talked about? "Everyone's talking about me?"

"Of course they are." Sera rolled her eyes and waved her hands wildly. “An Omega accepted in the middle of the semester? The entire Academy is buzzing with it."

"Why can't I sense your wolf?" Daphne furrowed her brows and looked at the girl sitting on the bed, quizzically.

Anaya evaded the girls’ eyes and looked down at her hands, at the gauze wrapped around them, at the dried blood crusted in the fabric. "I… I have a wolf…”

Sera snorted and interrupted her. "You have a wolf? Then where is it? Why can't I scent it?"

Anaya's throat tightened. She tried to think of something to say but came up with nothing.

She had a wolf. She felt it sometimes… a presence at the edge of her consciousness, a warmth in her chest that wasn't the bond but it had never once surfaced.

"I…" she started, but the words died in her throat.

Mira assessed her with her cold eyes. "Have you ever shifted?"

Anaya shook her head, her cheeks burning with shame. She looked down at the bed, evading their eyes. Her heart beating with every second the girls remained silent. Her heart ached with hope of acceptance and belonging.

She raised her head when she heard shuffling of feet. Her mouth twitched at the corners. What was she expecting? To be welcomed with open arms?

The girls had stepped back. Their curiosity was gone, replaced by wariness.

"You're one of those," Sera said, her voice flat and emotionless. "An unturned. I thought they were rare."

"She's not unturned," Mira said quickly, but there was a note of uncertainty in her voice. "She said she has a wolf."

"Then where is it?" Tessa, who had been silent until now, spoke up. Her voice was quiet, but it cut through the room. "If she had a wolf, we'd be able to scent it. I can't scent anything. Can any of you?"

The girls shook their heads and shot each other looks, only they understood.

Anaya said nothing. Let them think what they want. She'd spent years being defined by what she lacked. She wasn't about to hand them the satisfaction of watching her agree.

"Unturned Omegas are a liability," Sera said and walked towards her bed. "They can't bond properly. They can't carry pups. They're just... dead weight."

"Leave her alone," Mira said, but her voice was weak. Even she was stepping back now, her earlier kindness fading.

Sera turned away and walked towards her bed. "Just stay out of our way," she said over her shoulder. "We don't want to be associated with someone like you."

The other girls followed, leaving Anaya alone on her bed.

She sat there, staring at the floor, her body aching and her heart heavy. She got out of bed with effort and went into the bathroom.

***

A loud crackle echoed through the room, making Anaya jump the moment she stepped out of the bathroom.

"Attention, all students. This is a general announcement."

The voice was professional. It echoed through the walls, through the halls, through the entire Academy.

"A new student has been enrolled at Valkyr Academy. Anaya Morgan. New Omega intake. Please report to Officer Halstead in the main administrative building to receive your class schedule and student handbook. Anaya Morgan. Report to Officer Halstead. Immediately."

The announcement ended, and the room went silent.

Anaya's fingers tightened on her towel. She looked at the other girls, but they were already ignoring her, going about their morning routines like she didn't exist.

She forced herself to move, wincing as she took each step. She walked towards her closet to find the uniform that Madame Voss had mentioned.

The gray blazer was stiff and the white blouse tight. The skirt fell to her knees, and she hated the way it clung to her hips, the way it made her feel even more exposed.

She looked at herself in the small mirror on the wall and hated what stared right back at her. A girl with dark circles under her eyes, bruises on her face, and a fat body.

---

The hallways of Valkyr Academy were a maze. Anaya limped through them, her body screaming in protest. Students passed her, their eyes raking over her, their whispers following her.

"Is that her?"

"The new Omega?"

"Look at her. She's so... ordinary."

"Fatty!"

She kept her head down, her eyes fixed on the ground. She didn't know where she was going. How was she to locate officer Halstead? If these students weren't whispering about her to each other, she would have asked for directions.

***

Across the Academy, Kaelen Drake walked through the halls with his hands in his pockets, his expression dark.

He'd barely slept. Every time he closed his eyes, he pictured the dying Omega, reaching out to him with desperate hands.

He'd sent people back to the hospital to bring her here but they'd arrived to an empty bed and a nurse too frightened to say who'd taken her. The Council had gotten to her first.

Where was she? Was she hurt? Was she scared? Was she...

"Kaelen!"

Liora rushed toward him, her face flushed, her eyes wide with anxiety, an emotion he had never seen on her before.

"What is it?" he asked and ruffled his hair. His tie hangi

ng loosely on his neck.

Liora stopped in front of him, her breath coming in quick gasps. "Anaya Morgan," she said. "She's here."

Kaelen's heart stopped. "What?"

"She's here. She was enrolled this morning. I don't know how or why. But she's here."