Two

"You lowly..." She barked. "Do you know how important those files are? How dare you..."

Sure enough, it was her.

I didn't dare look up at anyone nor reach out to the drained papers as I knew I would only mess things up more. I began to plead, "I'm sorry... Please... I didn't do it intentionally."

The Alpha himself was silent making dread and panic fill me. I don't know about how dreadful other packs were but I'm surely aware of how mine was regarding omegas. To the pack members, omegas could only be the worst and were not to be treated with any importance. So, I was quite sure my punishment really wouldn't be light.

Except when he finally reacted, he cleaned his drenched pants with his handkerchief before standing up. It was only then I noticed that he was drenched too.

I could not help but take a step back for fear that he was going to attack me. But instead, he looked over to Aiden, one of his betas and ordered, "Aiden, print another copy of the files for me."

"Yes, Alpha," The other man responded and was soon off to do as ordered.

Dakota suddenly appeared in front of him again and tried to help him wipe the wet stain off. "Alpha, are you okay? You're all drenched."

He took a step back to my surprise and muttered, "It's okay."

Dakota quickly returned her attention to me again as she barked, "You little... I'll make you pay for this."

I couldn't help but tense up. I'd prefer anyone else to give me punishment but definitely not Dakota. Not her.

The Alpha spoke again but this time, he threw me off-guard.

He said casually to her, "That's enough." I looked up in surprise and this time, I happened to meet his gaze as he said to me, "You can go."

I was stunned for a moment and caught off guard that I couldn't even react immediately. Instead, it was Carey who grabbed me by the arm and pulled me out of the room. Of course, not without Dakota's glare at the back of my head as I left.

By the time I came to my senses, I was in the kitchen again. Carey was looking at me with her arms folded. I breathed out heavily, feeling a huge burden roll off my shoulders.

I was scared senseless earlier and already hoping for the worst so it felt so surreal to be let go without a punishment. Not to mention that he had looked at me. That was the first time he had looked at me directly. The alphas were usually out of reach for lower class like us and nine out of ten times, we didn't even dare to look their way whenever they appeared.

But, he had actually looked at me. I couldn't help but think of how Dakota would react to that. She already hated me but now, I would probably face hell in her hands from now on.

Carey suddenly knocked on the counter, pulling me away from my thoughts. She folded her arms as she questioned, "What are you thinking?"

"I don't know..." I found myself muttering.

She sighed gently and came closer. "I was really scared just now. You know how strict they usually are on official days like this."

I didn't say anything in reply but I leaned my head on her shoulder and closed my eyes thinking about how a narrow escape that was. But I still had a mind on what Dakota would do. In such a big pack, even if anything happened no one would care about an omega.

"I'm tired, Carey," I whispered. "Why do we have to be treated like strangers in our own pack?"

She was silent for full minute before saying, "I know, right? Just because we are weaker doesn't mean we're useless."

She paused for a moment and knocked in the counter. "Do you think we should escape from the pack?"

I narrowed my eyes and looked up at her quickly. "Escape? And get killed by the rogues roaming around the borders?"

"There are chances we might not run into any."

I shook my head. "Low chances. Didn't you see the reports? Even one of the gammas was killed last week and a lot of pack fighters have died. We're even weaker compared to them."

Carey sighed and palmed her forehead in frustration. "Then what do we do? I'm fed up of everything. Having to wake up so early and working tirelessly only to eat crumbs and sleeping last in the whole pack."

I got a little teary eyed as she spoke, remembering all the hard days. The first days of resistance to being treated like a slave, the days of accepting it all and the days of toiling so hard only to eat the leftovers.

She went on, "Our only hope is tomorrow. Hopefully, we get our mates and they are at least middle class in the pack. That way, no one will bully us so much."

I found myself nodding, knowing that I had also placed all my hope in that. But then, I suddenly had a thought. What would happen to us if our mates turned out to be omegas like us? Or we don't even find our mates tomorrow?

I pursed my lips and said, "What if our mates are also omegas?"

Carey went quiet and she didn't seem to know what to say. I continued, "If that happens, we have to leave the pack."

"Why? I thought you said..."

"Yeah, I did. But if we don't find our mates tomorrow, think about how miserable our lives would become. Dakota will be the alphas' mate and Luna. She will have even a greater control over the pack and you can imagine how that will be for us omegas."

Carey's lips parted and she lowered her head, also realizing this. She slumped on the counter in frustration.

"We have to find our mates, at all cost."

I didn't give a reply but I also placed my hopes in it.