Opal The Omega

Chapter seven

Even through the darkness of night, I can see the shock on Marie's face.

"What?"

"Are you having an affair with the alpha?" I ask again.

"No, of course not." She denies. Marie licks her lips and stares at the ground.

"Don't lie to me." I say.

"It's none of your business."

"How long?" I ask. My only response is silence. "How long?" I ask again.

"It's none of your business." Marie says, walking towards her bedroom door.

"Marie, you can't do this. Think about the consequences. He's already mated, and he has kids. What if luna Dupuis finds out? Imagine what she could do to you. She could have us all fired and thrown out on the street."

"Calm down, she will not find out."

"How can you date him? He's over thirty years older than you and he goes to brothels,"

"He's not like that." Marie defends.

"Have you even been with him long enough to know what he's really like?"

A soft clicking sound causes us both to freeze. I turn my head slowly to the room at the end of the hallway, Ms. Jones' room. The only thing worse than Marie dating alpha Dupuis is Marie dating alpha Dupuis and then Ms. Jones finding out and telling the luna, and she has just turned on her lights. Did she hear us arguing?

Marie's face is a mask of terror as we both pad silently back into our rooms.

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As we drive nearer to the temple, more and more skyscrapers come into view. Office space for employees. Blood Fang Pack has the strongest economy of any pack in Centri. It's a leader in textile and electronic manufacturing, and agriculture. The secret to its success is just on the horizon behind the glimmering city of skyscrapers. The factories and brothels that make up the Smog District are not tall enough to be seen, but the thick black cloud of pollution that is emitted from the area is always visible.

The Smog District is where omegas desperate for cash and humans deemed too dangerous to be allowed to work on the farms are sent. Most of the humans sent there die within five years. Killed off either by the smoke and pollution that causes lung diseases and cancer, the lack of sunlight from working and living under a thick black cloud, or the unsafe conditions in the factories themselves.

My mother and aunt worked in the Smog District. They were desperate for money. The job was only supposed to last for a little while, but the owner of the textile factory they worked in had not replaced the furnace in decades. When the clothes caught fire, there simply was no way to put them out and not enough emergency exits for everyone to make it out in time. The same week that they died, my father applied for his job as a cook at the alpha's house.

"Did you not get any sleep last night, Opal?" Ms. Jones asks me. I survey my face in the rear-view mirror. There are circles under my eyes that are almost black on my dark brown skin.

"No ma'am."

After finding out about the alpha and Marie yesterday, luna Dupuis haunted my dreams. She appeared as a giant woman, so tall I couldn't see her face until she reached down and grabbed me from the floor, then squeezed me with her long elegant fingers until blood bursted from my body like juice from a lemon.

"Mmm, pray to the moon goddess for rest and obedience today then." Ms. Jones says, emphasizing the word obedience. She turns around from the driver's seat of the car to look at me. I guess Dedra told her about what happened in the dining room yesterday.