Becoming Beta

Chapter 4

The next few weeks flew by in a blur for Draco. He spent his mornings with Mingan, Greyback came in at lunchtime and shared news. Then they usually played a few games of chess, Draco suspected Greyback was testing his strategic moves. Draco usually won the chess matches, but he couldn't quite figure out if Greyback was really that bad or if he was letting Draco win. In the afternoons, Draco worked with Rand and Seff on his physical training. Those were always tough sessions, Draco was better than he had been that first day, but he always left panting and sweating. At least this past week he had been able to pin Seff twice. In the evenings, Draco usually went to visit his mother. She had been looking worse as the month went on and Draco hadn't been around enough to know what was going on in the rest of the house. Occasionally, his Aunt Bella joined them, those evenings were always strained.

Most surprisingly, Draco and Seff had become friends. While Mingan gave Draco all the passed down lore and rules, Seff was able to give Draco the specifics on Greyback's pack, the pack Draco was now a part of. Draco asked Seff how it was that he was an Omega, he didn't seem particularly weak, he was shocked at Seff's answer.

"Nobody knows whether they will be an Omega or not until after their first change. You'll see in a couple of days, Omega's are small, much smaller than the rest of the wolves in the pack. Sometimes you can tell someone will be an Omega before their first change, but it's not really until the first change happens that the pack figures out where the pups fall in line. Alphas are huge wolves, Betas are big too, but usually about the same size as pack. That's part of why I'm so slight even as a human. I never bulked up, and I was bit over 6 years ago," Seff explained to Draco over dinner one evening.

"So, I could be an Omega? And I won't even know it until the first change? Why bother with all the training then if nobody knows?" Draco was frustrated thinking about all the time he had possibly been wasting. What if he was an Omega? There was no power as an Omega, and he'd been told over and over again that you couldn't escape being an Omega. From Seff's description it sounded like if he was an Omega he wouldn't even be able to challenge for a higher position in the pack because of his size. Draco wasn't quite panicking, but it was a close thing.

Seff laughed at the play of emotions that crossed Draco's face, "Naw, you won't be an Omega, I can tell by your personality."

"What in the bleeding hell does that mean?" Draco was slightly relieved, Seff definitely seemed to know his stuff in regards being a werewolf.

Seff laughed again, "It means that certain personalities are disqualified from being an Omega. Don't get me wrong, being Omega isn't awesome, but it's also not the worst thing, at least in my opinion. Yes, I have to do grunt work, and am basically a glorified servant, but that also means I don't have to make any decisions on behalf of the rest of the pack. There's not much responsibility in being an Omega, and that suits me just fine. I can see that you would never be satisfied as an Omega, so it's most likely you won't be one."

Draco thought that made sense, but his worry and anxiety over the upcoming change just cranked up an extra notch. He had asked Snape last week if he could take Wolfsbane, but Snape told him he hadn't had any prepared. Draco thought he was lying so he asked Seff about it.

"Oh, you can't have Wolfsbane for your first transformation. It's great stuff, don't get me wrong, but you need to come to terms with the wolf inside of you, and you never will if you take Wolfsbane for every transformation," Seff had explained to him. That probably made sense. The presence in the back of Draco's mind had steadily been making itself known. Draco knew to expect something like that, he and Mingan had talked at length about it. Apparently after his first full moon, the wolf would become even more present. And making peace with the wolf was the best and easiest way to making peace with being a werewolf.