Family.

Someone had once said that word to me when I was younger. They told me that their family went on trips together, and ate together.

I was young and believed that someday my family would do the same thing. I had thought that one day my mother would hug me like she did my little sister and brother. I had also believed that one day I'd be special to my father. That one day he would pat me on the head when I got good grades.

That day never came.

I was the Omega in my family. Well...actually, of the pack, but because I was the daughter of the current Alpha, I'd been regulated to a limbo existence of Delta around the others, but a servant in my home.

Sometimes while crying in my room when my favorite things were ripped away from me and handed to my sister when she'd taken a liking to them, I wondered why I was alive.

Why am I breathing?

But I had to be careful with my thoughts. If they smelled my melancholy even for a second, I'd be sent to some facility.

There are so few of us. Me, a female, had great purpose in being a brood mare. In order to further our race, they wouldn't risk me offing myself, thereby diminishing the possibility of more wolf pups.

Lifting the dirty plates off the table, I stacked them in the sink. Turning the water on, I watched as it splashed onto the white porcelain dishes.

Omega.

A life sentence of being the scapegoat, and the blame. You are ignored and treated like the servant. Luckily, I was never physically abused, but one could say that the treatment of being ignored, or scorned, wasn't good either. It was a good thing that I could hunt on my own, or I'm sure by now I would have starved.

And if it weren't for the fact that Grandmother had willed me a small stipend, and demanded I go to school, I would probably have offed myself, or been sold to the highest bidder.

Females weren't really respected much for anything aside for their ability to procreate.

Shaking my head loose of said thoughts, I washed the dishes. If I didn't finish cleaning, I'd never make it to school on time.

Walking into school, I kept my eyes on my notes as I navigated the hallways towards my locker. The chem test wasn't going to be easy, and I was sure that Mrs. Branson would have some bonus question at the end of it. It would be stupid of me to miss a chance to earn more points from her.

Maneuvering my way through the morning traffic, I absently walked up to my locker and pushed in the code.

Helms High was a big school, but not too big that we didn't have our cliques, mostly headed by members of the four packs that resided here in Clarksville. The four packs weren't all wolves either, but they mostly kept to themselves. It didn't bother our wolf pack too much.

Originally, packs didn't live so close together, but with our people so desperate to continue the race, they'd started migrating closer to one another.

Placing my books into the locker, I didn't bother looking up when one of them passed by. Head down, eyes averted. A mantra I repeated daily to make sure I wasn't bothered by anyone who felt eager to show their dominance. Being an Omega was hard, but I'd learned ways to avoid the common challenges of my role.

Finished with shoving my items in my bag, I left the hallway towards my first class.

Later, in class, I found myself squinting trying to read Mrs. Branson's handwriting on the board.

"Hey, Argo, did you do your chemistry homework?" a bright voice asked me from behind.

I turned my gaze from the chalkboard and looked over my shoulder at said speaker. Leigh smiled at me, hopeful. As usual, her carroty red hair was pulled into a sloppy ponytail, pens and pencils stuck out of it. Her pleading green eyes were lined heavily with a splash of blue eyeshadow covering her eyelids.

"Well, did you?" she whispered harshly.

I sighed heavily, digging in my already unzipped backpack that sat on the floor next to my desk. "You should really do your homework. It's not healthy to cheat."

I pulled out a lime green notebook with chemistry scrawled across the cover. She chuckled, taking it from me. "Ha-ha. Now, why would I do that when I have such a kind friend to help me keep up?"

Shaking my head at her nonsense, I turned back to the front, hoping I hadn't missed anything.

"Are you going to the band show on the river tonight?" Leigh asked me as I switched out books for my next class.

I shook my head, "Nope. Going to relax at home and watch old re-runs of Star Trek."

Leigh groaned, "Sheesh, girl, c'mon." She turned, leaning her hip against the locker. "One night! For one night, you could come out with me, and be, well...you know, sociable."

"Sociable?" Closing my locker, I gave her a look. "I am sociable."

"Yeah right." She pushed herself off the locker and followed me down the hall. "You're like a block of wood. I mean, nobody here even knows you exist."

"What? A lot of people know who I am," I stated, shrugging my shoulder bag higher. There were several people I talked to. Okay, so maybe that list primarily included my teachers and principal.

Giving me a superior look, Leigh scoffed, "Hah! Yesterday I asked Mrs. Branson about our project and she didn't even remember I had a partner. She thinks I've been doing my projects solo for half the semester."

"So that explains why I have to constantly get her to put my grades in," I muttered under my breath.

Leigh wasn't done there. "You live almost like a ghost. I've had to constantly remind people you were in a room, or standing behind them."

She looked me up and down. "You're not exactly the most forgettable person."

She pointed at my hair. "Your hair is always in some mass of curls about your head." She moved her finger up and down my body. "You're small, but your top half should have guys lining up, and..." She pointed at my face and frowned. "You're not ugly, so why have you never been asked out?"

I couldn't help but feel irritated. Even though Leigh had no knowledge of my deliberate attempt to be a shadow in this school, I didn't want to be made out to be a complete nobody.

"I have been asked out before!" My tone was indignant. "It's just...that I've said no. I have goals that don't allow for other people, or...dating for that matter."

Leigh laughed, "Okay, and who was doing the asking?"

"It doesn't matter who it was, just that it's happened."

Okay, even I knew what I said sounded stupid. Instead, I used the excuse of having to get to my next class to avoid answering any more questions.

Despite her constant nagging, Leigh was a good friend. To be truthful, she was my only friend. Human, true, but that was better than having none. Her mother married one of our kind. She was someone I could share most of my worries with. Not all, but some.

I was honest when I said I had a goal. I would graduate, and with the end of school, I would simply disappear and live as a human, far, far away from here and my supposed family. I only had one year before I could do it. Nothing, absolutely nothing would get in the way of my goal.

Lunch time finally arrived and I took my seat at the last table, closest to the hidden alcove. No one sat there except me. Why? Because all the other kids at school were attracted to the auras of the alphas. Each table had one because, isn't there always the queen and king of a group?

I wasn't exactly attracting attention. I wasn't charming and my aura was obviously lacking.

Observing as other students made their way into the cafeteria, the first Alpha to walk in was Rorik. He was my twin brother and had the entire athletic clique under his thumb. My twin wasn't really all that bad. If I had to really judge him or anything.

Pulling out a plastic zip bag, I grimaced at my own thoughts.

The one who was actually bad was my— "Oh my God!" Ah, there it was... the loud voice before said annoyance joined the rest of the student body.

As usual, the people that followed Chelsey were the daughters of doctors and lawyers, all eager to pander to her and gain her approval.

Despite being a sophomore, Chelsey had most of the guys in the school eager to take her out. Seniors whispered to each other about who would take the chance of asking her out this year.

Tall, pretty, and from a rich family, my sister didn't lack anything aside from a personality.

Taking a bite out of my sandwich, I turned my attention to the book I'd pulled out. Helms Tales. Another vicious tale of vengeance about the Taft family.

Getting caught up in a truly gruesome scene, I let the rest of my lunch period go by. When the bell rang, I quickly stood and headed back into the fray.