Chapter 78

Ollie’s POV

“Young lady,” says one of the older men in the room. A chaperone perhaps, or a professor. “You are in the wrong place. The women’s orientation is in the main building.”

“Uh. Sorry,” I say and start to back out.

Two young men hop to their feet. “We’ll show her the way, Doc.”

“That’s not necessary,” I start to say, but it’s already too late. They bracket either side of me, one flinging his arm around my shoulder and the other with his arm around my waist. They lead me from the room and back out onto the sidewalk.

The main building is in clear view, and it’s where I came from. I don’t need an escort.

“I can find my own way,” I say, and try to slink away from the grasping hands of the men, but they are persistent.

“Don’t be like that, honey,” one of the men says.

“Jeff, she smells so good. Do all Omegas smell this good?”

The first man, Jeff, replies, “Don’t hog her, Frank. Give me a smell. Don’t struggle, honey. Frank and I will treat you right. We know just how Omegas like it.”

“Going to bang the special Omega,” Frank laughs. “Everyone is going to be so jealous.”

“I’m not interested,” I tell them firmly and try once more to push them away.

They just hold on tighter.

“We’ll make it good for you,” Jeff says.

“Omegas like to be bossed around,” Frank says. “Don’t worry, I’ll tell you just what to do to please me. It starts with you on your knees.”

My face flushes red with humiliation – not just because of what they are saying, what they are implying they will do, or because of the stereotypes they are throwing around.

But because there is some truth to those stereotypes.

Did I not just have an evening of bliss with Declan, and all he did was give me orders, dominating me while I happily bent to his every command?

But that was different. It was Declan, a man I trusted and cared for. My mate.

Jeff and Frank are no one to me. They are crude strangers who believe they have a right to my body simply because I am here and an omega. There’s no talk of safewords or boundaries with these two.

Just like with Jake, they don’t seem to have any consideration of my opinions or feelings at all.

It’s annoying and disgusting. And just a little scary – especially as they try to turn me away from the main building.

“I have to get back,” I say.

“Stay with us,” Jeff says. His mouth is too close to my ear.

“We’ll treat you right… bitch,” Frank says, grinning, and starts to move his mouth to my neck.

It’s too much. I have to protect myself. I don’t know if he intends to bite me, but I can’t allow it.

“Our neck is only for our mates!” Scarlet shouts inside of me, and fills me with her strength.

They aren’t expecting the sudden burst of power, and they stumble away from me as I rush forward. I run all the way back to the main building, not daring to see if they are behind me.

Only when I am safely inside, do I look behind me to make certain Frank and Jeff have given up.

They are both laughing. Even through the door, I can hear their mockery.

“What a slut!”

“We’re going to have fun this year with her around.”

Stomach twisting in disgust, I turn back to the hallway, ready to make my way to the lecture hall again. There, I will truly feel safe, and maybe there’s still time for me to meet the professors.

As I near the lecture hall, I’m surprised to find Sylvia standing there with Melanie and her friends. When they see me coming, they all start to giggle, even Sylvia.

“Did you have a nice time with the boys?” Melanie asks. “I’m surprised you are back so soon. Are they really that quick?”

Bile rises up my throat at the realization that Melanie and her friends knew what was waiting for me in that annex, and what would likely happen when the boys saw me walk through the door.

“You are such a whore,” Sylvia says. “Did you run through the whole room in ten minutes?”

Sylvia knew too, then, and likely set me up. She and Melanie and the rest had to know each other from the past, to plan something like this so effectively and to be so chummy about it afterwards.

“They could have hurt me,” I say.

Sylvia shrugs.

Melanie rolls her eyes. “Are all Omegas this dramatic? They weren’t going to hurt you. They were going to do the opposite.”

“I didn’t want any of that,” I tell her. “I don’t!”

“Please,” Melanie scoffs. “Everyone knows Omegas will take it wherever they can get it.”

More stereotypes. More lies.

“That’s not true,” I start.

Sylvia straightens, no longer so amused.

“Ollie, don’t forget you are to obey all of my commands,” she says. “I could order you right back to that annex. I could make you go naked. So you better treat me and my friends with some respect.”

Where is my respect?

“The Alphas wouldn’t want you to force me to do that,” I say.

“Who is going to tell them it was my idea? You?” she huffs a harsh, bitter laugh. “They won’t believe you, Ollie. Not over my word.”

I am in a tough situation here, damned if I ignore Sylvia, damned if I don’t.

“What do you want from me?” I ask her. “Do you want me to be assaulted?”

“Don’t be crass,” she scolded. “This was just a lesson for you. You weren’t going to tell me about Melanie’s offer to meet. You went behind my back and sneaked out of lecture, all while letting me be ignorant. If you told me, I could have warned you. But you didn’t.”

This was… a lesson?

“Do not fuck with me, Ollie,” Sylvia says. She fully faces me now, with Melanie and the others flanked behind her. I had thought that Melanie was the leader of the group of friends, but I can see now the leader is and likely has always been Sylvia.

This probably shouldn’t surprise me, but it still does.

I foolishly thought that in a new place, a new school, Sylvia might not hold as much power here over everyone as she did in high school. Yet, here, her power seems even more unchecked. In high school, there was at least some structure keeping her in line.

She had to be in class on time, so she couldn’t spend too long harassing me outside of it.

Yet in college, there are not nearly so many rules. The professors don’t care if you are in class or not. There’s no hall monitors or truancy officers.

Short of calling the police, there’s no protection here. And as an omega, I have no idea if my word would even hold up with the police, especially if Sylvia is the one I’m trying to accuse. More likely, word would get back to the Alphas and I would be scolded and punished again.

Sylvia starts to smile again. “You finally see, I hope,” she says. “You aren’t just my servant, by my slave. I own you, Ollie. So you better start groveling.”