5. Reassignment
Chapter five
Reassignment
T hey'd called a taxi for me and Jack pressed a few hundreds into my hand as I left the house. No one hugged me or kissed me goodbye. His hand tucking money into mine was the last touch I would have from the men I'd vowed to love and be with forever.
The taxi dropped me off at the reassignment center, a dull gray building that had a few scraggly trees around it and a black metal sign announcing its name. It looked more like a prison than anywhere omegas should be. I shuddered as I walked up the concrete path to the blacked-out glass doors.
When I pushed through the door, the woman sitting at the receptionist desk looked up, her nose wrinkling as she took me in. "Where's your pack?"
"They aren't with me, they're not . . . my pack anymore." I swallowed hard, the words a jagged knife through my heart.
She sighed heavily. "Stupid alphas always do this. They have to sign off on the official rejection. Do you have contact info?"
Pulling out my phone, I gave her Jack's number and she told me to sit on one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs to wait. I watched as she punched his number into the phone.
"Jack Orion? This is Macy from the Omega Reassignment Center. I have an omega here who says your pack has rejected her?"
She tapped her long orange nails on the cheap formica counter. "Uh huh. Right. Well, regardless of the circumstances, we need your pack to sign off on her."
A minute later, she hung up and sighed again. "They'll be here tomorrow morning, but for now, you can stay in the dorm."
I had to fill out some paperwork, including all my medical info, before I was allowed into the dorm where omegas had to wait for their packs to officially sign them off. Macy left me there with strict instructions not to wander and I sank down on the bed nearest the door.
The space was long and narrow, filled with bunk beds like some sort of hostel. There was a woman snoring on one of the beds at the end of the room and another halfway between us, sitting there painting her toenails.
"How long have you been here?" I asked.
The woman looked up at me, her brown eyes dull. "A month. My pack took off a few months ago."
"What happens if they don't sign off on you?" I asked, horrified.
She shrugged. "Apparently after six months you are officially reassigned, but who knows?" She capped the bottle of nail polish. "What are you in for?"
"What?"
The woman got up and walked on her heels toward me, keeping her toes spread, so she could sit on the bunk across from me. "What happened to your pack?"
"They found their scentmatch."
"Oh, damn." She scratched her head. "That sucks. That doesn't happen often, but when it does, the original never gets to stay."
"Have you seen a lot of us go through here?"
"Too many to count. Most of them are only here for a few days. Some come with their packs and get signed off on right away." She shrugged. "Sucks to be us. I'm Aly, by the way."
"Melody."
"That's Sasha. She mostly just sleeps her time away and I don't blame her."
There was nothing to do in the dorm. Aly and I talked about mundane things for the next few hours before a beta came to take us to lunch in a small cafeteria. Sasha, Aly, and I were the only ones there and the food on offer was a turkey sandwich with dry bread.
"Where are all the other omegas?" I wondered.
"Oh, they're in another area. We're not allowed to interact with them until we get our walking papers," Sasha told me. She'd been in for a week, waiting for her pack to come back from vacation to sign off on her. "Guess they think there's a chance we might be taken still."
"Does that happen?" I tried not to feel the spark of hope that flared to life in my chest.
"No." Aly gave me a warning look. "Don't even think about it. They sent you here without even doing you the courtesy of dropping you off. They don't want you back."
"You're right." I rubbed my chest where the persistent ache lingered. "I just need to focus on the future."
"As great as that's gonna be," Sasha muttered.
"Why? Am I missing something? We don't have to go to another pack, do we? We get a choice?"
"Oh, you get a choice," Aly chuckled humorlessly. "You can work the heat dens or you can be reassigned to a pack. But the packs are the ones that don't qualify for a top-notch omega. They're rejects like us."
"And the heat dens? They really force you into that?" I'd heard rumors all my life about unpacked omegas going into the heat dens, which were essentially brothels for rutting alphas. It was nightmare fuel for any omega, but I'd always thought they were mostly urban legends.
"Oh yeah." Sasha raised her head from the sandwich she was devouring. "My friend got sent to one after her pack busted her up too badly for anyone else to want her. She didn't get a choice. They said she was good enough to suck alpha dick still."
A chill ran through me. After what the guys had done, I had no desire to be assigned to any pack, but what was I supposed to do? Work in a heat den? The thought of random alphas rutting me during my heat made me sick to my stomach, but I wasn't going to risk my heart and soul again with any pack.
"We're better off in the dorm, honestly," Aly sighed. She tossed the last of her sandwich into the trash. "And that's where we're going next."
We returned to the tiny cafeteria for dinner, a small plate of mashed potatoes with chicken on the side and a couple of carrot sticks. The food was just as depressing as the center itself.
After tossing and turning all night, I woke to the buzz of fluorescent lights and rolled over to stare at the dorm. Sasha was still asleep and Aly was painting her nails a different color. I'd been here less than 24 hours and it already felt like Groundhog Day.
Breakfast was soggy scrambled eggs and toast with coffee. I tossed back the coffee eagerly and ignored the disgusting food. My pack would be here soon and I'd be moved, for better or worse. But in the interim, I had to wait in the dorm for another few hours, staring at the wall.
Finally, a beta woman came to the door. "Melody Orion?"
"I think it's just Melody Dasch now," I told her.
She ignored me and turned away without waiting to see if I followed her. I trotted after her, my short legs no match for her long strides.
We ended up back in reception and as soon as the door opened, I was hit by the smells of my alphas. It was enough to stop my breathing as I froze, unwilling to step further into the room.
"Ah, there she is. Melody, this is the pack that claimed you?" Macy asked.
I nodded.
"Aloud, please," she said in a bored voice.
"Yes, they were my pack."
"And this is the omega you claimed, Pack Orion?"
"Yes," Jack said, his eyes flicking to me.
I dropped my head as Macy asked them if I'd borne them any children and if they were certain they wanted to renounce their claim to me. All four chimed "Yes." My heart broke even more.
It was torture, having to stand there while each of the men who had said they loved me and given me their bonding bites stepped forward to sign the papers saying they didn't want me anymore.
Finally, it was over and Macy dismissed them. Jack, Dan, and Callum headed for the door without a backward glance, but Lee paused.
"What happens to her now?" he asked Macy.
She gave him a brittle smile. "Do you really care?"
I could have kissed her.
Lee looked shocked, but he glared at her. "I'm asking a serious question."
"She'll be sent to the heat dens most likely, since she's stated she is unwilling to be matched with a new pack."
Lee's face reflected the horror I'd felt when I first heard that was my only alternative. "Wait, Melody, you're supposed to be reassigned to a new pack and be happy!"
"Like I was with you?" I said quietly. "I can't go through this again, Lee. I'd rather have random alphas rut me than trust anyone with my heart again."
He moved toward me and the beta who had brought me here stepped in front of him. "You no longer have a claim to her. Your rights have been signed away. Please refrain from approaching government property."
"Melody! I'm sorry, this wasn't supposed to happen!" he called as I ducked through the doors and headed toward the dorm to collect my things.
I could barely see where I was going, I was crying so hard. The pain in my chest amplified and I knew I was feeling Lee's pain too. As fast as I could, I shut the bond down, blocking out the men who had shattered me.
"Leave your things. You won't need them," the beta told me.
"I have a tablet," I told her. "I need it."
"I'm sorry, nothing from the outside world is permitted here."
I trudged after her as she led me through two more sets of double doors and finally, into a huge courtyard. The center was a park, with trees and grass, and around the edges, doors were set into the walls. It reminded me of a hotel, with four stories of balconies overlooking the courtyard.
There were benches set around the edges of the park, but no one was around.
"Where is everyone?"
"In class." She marched up three flights of stairs and opened a door to a room with four bunk beds. "This is your room, 304. You're sharing with seven other omegas right now."
I looked around the room. It was barren, except for the simple metal bunks with their thin mattresses.
"Your welcome kit has your clothing and everything you'll need for your stay here. I have to ask you to relinquish your phone."
Handing my phone over wasn't as hard as I thought. The only people I ever talked to were the ones who sent me here. As if thinking about them summoned them, the phone buzzed in the beta's hand and I saw Jack's number pop up.
The beta shook her head. "Alphas. They always want what they can't have." She turned the phone off and looked at me. "Welcome to the reassignment center. You start classes in the morning."
Then she was gone and I was left alone in the simple room.