Chapter 5
Chapter five
Mean Girls
Alan smiled; his usually paper-white cheeks were tinged pink as I stood at his open office door and knocked.
“Harriet,” he greeted, pleased to see me.
He wasn’t all that bad. A grumpy old man, for sure, but he wasn’t grumpy all the time, at least not in the morning.
I had been working as a cleaner within the Pack House for a week. My time at Sandstorm was passing by, slowly but thankfully uneventfully, since I visited Heaven’s Bar with Cole. The violent display was terrifying. I kept jolting awake from nightmares filled with red since.
I was keeping my distance as much as I could from her. Cole was dangerous in a completely different way from Ashford. He was volatile, but I could sense his tantrums, predict them. I knew what to do to protect myself, to calm him. Cole was calm, competent in a lethal sort of way.
She was unpredictable.
From how she behaved on my first day with her, I assumed she’d be far more hands-on in her claim, but after we returned from Heaven’s Bar, she excused herself and began ignoring me.
She barely looked at me when we were in the same room.
I was spending all my time either working for Alan or in my room.
“Good morning,” I greeted in return.
He stood up from his desk and walked around the front, waving me into his office.
“I’ve got some news, a bit of good, a bit of bad, like most things,” he said as he walked to a tall, stacked metal filing cabinet.
“Sounds interesting,” I said.
It didn’t.
I hated when people prefaced anything surprising in such a way. I could already feel the anxiety turning my stomach.
He rummaged through the top filing cabinet until he produced a sheet. He turned triumphantly to me and handed me what he had found.
“I’ll get you a pen,” he said as I read over the paper.
“Performance Evaluation?” I asked, reading the title and the grid underneath with generic tasks, score, and comment boxes.
“You’re not going to be working alone today; that’s the good bit. The bad bit is that you’re not going to be working alone today,” he told me and laughed at his own joke.
“Really helpful there, Al,” I deadpanned. It made him smile harder.
“Sometimes, Pat—Patricia, she’s the Education councillor—sends me a young miscreant to set right,” he told me.
“Miscreant?” I asked.
“A young adult who’s wandered off the path,” he answered.
“What path?” I asked, trying not to sound exasperated. It was too early for riddles.
“If the kids do something wrong, not criminal wrong, but close enough to be a concern, they have to complete community service. To learn their lesson,” he explained.
“Okay,” I said, taking the pen he handed me and folding the sheet, putting it with the pen into the pocket of the cleaning apron I wore.
It was far from stylish, pale green and white.
“Are you trying to tell me I’m going to be working with an angsty teenager?” I asked.
“You’re going to be supervising them,” he said, really emphasising the supervising part.
“Why does this seem to make you so happy?” I asked warily; it was becoming worrying, his cheerfulness.
“Because this young madam has been getting away with murder for years!” he answered.
“Murder?” I asked.
“Close enough,” he answered.
“What has she done that’s landed her here on a Saturday morning?” I asked.
“She got caught cheating on a test, and then it transpired she had been bullying two other students to complete homework, coursework, and help her cheat,” he told me, like she was some criminal mastermind.
“And cleaning the Pack House is her punishment,” I said. It made sense; Sandstorm were very community-oriented.
“Working under you is her punishment,” he corrected me.
“Me?” I asked.
“An omega,” he explained.
“Oh,” I said.
“Don’t take it as an insult. You know what alphas are like, especially at that age. It’s the right time to knock them down a peg or two and remind them that they aren’t any more important or above anyone else,” he told me.
“Try telling Cole that,” I said under my breath.
He laughed and patted my shoulder.
“Stephanie should be here any minute. Take her to the cleaning supplies cupboard and kit her out. You know the routine: take her with you and put her to work. You’ll be done early,” he said.
“What if she doesn’t listen to me?” I asked, and even asking the question embarrassed me, but I didn’t want to deal with a reluctant teenage alpha who likely saw me as beneath her in the first place.
“You’ve nothing to worry about. She knows to be on her best behaviour. You’re claimed by Colette; no baby alpha is going to risk upsetting her,” he said confidently.
We heard the door from the cloakroom open and shut, and we both turned to the office door in anticipation.
A girl, maybe seventeen or eighteen, with long, straight blonde hair and an expression that said she wanted to be anywhere else, hesitated near the entrance to Alan’s office.
“Come in, Stephanie,” Alan told her. “This is Harriet. Harriet is your superior today; she’ll show you the ropes and make sure you put in a day's work. Harriet’s going to be documenting your performance. If you slack off, I’ll know, and Pat will know.”
She turned her stare to me, her nose scrunching like I smelled bad or something.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi,” I replied.
“Well, better get started,” Alan said, walking us towards the door.
***
“You expect me to wear that?” Stephanie asked as I held out an apron to her.
“Well, it’s the apron or you’ll ruin your clothes with cleaner and dirt,” I told her.
She huffed and snatched the apron from my hand. I picked up my cleaning supplies bucket and locked the cupboard behind me.
Stephanie didn’t like me. It was evident in the small rumbling of a growl anytime I got within a couple of feet of the perturbed teenage werewolf.
We had worked in relative silence, and it wasn’t until all touchpoints had been cleaned that I spoke up next.
“We should move on to the council members’ offices now. I empty the waste baskets and the recycling first, then ask if they would like the office vacuumed, dusted, or any other tasks they might want done,” I explained as we climbed the stairs to the second floor.
“Just grab the trash and recycling and be done with it. Why offer to do more? Are you an idiot?” Stephanie hissed.
I wasn’t shocked by the way she spoke to me, but it wasn’t something I would just put up with.
“We do the task right; there’s no point in doing it at all if we don’t. You’re here to work; we’re not cutting corners,” I told her.
I expected some snarky response, another insult. What I didn’t expect was to be violently shoved backward.
I lost my footing and tumbled down the stairs, colliding with the wall at the bottom.
“A genetic mistake as wrong as you does not tell me what to do,” Stephanie nearly shouted, a growl rumbling in her chest.
I got to my feet, quickly assessing myself for injuries. I was aching, but nothing hurt in a way that made me worry.
Stephanie began to descend the stairs towards me.
“You should be put in your place. Pack Sandstorm doesn’t need a member as weak and useless as an omega,” she continued.
I squared my stance and produced a warning growl that rumbled painfully against my ribs.
“Pathetic.” She laughed.
“I’ll decide who needs to be put in their place,” Sara’s voice boomed from out of sight, her heels clicking across the wooden flooring on the second floor.
When she came into sight, I immediately dropped to my knees, hands on my thighs, hoping to appear as submissive and unthreatening as possible.
Sara’s only concern was that I was going to cause problems with others due to my omega status, and that’s exactly what this was.
I could physically smell Sara’s anger, and it made me hunch over myself, desperate to be smaller.
“The omega was rude and disrespectful about the council members,” Stephanie said quickly, her voice sickly sweet, and I was dumbfounded at how easily and quickly the girl lied.
“Is this true, Harriet?” Sara asked, her voice low and domineering.
“No, Alpha Sara,” I answered, my voice embarrassingly quiet.
“She’s lying, Alpha Sara,” Stephanie quickly interjected. “She didn’t want to clean the offices and said the council members didn’t deserve a clean space.”
I looked up then, dumbfounded. I was accustomed to being disliked, or worse, desired, by other wolves for the simple fact of being an omega, but no one had ever lied about me. Not like this. Not even as a child. I didn’t know how to respond.
“On your feet, omega,” Sara demanded.
I followed the instruction, keeping my head down and neck exposed and doing my best to remain as physically submissive as possible.
“I couldn’t believe the nerve of her, and I admit I acted on instinct and shoved her. I’m sorry, Alpha Sara, I couldn’t stand hearing such a lowly creature speak like that about Pack Sandstorm’s council members,” Stephanie continued until Sara held up a hand, silencing the girl.
“Omega, come here,” Sara commanded.
I walked up the stairs with feet that felt lead-weighted. I waited for further instructions when I reached Sara. My heart was beating quickly, but not quite pounding the painful way it sometimes did in my chest when I was scared.
“Is Stephanie telling me the truth?” Sara questioned.
“No, Alpha Sara,” I answered.
“It seems my time will be further wasted getting to the truth of this matter. Stephanie, you have made a grave accusation against Harriet. Such insubordination would result in severe punishment.”
“I’ve said nothing but the truth, Alpha Sara,” Stephanie replied quickly.
Sara hummed in response before she lifted her hand towards me. I flinched away slightly but somehow managed to keep my feet still. She placed her hand around my neck and gently pushed me away.
“Continue with your work, omega,” she dismissed me. “Stephanie, my office, please.”