Accepting her Soulmate -On Hold

Chapter 5 - Birthday Surprise

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Julie unpacked as much as she could, given that there was no closet space. The rest could just stay in her bags. She decided she would stack them and have them act as an extra set of drawers.

She organised everything as best she could and went downstairs to meet Sarah who had gone to pick out some breakfast for them.  She saw Sarah quietly fuming, she was sitting at a table at the back of the room reserved for Omegas. She knew by looking at her friend, that she was a ticking timebomb waiting to go off. Julie gingerly approached the table, not wanting to push her friend, it was in vain, apparently.

"I was told by the Alpha, that this is where you would be eating from now on!" she fumed. "He overheard me asking Mike for extra portions, as it was your birthday, and he informed me that we were not to sit in the wrong section, after he said that you wouldn't be needing the extra portions. He. Is. Such. An. Asshole!"

Julie looked at her friend sympathetically, she didn't want Sarah shouldering a burden that wasn't hers to bear.  She didn't know what to say to dissuade her friend from what she knew would be bad for her own career choices within the pack.  Alpha was known to be petty and remember little slights, (as he saw them,) and to mete out his own particular brand of retribution. He had, in the past, prevented those who could have been great warriors from leaving to go on their training assignments with the Royal Warriors. He had also demoted an entire family of Gamma wolves from their position due to a protest organised by an uncle of the Gamma female. They had not supported their uncle in any way, yet they were still punished because the alpha felt that betrayal was not to be tolerated. 

Several years prior, a delegation had come from the Wulven Council to carry out an inspection. Everyone had been warned to say nothing and act like everything was normal.   That had confused the eleven year old Julie when she heard it at their school assembly.

What was normal? 

How could you tell if something was normal or not??? As the time went on, she began to notice the fake smiles and forced laughter from members of the pack who wouldn't usually involve themselves in everyday pack business.  She noticed that most of these members were lower class or omega class who were suddenly making an effort to mix and mingle in pack meetings, of which, were now suddenly held weekly instead of monthly, like they had been. 

In all, the Council members had stayed with them for six weeks, and several changes had been made to the pack. The Elders, that Tommy had been a part of, were promoted from just being archivists to having power over some of the decision making in the pack. They could contact the Council and ask for assistance with certain matters that would arise if there was a disagreement between them and the Alpha.

Julie sat and began eating her breakfast. Other members of the pack came up and began to congratulate Julie for shifting. The word had spread that Julie had shifted a day early. People were astounded and astonished that not only was she female but she was an Omega. There was talk that she was destined for great things, and, unfortunately, as is always the way, there were naysayers and begrudgers who tried to dismiss this and tried spreading the lie that Loretta, Julie's mom, had given birth a day early. This didn't bother Julie all that much as she was a positive minded person most of the time, able to let minor matters  drop away and not affect her.

Sarah, on the other hand... had inherited her mother's sensibilities in that regard and she would never let even the smallest insult go, without at least lobbing an equal one back. She was getting more and more upset at what she heard and saw. Growing up, she, like other children her age, had taken people's smiles and good words and good wishes at face value. Now that she had her wolf, she could hear the nasty whispers and outright lies of the others. Her wolf had been helping to clue her onto the unconscious attitudes that other people held, their body language and the repressed emotions they tried to hide, to appear as though they were accepting of wolves of all categories. She was seeing now that a lot of the members of her pack were extremely derogatory towards omegas and though they tried to veil their true feelings, if you looked, you could see it.  What disappointed her so much was the number of these people. To her mind, there wouldn't have been all that many people who had a demeaning attitude towards omegas, yet she was seeing now, more and more people, with the side eye, the snooty look, the whispered comment and some even showed outright animosity! This, from people and elders that she had grown up with and respected. There had to be around a third of the pack who held this mindset and it troubled her.