Chapter 6 - 05. Back To School

Eden's smile was back when Dante returned to school even though the exclusion of the young beta still weighed on his conscience. Especially as he's still demoted for several weeks.

He couldn't get rid of his guilt and kept reminding the incident. Today as well because it was the day Evan and Mandy had to return to class. Eden had spent his week avoiding crossing Lucas's path. Luckily, the two male omegas weren't sharing any classes and since he and Cherry had deserted the cafeteria since the incident, he was less likely to run into him.

As the trio walked through the doors of Blue Moon High School, Cherry lovingly clung to her fiancé, eyes glued to him. But soon, the omega female's attention was caught by the whispers and stares.

Eden suddenly felt bad. A lump formed in his throat and his stomach twisted with a bad feeling.

Dante left him with his fiancée to go to the principal's office and the young omega accompanied his packmate to her class before joining his.

Eden was used to people's attention every time he went somewhere for the first time and people found out about his fur. However, after years at his high school, nobody noticed him anymore, so he felt a bit uncomfortable.

Sitting in his place, he was pulling out his things, trying to ignore the whispers despite his overdeveloped hearing, when a word made his ears prick up. Eden turned his head towards the dominant middle rank who had just spoken to another of their classmates.

"What did you just say?"

The young woman looked at him with round eyes and stammered.

"I… Nothing! Nothing! At all."

She turned to face the board and, before Eden could react, a middle-aged woman came in along with Dante who took a seat next to his packmate.

"Ahhh Man, I never thought I'd miss school so much! Good to be back, "said the beta, stroking his desk with his fingertips.

"Glad to hear Mr. Rivers," said the woman, taking out her things. "Can I take that as a sign that you're in the mood to share with us what you have prepared for today's assignment?"

"Hell, yes!" Dante replied, almost jumping from his chair to the board.

The biology professor obviously wasn't expecting this reaction and raised an eyebrow in surprise. Dante made his way to the blackboard, a spiral notebook in his hands and turned to face his classmates. A beaming smile spread across his face. The teenager began to read his homework in a clear, audible voice. The professor, who was listening to his presentation intently, frowned and raised a hand to ask him to stop. She then turned to her class.

"Can you tell me what's gotten into you? You haven't stopped whispering since the start of class. The least polite thing is to listen to your classmate who ... "

An eraser landed squarely in Dante's face and fell to the ground, leaving the beta completely stunned. The smile on his face faded.

"Who did that?" The woman immediately exclaimed, rising from her chair.

"You had better denounce yourself or else the whole class will ..."

"It's me !"

A dominant rose from the second-to-last row of the room. His gaze didn't linger long on his teacher and quickly slipped over to Dante.

"And may I know why you pick on your classmate while he is presenting his work?"

"I don't see why I should listen to him. To be honest, I would be delighted if he could just fuck off and crawl back to his shit pack. I can't stand this feral scumbag anymore."

Bella Moss widened her eyes as she listened to her student whom she had never had to resume until then. Damian Palmer was a dominant middle rank of Crescent Moon who, despite his bad grades, had no behavioral issues.

"Mr. Palmer, language." "I don't know what exactly is your problem with your classmate, but I won't tolerate…"

The whispers swelled into a din that left the professor puzzled. She turned her head to Dante, who looked as lost as she was. The student who still hadn't sat down spoke again.

"I refuse to listen to this mutt! He and his broken omega friend are the reason why my cousin is no longer the next alpha of Crescent Moon. Because of them, he lost everything. He even was hurt by Alpha Draken and now his face is ... "

Damian was no longer in control of his emotions. In a split second, Bella Moss saw the teenager transform, causing panic among his classmates who screamed and tried to get away from danger. Several of them walked out of the classroom, while others stepped between the transformed teenager and their omega friends.

Claws out and bare fangs, Damian leaped across the classroom in his werewolf form. The professor didn't hesitate for a second and transformed. She landed in front of Dante in his wolf form and barreled between her two students. She didn't flinch as the young werewolf's jaw closed around her back. Her fur was far too thick for him to pierce it with his fangs. However, she didn't know how to calm Damian down without hurting him.

Bella glanced at Dante to see his reaction. The beta, although shocked, remained calm. He had stayed still to keep Damian's attention on him. The professor noticed that he didn't seem to understand what Damian had just said. During that brief moment she was looking at Dante, the dominant middle rank released her and jumped over her to land on Dante. The young man still in his human form placed his arm in a shield to keep his jaw from reaching him. The dominant's jaws bit in the void and Dante could only see his determination to hurt him. With a quick gesture, he moved his hands and grabbed each part of the jaw filled with sharp teeth. The change in position made him lose his balance and he fell on the ground with Damian still trying to bite him. 

Bella, who had shifted to her werewolf form, was about to pull them apart when she saw Dante do a partial transformation. She froze as she watched the beta master with ease what much older werewolves take years to learn. Dante's face disappeared behind his grey fur and he opened his jaws to let out a grunt of domination that made the walls of the classroom shake. His instincts taking over, Damian stopped and his ears betrayed his surrender. He jumped back and bowed his head in submission. Immediately Dante regained his normal face and went to position himself near his teacher, hands trembling.

"Professor Moss, will I be expelled out again?" The beta said in a shaky voice.

The young man's eyes were teary and she couldn't believe it was the same teenager who had just roared at another werewolf. She raised her hand to gently stroke his head and turned to the chaos in her classroom.

Several students were in tears or in shock and a nurse had just arrived to take care of the most affected, mainly omegas. One of those omegas was prostrate and staring at his friend near the biology teacher.

Eden didn't dare to move. It had all happened so quickly that he only reacted when an omega nearby had passed out in fear. He had grabbed the girl's body just before it hit the ground and handed it to a dominant who had evacuated her.

Heart pounding, he had watched his childhood friend resist the urge to transform and do everything to subdue their classmate without hurting him. The words Damian had said before attacking Dante echoed in his head. When he saw the beta talking to their teacher, Eden's heart sank and he rushed over to his packmate.

The professor walked over to Damian who was still curled up in a corner. He had regained his normal appearance and tears were streaming down his days without stopping. As she approached, she heard the teenage years whispering.

"I've failed. I am weak. The Alpha will get rid of me. I am weak… I am nothing… I have failed. "

She frowned for a moment and turned to the principal who had just arrived. She had already linked him to everything that had happened and the man let out a sigh. He walked towards the young beta who was still standing next to his teacher. He noticed the male omega next to him stroking his arm to calm him down.

Noticing the presence of Atticus Blackbones, Dante bowed his head in total submission.

"I'm sorry, I tried to control him. I'm sorry I transformed. I…"

The dominant's heavy hand rested on the beta's shoulder in a firm, but comforting gesture.

"Well done, kid. It was a good job. "

Dante lifted his head sharply to meet the gaze of the principal who smiled weakly before turning to Bella Moss with a harsher expression. The woman's jaw hardened and her gaze stopped on the teenager curled up on the floor.

In the nurse ward where he had been taken to treat his few scrapes, Dante waited patiently for the woman to disinfect his hand.

"You know it will take a few minutes for it to heal? I am young and healthy. "

"I know, but the treatment is also a pretext to find out how you feel. And I'm not talking about the physical. I'm telling you already. "

"I'm fine. I think? To be honest, I don't understand what happened or rather, why it happened."

The plump-faced woman hesitated to speak to him and bit her lip.

"I don't know if…"

"I will tell him." Eden's voice interrupted them. The omega had just appeared on the doorstep of the nurse ward. Atticus Blackbones stood just behind him. The principal nodded, staring at the nurse who got up to leave the two teenagers alone.

The door closed behind them and Eden sat down on the chair which was occupied by the nurse just a few moments before. Sitting on the bed, Dante frowned as he waited for the Omega to speak. From the time they had known each other, he knew that if anything bothered Eden, the best thing to do was to let him speak when he's ready. After a few minutes, the young man broke the silence.

"Upon learning of the exclusion of Moon and Whiteforest and the reasons behind it, the Crescent Moon's Alpha decided on further disciplinary action. M-Moon… "Eden's voice broke and Dante watched him fight back tears. "Whiteforest has been demoted to low rank. At first, the other members thought it would be okay, but apparently last night their alpha announced to Lucas that his engagement with Evan was broken. As he was already marked, Lucas is no longer allowed to exit and go anywhere near him until the marking is broken. "

"But that's too cruel! It takes at least a year and an omega will go through hell, physically and emotionally, because it needs the presence of its dominant. The bond is even harder to break if it's an alpha!"

"I know. But from what the Crescent Moon alpha said, the only reason he didn't punish Evan more severely is because of the shock Lucas could feel."

"Bullshit! There is nothing crueler. "

"Yes. There is. He said that without his engagement with Lucas, Evan would already be dead."

"What?" The beta yelled as he stood up. He stared incredulously at Eden who carefully avoided looking him in the eye.

"The honor of the future leader and the future beta of Crescent Moon has been stained. For their Alpha, it was unforgivable. "

Dante was in shock. He was staring at Eden without knowing what to say when he realized something.

"What about Moon? What happened to her ?"

"At first she was punished. Demoted for a week.. But yesterday, at the same time he announced the breakup of Lucas and Evan's engagement, their alpha declared Mandy Moon, rogue. "