Page 93 of His Surrogate Omega

“There’s a seat by me, if this is back far enough.”

Avery smiled and nodded. “Yes, thanks.”

The guy grabbed the notebook he’d dropped as Avery slid past and took a seat. His new friend handed it over with a sultry smile that nearly took his breath away.The guy’s a beta… I can’t be attracted to a beta.

Can I?

“Good, are we all where we need to be now?” the professor asked, pointedly looking Avery’s way.

Avery nodded, feeling embarrassed as hell.

“Don’t worry about old man Buckshot. I hear he’s actually a big old softy.”

“Buckshot?” Avery whispered, leaning in a little closer. He drew in a breath and loved the warm, spicy smell of the guy.

“He’s got this huge deer’s head in his office,” Mr. Hazel eyes said before offering a hand. “Brett Boyd.”

Avery smiled, taking the big, warm hand in his. “Av—”Damn… I almost said my real name.“Abraham. Abraham Norcross.”

“Abraham, hmm? Good to meet you, Abe.”

Avery chuckled, looking into those warm hazel eyes before turning and trying to focus on the professor. Wetness leaked a little between his cheeks, and he squirmed a little in his seat.

“If you were in my class last semester, we’re picking right back up where we left off. If you didn’t have me last semester for 101, I wish you well in trying to keep up.”

Avery sighed inwardly. He, of course, hadn’t had Professor Buckshot…erm, Conover… the previous semester. He took out his recorder and laid it on his desk, ready to take notes.

“We’ll begin today with the Resurgence.”

A student’s hand shot up near the front.

“Yes?” the professor asked, lifting a brow.

“We usually just go over the syllabus and review what’s expected on the first day of class.”

“Oh?” the professor asked. “So I’m to lower my expectations because other professors have coddled you?”

“Well, maybe,” the student joked.

And got a deadly evil eye. “I think not.”

Avery looked at Brett, hoping that ‘old softy’ bit was true. It sure as hell didn’t seem like it.

“As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted. The Resurgence. This era began right after the Dark Period. Of course, historians argue over the exact beginning and end of either, but for our class’s purposes, we will use the year 3225 as the first signs of the Resurgence Period. This was a great time for historians as we began to see some of the first true masters of painting, philosophy, and the other arts begin to emerge. After the nearly two-thousand-year period following the Great Catastrophe, and it’s utter lack of recorded history, we then come into this period where almost everything is charted in one way or another. We’ve moved from famine to feast.” The professor began to move about the room, looking into their faces as he traveled. “The early years of the Resurgence were stillverybarbaric, holding fast to stringent rules for all classes of men. Alphas continued to maintain strongholds, protecting their wealth, resources, and the harems of omegas they called mates and their children.”

Harems?Avery’s head bobbed up from his notetaking. He raised his hand.

“Yes?”

“Alphas had more than one omega? And called them all mate?”

“They did. Some had as many as a dozen—but of course, those were the days when omegas outnumbered alphas ten to one. Of course, that’s just an estimate—that ten to one number—as there were no true censuses then. We can only extrapolate using more recent losses to the omega number and adding data we find from written histories of the time.”

“What of the fated mate? Is that a more recent occurrence?”

The professor sighed. “The idea of fated mates—in my opinion—is a construct of the alpha government.”

A gasp went about the room.

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