"Alastair," Castiel says as he comes to stand next to the omega who smells so incredible. "I wasn't aware you'd be in attendance." He keeps his voice even and his tone polite but cold. He finds Alastair extremely distasteful to be around, and his damn alpha instincts are angry that Alastair dared to speak to an omega that Castiel himself is interested in. Ridiculous.

"Castiel," Alastair says, his voice just as nasally and oily as Cas remembers. "I just… Dropped by."

Castiel can imagine what Alastair "dropped by" for. Rumors run rampant both about and within any level of nobility, but the whispers about what Alastair does to those in his care are particularly disturbing. From his staff to the omegas he "helps," if the even some of the stories are true, he's not a man who one wants to find oneself alone with.

And he's speaking to this omega.

Cas curbs the growl that wants to crawl its way out of his throat. "Hmm," he says instead. "Looking to help someone out?"

"Well, I couldn't pass up the chance to at least see what was being offered," Alastair says, like they're at some sort of garage sale and not an Omega Ball.

Castiel knows he reeks of protectiveness, but he simply can't help it. He wants to defend this omega, to not only claim him, but to protect him from harm. It's because of that instinct that it's more difficult than usual to hide his dislike of the alpha in front of him.

"Interesting," he grits out. "Well, I hate to intrude, but I must request the lovely omega's company for a few minutes, if you wouldn't mind excusing us?"

There's just a moment of defiance in Alastair's eyes, and Cas finds himself relishing the thought of a fight. There's no reason for it, he's certainly not some mindless knothead who will battle for some random omega's favor. He's not even a particularly physical or violent person. Regardless, the brief promise of a challenge, immediately followed by the submissive way Alastair lowers his eyes, satisfies some deep alpha urge within Cas.

Alastair pastes on a smile. "Of course, Castiel. Please, be my guest." The way he turns on his heel and stalks away makes Cas' lips twitch up in a smirk.

He's finally able to turn and give the omega the attention he deserves. "I apologize if you were enjoying Alastair's company," he says insincerely, "I just know that he can be a bit… Off-putting."

The omega lowers his eyes in a submissive gesture that has Cas tilting his head. "It's quite all right," the young man says softly, smoothly, "thank you, alpha."

It's the right sentiment, said in the right seductive tone. The boy's body language is all appropriate, submissive and pliable. Even his scent hints at gratefulness, beneath his incredibly appealing omega scent.

Something is just a shade… Off. Not quite sincere, not quite believable. Oh, most others would probably believe it. It would take very little for this young man to have the entire room eating from the palm of his hand and believing that it's exactly what he wanted. Castiel, however, was raised in high society, and can sense when he's being fed half-truths.

The ability to hide or change one's scent is hard-won and rare. Castiel can see how it would be a necessity to have such a talent as an omega from the School, but he's duly impressed nonetheless. Many of the omegas here have just an underlying bite of fear to their scent, but Dean gives off nothing but his natural, fertile omega smell.

"What's your name?" he asks.

The green eyes staring at him sharpen for just a moment. "Dean, sir. My name is Dean."

Cas smiles. "A lovely name, indeed."

"Thank you, alpha."

As cleverly as it's done, the fact that Dean is hiding the truth from him, especially in his scent, bothers Castiel. He's surprised by how much it bothers him. He's not angry, though, he's curious. "Would you like to walk with me, Dean?"

Dean smiles, and Castiel wonders if no one else would see the tightness around his eyes, his lips. "It would be my honor, alpha."

Castiel smiles and leads Dean around the room. He makes sure to make eye contact with any alpha they pass who dares to give Dean a second look. He knows he's being ridiculous, but he wants to be the only one Dean sees tonight.

Alpha knothead nonsense, he cautions himself, even as he's satisfied when they all back off.

"Are you enjoying the Ball?" he asks.

Dean smiles beatifically. "It's a lovely event. The School put a lot of work into it."

A clever way to not answer the question. "Indeed."

"And you, alpha? Are you enjoying yourself?"

Castiel smiles. "Please, call me Cas. And I certainly am now."

The way Dean ducks his head and blushes doesn't even look practiced, but there's something in his eyes, just a flicker, that tells Cas it is. It's been practiced dozens of times to appear as coy as possible. Interesting.

They make more stilted small talk as they make the rounds. Every so often, Cas is stopped by someone who wants to kiss his ass, but he mostly brushes them off. As if gaining favor with him would help them, anyway. Cas wields so little power in the kingdom it's almost comical.

When one of these well-wishers, Zachariah Adler, is sent off after inquiring after Michael's health, Dean cocks his head. "You have brothers?"

Castiel smiles ruefully. "I do, three of them. I'm the youngest." Somehow, he doesn't think Dean's caught on to who Castiel is yet, and strangely enough, he'd like to keep it that way. "What about you? Do you have any siblings?"

The smile Dean gives him is the most obviously unhappy one yet, although again, Cas doesn't think someone who wasn't looking as hard as he's looking would notice. "No. I don't have a family at all. It's how I ended up at the School, actually." His smile tightens. "An omega on his own can't do much, especially without a family. It was pretty clear that this would be my best chance."

Lies, lies, all lies.

Instead of upsetting him, or putting him off, the lies just make Castiel want to know why Dean is lying. Why won't Dean tell him about his family? What drove Dean to be here, at the School, essentially selling himself in a practice so outdated that Castiel himself is sure to get the side-eye for finding a mate this way? What are Dean's motivations? What does he hope to gain from this?

"Well," Castiel says, instead of asking all of the questions burning in his heart, "I certainly benefited from it."

Another smile from the omega, though this one is more genuine. "Ah, I think I got the better end of that deal, Cas."

Maybe he's a little scent-drunk, or maybe this is just a bad idea. Maybe it's because Dean's lying to him, and he wants to know why. Maybe it's because Dean doesn't know who he is. Whatever the reason, Castiel makes what is probably the most impulsive decision he's ever made in his life.

"Dean, would you like to come home with me?" At the omega's raised eyebrows, "To be perfectly clear, I'm looking for a mate, and I'd very much like you to be it."

There it is again, a flash of rebellion, although it's infinitely more attractive in Dean's green eyes than it was in Alastair's watery ones. It's just a flash, gone before Cas can really even be sure it was there, and then Dean is smiling, ducking his head, and blushing again.

"I'd be honored, alpha."

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Dean follows Cas through the crowd and wrestles with himself internally.

Mate. Shit. He wants a mate. Shit!

He knows that this is what he wanted, this is what he's here for. This is why he came to the damn school in the first place. And Cas seems like he's pretty well off. His clothes are good quality, his manners impeccable. And it's not like the dude's not hot as hell. Dean would probably be willing to get into bed with him regardless, but that's not really the point.

This isn't a one night stand. This isn't even being some guy's mistress. This is mating. This is gonna be for life. It's permanent. He's gonna be Cas' forever. He's probably gonna want pups, for fuck's sake.

And, no, now is not the time to think of pups with messy dark hair and blue eyes. Or, gods forbid, dark hair and green eyes.

The point is, it's scary as hell.

Dean works to keeps Sam's face at the forefront of his mind as he follows Cas through the crowd. The (his?) alpha's scent is thick with satisfaction, and as much as Dean's stomach is turning, the way it smells makes his mouth water. Dammit. His dick is gonna get him in trouble one of these days.

This day. Today. Today is the day that you're in trouble, champ.

However, as much as Dean's panicking, and as much as he despises these circumstances, he really is grateful for this opportunity. He'd much prefer to be working somewhere to help his family out, but if this is his only option, at least it is an option for him.

And at least Cas is smokin'.

He's a smidge shorter than Dean, but as the night has gone on, he's just gotten better-looking. Broad shoulders, strong chest, tapering down to a slender waist. A lot of that is alpha strength, since they're naturally bulky. There are definitely worse alphas here tonight. Alastair, for example.

As they make their way to Josie, Dean notices he's getting a lot of dirty looks from his "classmates." Their expressions vary from poisonously furious to gently envious. He wonders if it's because it's so early in the night. They've really only been here for a couple of hours. The night is young enough that, even if he weren't here, Dean wouldn't even be thinking about heading home for another hour. So he assumes that the other omegas are jealous that he's clearly been chosen so soon.

When they get to where Josie is standing, near the front hall, Dean plasters on a bland smile and keeps his eyes down on the ground.

Josie Sands, though he knows her reputation is a good one, is a stone-cold bitch. She may not beat her omegas (and Dean thinks it's fucking ridiculous that that's what somehow became the standard), but she sure has other ways of making sure they suffer. Days without food until the omega is shaking with exhaustion and hunger. Entire heat cycles without toys, sometimes becoming so dangerous a doctor has to intervene. After his first week without being fed, Dean learned to keep his head down. He also learned to keep scraps of food in his room to make sure the younger ones got fed no matter what.

She's smiling as they walk up. "Mr. Novak!" she coos. "Are you enjoying yourself?"

Cas' smile is warm, which chills Dean's insides. He seems nice, but what if he's one like Josie?

"I've had a fine time, Ms. Sands," Cas answers, "but I think I'd like to take Dean here home with me."

Josie's face freezes. "Oh, of course! Um, I just… Are you sure that you want this one?"

Dean struggles to keep his composure. What a bitch. Josie's never liked him. He came on as one of their "charity" cases, basically meaning the School was banking on him bringing in a lot of dough to cover his tuition costs. She's mean to all of the charity omegas, but she fixated on Dean for some reason. He doesn't think he's ever heard a kind word come out of her perfectly lipsticked mouth.

He sees Cas raise an eyebrow. "And why wouldn't I be sure?"

Josie immediately brightens. "Oh, well, you know, his bloodline isn't traceable at all. We have no idea where he came from. A bit of a mutt, really, probably from a family who sold him as soon as he presented. No way to know what kind of stock that kind of omega comes from."

Dean fights again to not react at all to her words. The smear campaign against his family makes his hand tremble in rage, but no one wants an omega who gets mad. As much as he wants to snarl and beat her stupid alpha ass within an inch of her life, he keeps his cool.

His scent reflects nothing of his inner turmoil. He makes sure of it.

She's still going on and on about how unsuitable Dean is.. "And, you know, he wasn't even able to procure any sponsorships." She says it like it's the only thing that makes any omega worth anything. "I think you might be better impressed by some of our students that have already been invested into, they're really quite stunning."

Dean feels his heart sink. Dammit. He wasn't able to get any of those stupid sponsorships, not that he really tried that hard. He was thinking he'd be able to get by on his good looks and solid frame. Now that it looks like it might cost him this, an alpha who smells good and looks at Dean like he's not just an object, he's regretting his laziness.

Cas turns toward him, catching Dean in the act of looking at him. His blue eyes are searching, but Dean is certain that Cas has no idea the kind of turmoil going on in Dean's head. He revives his polite smile and drops his eyes down to look at Cas' chest. "Whatever you think is best, alpha."

Cas stiffens, and Dean groans internally. This is it. You fucked up. Jesus, how stupid can you get?

Cas looks over at Josie. "Are you questioning my choices, Ms. Sands?" His deep, thunderstorm voice is cold and angry, and Dean thinks it's probably a little fucked up that he thinks that's hot. Although, that could be because his words mean that the alpha hasn't changed his mind at all, and he's mad at Josie, not Dean himself.

The other alpha flushes. "Oh, oh, of course not, Mr. Novak, I-"

"You would do well to remember to address me formally going forward," Cas interrupts her sharply.

She pauses, and Dean can see the exact moment that she admits defeat. "... Of course, Your Highness."

Yeah, take that, you stupid, vapid… Wait, what? Highness?

The realization is like an electric shock to Dean's system. He keeps his face calm, his body language submissive, but inside he's freaking the fuck out.

Because how many people could possibly, in the history of forever, be named Castiel?

Castiel. Novak.

The Novak family.

The royal Novak family.

Fuck!

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