Page 37 of Mercy & Her Devils

Instead, he looks impressed. “I bet that you could have been one. Wouldn’t the first Omega in space be something? I want Millie to live in a world where she can dream she can become that and…”

“Not have everybody mock her…?”

He nods.

“I love books and music. I can sing and play the guitar. I’m not really any good, but it gives me an escape.”

“Favorite song?”

This one is easy.

“X Ambassador’s “Renegades”,” I immediately reply.

“I should have guessed. You rebel,” Lark murmurs.

I shiver, as his plush lips graze my ear.

The pride that infuses a word, which has always filled me with fear and shame — rebel — twists it on its head.

It becomes a badge of honor to wear.

A flag to wave.

A finger up at Fletcher, the Alphas who’ve rejected us, and prejudiced society.

For the first time, hope begins to stir inside me that somehow (and I don’t know how yet), my life isn’t over because Fletcher has decided it is.

I’ve survived Broken Bond Syndrome.

I’ll survive whatever’s thrown at me next.

I don’t know how to express something as huge as that to Lark, so instead, I say, “My bad habit is that I always steal the last of any chocolate ice cream.”

“Shocking.” Lark pulls an exaggerated shocked face. “Can I steal the mint?”

“Deal.”

“See, Omegas can compromise. It’s Alphas who are tyrants.”

“Not all of them.”

An image of the other time that I’d felt like I’d had pack flashes into my mind.

Gabriel and Thomas always wanted me to be the one to tell the stories to them, as we snuggled together on Thomas’ bed.

Once, when Gabriel demanded that I tell them a story with lots of dragons, I laughed.

“Lazy Alphas,” I said. “You just don’t want to be bothered choosing a book and reading it.”

Gabriel shot me a shy smile. “I like how you do it, Mer. You make it feel real. Like I’ve escaped into that other place.”

It didn’t make sense and yet, at the same time, I understood.

Thomas nudged me. “And you do all the funny voices. It sounds magic.”

Now, I smile. “I had a best friend who was an Alpha. He was kind. So’s my Alpha twin. Thomas is a good man. Both of them had a tough childhood and unfair expectations placed on their shoulders. The problem is rooted not in the dynamic but the institutions and society. And that view is why I’m on the President’s shit list, I guess.”

Lark pulls back to look at me with a stern expression, and it’s my turn to squirm. “The President? Good to know that you don’t do things by halves.”

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