Page 212 of Dream Mates
“That’s what I was wondering. If we got mostly male omegas because many worlds didn’t want them, then how difficult would it be to find a home for sigmas and omicrons? That could be whyyou ended up in a world without designations at all. Especially since unlike alphas and omegas, sigmas and omicrons don’t have discernible anatomical changes. That’s often how sigma and omicron males are found. They test as alphas as children, then fail to get knots, though their scents are usuallyveryclose, even without chemical help, and their builds and other abilities are about the same. They even have pheromones that operate similarly but aren’t as potent,” Spencer explained.
Huh. I continued to make inroads in my veggie omelet.
Riley swiped a piece of Evan’s bacon. “Makes sense to me.”
“Hey, that’s mine,” Evan tried to swipe it back.
“You know what they say about snoozers and losers.” Riley shoved it in her mouth.
“I’ll see if I can figure anything out, but I think it’s safe to assume that Rosalind was somehow smuggled, either pretending that Grace was hers, or masquerading as Thora,” Spencer said. “While I was told it didn’t work out the way they wanted, that doesn’t mean they didn’t get some to other worlds. Just not very many, I’m guessing.”
“Rosalind could be very charming when she wanted, so I can see her spinning a nice sob story. I mean that’s how she got my dad. He met a pretty, young, down-and-out single mom with her infant. Took her in, gave her a home, married her, and had more babies. Though I’d be interested in how Rosalind even found the underground network to send her over in the first place. I wonder what her major was,” I added, in case she’d somehow been one of Dr. Thanukos’ students or something.
“On it.” Brennan speared a potato with his fork.
“Me, too. I called in a favor to see what I could find as well, given Rosalind’s criminal record,” Jett told me, taking a sip of coffee.
“That would be good, especially because I’d like to know what sort of trouble Thora was in when she called the professor andwanted him to keep me,” I replied, trying to figure out the full story.
“Yeah, that sounds like the law was after her, then somehow she ended up in a testing facility,” Jett told me.
“Can someone explain what the illegal designations are and why?” I asked, taking a sip of my latte.
“Sigmas commit crimes to punish people–think eco terrorists and mass shooters. They don’t want to be part of the system, and generally think it’s bullshit,” Riley replied. “Omicrons are charming, and think that the rules don’t apply to them. They want to take over the world and fix it and aren’t afraid to use violence.” She looked at Spencer. “That’s right? I looked it up. I won't get that assembly until next year.”
Spencer nodded. “It is. Both are very smart designations, too, and passionate about their work. One thing about omicrons is that early on they found their homes in religion and philosophy and often used their belief systems to get others to execute their visions.”
I frowned. Hmmm.
“One of the reasons why people were against Elaris’ research on the illegal designations was because she wanted to include the phi designation as well. A phi is a cross between a sigma and a kappa,” Spencer added.
“I don’t know what a kappa is.” I ate another bite.
“Kappas are fun and adventurous thrill-seekers who make exceedingly bad choices. They’re not illegal, but they’re almost non-existent. Sometimes the military uses them in disruption-oriented operations,” Jett explained.
Oh. Okay. Kappas disrupting governments with chaos. I’d watch that movie.
“A phi is basically a chaotic psychopath,” Jett added. “While they can be a loner like sigmas, they can also be fun like kappas, and even charismatic like an omicron. They can get violentand aggressive, and unlike the others, can hide among alphas, because they have a bulb that can pass as a slightly-deformed knot. They’re also often selfish. The running theory is that phis aren’t organic variations, that they were somehow created or bred at some point, probably for military purposes, and it went horribly terribly wrong.”
Wes nodded. “I could see that.”
“So, you could just hide your designation?” I ate some fruit. It was nice fruit, too, not just melons.
“Once you’re tested in middle school you might not ever be tested again if there’s no need for it. There are ways to alter your scent if you need to,” Brennan told me.
“It’s a lot harder to find illegal female designations without a test, because alpha females just have extra pussy muscles, which is less noticeable than a knot,” Spencer added.
“Hey, digammas aren’t illegal, right? They were mentioned in literature class during our poetry unit.” Riley took a sip of hot chocolate.
Evan shook his head. “No. While it doesn’t always end well for them, they’re not illegal.”
Wes blinked. “I don’t even know what that is.”
“It’s the reverse of Grace–an alpha whose environment was so awful, or their trauma was so great, that their bodies halted the process of becoming alphas,” Evan said.
“Do I even want to know what that would be like?” Brennan shuddered.
Evan shook his head. “No, you do not.”
