Page 23 of Broken Omega

The queen bee gives me a look as the teacher hands out materials.

“Is this class for real?” she asks, in a low voice with utter disdain in her tone.

On the inside, she’s pleased. She clearly thinks being here will be one big party.

It kind of feels like that, sometimes.

“That’s what it’s like here,” I murmur back, making her smile.

“You should know,” she says. “I’ve heard you’ve been here a while.”

“Six years,” I tell her, realizing this will be my seventh, and my last.

“Wow,” she murmurs, looking me over curiously. “I thought the Alphas who come here are supposed to be the best of the best. They’re not good enough for you?”

“You be the judge,” I tell her. “You’ll meet them a week from Friday.”

She shivers. “I can’t wait. I’m going to meet my true mate here. I can just tell.”

This girl seriously needs a reality check. It’s cute to fantasize that there might be a perfect Alpha or pack out there for every Omega, but that’s not how life really works. Chemistry is real, but falling in love at first sight is a crazy enough way to spin that kind of feeling without adding in the thought of the encounter being fated.

“I wouldn’t talk about true mates in class,” I tell her. “The academy doesn’t subscribe to flights of fancy, and it could earn you a visit to Geraldine’s office.”

“True mates are real,” she says. “I don’t care what the academy says about it.”

She sounds so sure. Her words even match her emotional state this time.

There was a time when I believed in true mates, back when Zelena and I used to talk about meeting our perfect matches.

Hers were going to be her back-up singers. She was determined to find a pack, and she didn’t care if they were all Alphas or not.

Mine … I have vague memories of a dream I had once.

Of meeting someone I didn’t really get a chance to talk to, but who instantly made me feel safe.

A stranger with boy-next-door good looks. I don’t know who he was, or what job he would have.

So, I told Zey I’d take a whole football team for my pack, and their cheerleaders, too.

At least it made her laugh.

“Brooke,” Mrs. West calls out.

I look up, realizing I was doodling in the margins of my notebook. “Yes?”

“We need to start our tour of the building. Since you’ve been here as long as I have, I thought you might like to take half the class and begin in the gardens, where I’ll finish up. It might be more satisfying than following me around again.”

In other words, she knows I wasn’t paying any attention and she’s trying to keep me occupied.

“Sure. I can do the tour backwards.”

I could do it upside down with my hands behind my back if you’d really like.

She nods. “Great. You can take the right side of the room. I’ll take the left. Make sure you’re back in class in half an hour.”

“No problem.”

BROOKE

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