Page 27 of Impossible

“Hey you,” Shawn holds out an arm and the boy goes straight to him, wrapping his arms around Shawn while Shawn kisses the top of his head. The boy turns and looks at me. “This is the poor omega that the afternoon class mobbed,” Shawn explains. “This is my packmate Jake,” he introduces the boy to me, and I watch him puff up a little when Shawn uses the wordpackmate. He smells of linen and clean air. “I never got your name, did I?” Shawn asks, hitting his forehead. “God, I’m really blowing the whole introduction thing.”

“It’s all good,” I laugh. “I’m Indie. Nice to meet you both.”

“He apologized, right?” Jake’s voice is deceptively low for his relatively small frame. “He was going onallweekend about how embarrassed he is.”

“Yes,” I laugh. The boys are cute together. I wonder if they’re bonded. After the weekend’s reading, I know alpha bonds don’t have any sort of bite like there is with omegas. They form more organically, usually through shared experiences and memories that act as anchor points to form connections.

“Ok, I amsogoing to be late for pre-calc, tell Brian I say hi ok? Nice to meet you Indie!” Jake turns to Shawn, looking like he’s going to lean in and kiss him, but then he sees something over my shoulder and his smile fades. He gives Shawn a quick side hug instead. Shawn’s expression darkens as Jake walks away. I turn and see two alphas, one of them about Shawn’s size, the other a hulking monster. The hulking monster was the one leading the charge on Friday, about to reach me when Leon swooped in. He’s glaring at Shawn, or maybe me, his dark eyes and spiky black hair making him look like a demon.

“He was in front,” I murmur.

“That’s Jared Anderson and Michael James. I’d recommend steering clear.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” I breathe. Everything about them screams malice.

“Well, Indie, I am decidedly late for my first class, so maybe I’ll see you around? Let me know if you want a tour or anything, I promise no more stampeding on my part, though I make no assurances for others.” His eyes sparkle and I can only laugh as he trots away.

I’m still smiling when I knock on Ms. O’Brien’s office door.

“Oh good, I was worried you were lost!” she chirps as she opens it for me.

“I got waylaid by an apology.” I step inside. “One of the alphas from Friday’s stampede.”

Her office is a tiny room with a window facing the courtyard. She’s hung sheets under the fluorescent lights and the result is a warm, cozy space, soaked in her strawberries and cream scent. She sits behind a large wooden desk with two leather chairs facing it. Behind her on the wall, two large posters show the anatomy diagrams from page seven of the textbook. My cheeks flush and I glance away.

“Oh, isn’t that nice! Who was it?”

“Shawn,” I answer. “I think Shawn Drake?”

“Oh, he’s a lovely boy. Pack Alpha, if I were a betting woman. I’m glad you got to meet him! Did you meet Brian and Jake too?”

“Jake, yeah,” I smile. “Are they bonded?”

“Oh,” Ms. O’Brien looks a little guilty, “They will be, I think. I like to follow the pack formations, it’s easy to get caught up in the drama around here,” she waves her hand dismissively. “I teach all the omegas, so it helps me play pseudo-matchmaker sometimes.”

My smile falters.

“Why don’t you take a seat?” Ms. O’Brien moves behind the desk and gestures to the chairs. I sit in one and face her as she settles herself. “Did you get a chance to crack the textbook open over the weekend?”

“I did actually.” I pull it from my backpack. I put sticky notes in all the spots where I had questions, and the result is a pink sheaf of tabs sticking out from the pages. Ms. O’Brien smiles when she sees it. She watches as I pull my notebook out as well. “I marked places where I had questions,” I continue, “and I went ahead and made a list for today of the ones I’d like to go over first.”

“You are quite the academic, aren’t you? I saw your transcripts from Adams this morning, very impressive. Where should we begin?”

“Suppressors.” I barely wait for her to finish speaking, opening the book to the section on them. “I want to get on them as soon as possible.”

Ms. O’Brien’s face freezes. She looks at the book instead of me when she answers. “That won’t be possible, Indie.”

“Why not?”

“You read the section, you know there are side effects.”

I did read the section. Depression, infertility, suicidal ideation, weight loss, nausea, hair loss, seizures, liver or kidney failure. Those were just the common ones. “Yeah, sure,” I shrug. “That’s my choice to make though, right?” I would gladly go bald if it means never having a heat. Would probably help keep the alphas away too. Indie the Inimical.

“Not quite,” Ms. O’Brien says. “You’re a ward. Your legal guardian gets to choose. And your legal guardian is the Complex currently.”

“I’m nineteen years old. I’m a legal adult.”

“Not quite. Omegas aren’t legal adults until they’re fully manifested.”

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