Westin had always been private. I’d never asked her why she didn’t have a pack, and she hadn’t volunteered the information. I reached across Poppy to take Westin’s hand. Her skin was ice cold against mine.
“You don’t have to tell us anything if you don’t want to. No matter what, we won’t let this happen to you,” I said.
Westin gave me a tremulous smile. “Not much to tell. Within the first couple of months at the DA, they judged me to be ineligible for pack life. I have some… medical issues they said would keep a pack from wanting to bond with me. They barred me from ever joining a pack and said I needed alpha guardians who could keep me in line. My aunt took me in and her alphas are my guardians. I guess I should be grateful. It got me out of having to stay at the DA any longer.”
She shrugged as if it was no big deal, but I knew what it was like to carry the burden of being told there was something wrong with you.
“Are your aunt and your pack with the Alliance? Are they helping you?” I asked.
“I think they’re just tired of having me around. They said I should go to the appointment.”
Cam growled, making the four of us on the couch jump.
“We’ll make sure you’re protected,” he said fiercely, threading his fingers through my hair as if he needed to anchor himself.
Emir frowned as he sent a text. “I’m setting up a safe house for you,” he said, glancing up at Westin. “Can you leave tomorrow? I don’t trust the government to wait until whatever appointment time they’ve given you.”
Westin nodded, chewing her lip. “Thank you,” she said, sniffling away a few more tears.
“Us girls have to stick together,” Poppy said, her voice wavering. Her alphas leaned in her direction as if fighting the urge to comfort her, but they stayed in their seats as she wrapped her arms around Westin and pulled her in close.
A restlessness filled my chest.
“I don’t understand how people don’t get it,” I said. “Are alphas just evil? The DA has been torturing omegas for years and no one cares.”
My friends all exchanged a look I didn’t know how to decipher.
“What?” I asked.
“I totally get where you’re coming from,” Clementine said slowly. “But the DA has made some changes and doesn’t treat all their students badly anymore.”
“You’re defending them?” I asked, turning to face her.
“No, that’s not what I’m saying.” She looked around as if trying to find support.
To my shock, Poppy spoke up. “Even I didn’t have the same DA experience you did. Don’t get me wrong, it fucking sucked. I didn’t want to be there and we still had to comply with all their rules and attend stupid classes. It definitely affected my self-esteem and how I thought of myself as an omega.”
“That’s because you left before things got bad,” I said.
“I was at the DA after you,” Westin said. “And I had the same experience as Poppy. All the classes are geared towards omegas obeying their alphas and all that crap, but I wasn’t treated like you were. They got rid of the crueler punishments really quickly once some alphas complained.”
My heart pounded as my reality shifted around me.
“If most omegas had the same experience you had at the DA, people would know about it,” Poppy said. “Most alphas are protective, and I think it’d be upsetting for them if they found out their omega had been treated like that. At least... I hope so.”
“I think you’re giving alphas too much credit,” I snapped.I wrapped my arms around my middle, feeling alone and isolated in my experience at the hands of Glen and the rest of the DA.
“Maybe,” Poppy responded simply. “But people would at least know about it. I think they’ve kept the program small and secret. Glen has been working behind the scenes to expand it—obviously, these new bills are working towards that goal. I think they’ll do it all at once so that people can’t fight back.”
I opened my mouth, but no words came out.
Poppy continued. “One of the main things that happens at the DA is the pack interviews. When I was there, omegas were required to do six interviews a month, which is how I found my guys. I don’t know anyone besides you who was there for the full two years because the goal is to get them matched with alphas. There aren’t enough omegas as it is—people would start complaining if all the eligible omegas were kept apart from society for two years.”
I felt like I was breathing through a straw, and the room spun around me. How was I just piecing all of this together now? I’d spent almost the entirety of my two years in isolation. I had just assumed others had experienced the same as me.
“But why me? Why did they choose me? What did I do wrong?”
Cam’s arms encircled me from behind and he rested his chin on my head. “It’s not your fault. Wasn’t anything you did.”
