He opened his briefcase, removing a stack of slightly crumpled paper packets.
“Sorry about that,” he mumbled when he saw me smoothing the packet. I shot him a smile and he blushed as he sat back down.
“Let’s start at the top of page three. This is where they list out the policies for the interview process. The first guideline is that all interviews are fully voluntary.”
“How are we going to ensure that?” Poppy asked.
“All interview participants will be given a consent form to sign indicating that they are there willingly,” Henry said.
We all looked at each other with unimpressed expressions.
“Yeah, I’m sure signing a paper will really make a difference,” Josie muttered under her breath.
Henry’s smile fell. “Is there something better we could do?” His expression was so earnest I melted a bit in my chair.
Henry’s question was met with silence. How could we actually ensure omegas weren’t being forced or coerced? It felt impossible after these past dark years.
“They’d need to talk to someone they trust,” I said, trying to think of what would make me more comfortable in the interview process. I was one of the few unbonded omegas in the group, and I’d been secretly hoping I could try out the new interview process once it was up and running. It was wishful thinking that anyone would want me if they knew all my… problems, but I’d always been a bit of a romantic. As a young child, I’d made plenty of vision boards of what I wanted my pack to be like.
“That’s a great point, Westin,” Lucy said. “What if the omega met with another omega before they started the interview process?”
“I like that idea,” Anna said, a hand on her pregnant belly. She had the sweetest little girl already. I sometimes saw them at the park while biking to work.
“We could hire omegas to serve as mentors or something?” Blair, a timid omega who always spoke in a whisper, suggested.
“I really like that idea,” Josie said.
“This is great.” Henry grabbed a pen and scratched down a few words on his copy of the bill. “Right, okay. The second guideline is a big change. It has to do with the location of the interviews. The alphas can suggest some location ideas, and so can the omega. The interview can take place in the pack home, or maybe a restaurant or other location. The hope is that this will help everyone have a better sense of pack cohesion instead of having to sit in an interview room. The interviews would be supervised by an Omega Center employee, but maybe we could change that to specify that it would be supervised by the omega mentor.”
For a moment, I let myself imagine what it would be like to have a pack court me and take me out on dates around town. A warm feeling grew in my chest. I was skeptical of the interview process… skeptical of anything this government did, even though they were leaps and bounds better than the Designation Government, but that didn’t stop my fantasies.
“Let’s see what other changes there are.” Henry shuffled his pages. “Oh, betas are allowed to participate now.”
Previously, betas hadn’t been recognized as pack members, so it was a big change.
“There are still some stipulations on who can interview. Omegas have to be above the age of twenty and pass a medical and mental health evaluation. Alphas and betas have to be twenty-five or older, and have to pass the same evaluations.”
“What medical evaluation?” Josie asked sharply.
The room filled with the acidic scents of stressed omegas. All of us had experienced the brutal, invasive exams at the Designation Academy. My mind flashed to the back-to-back exams they’d done when they were trying toassessmy fertility. After the third time they strapped me to the gynecological chair, I’d stopped fighting.
They’d finally determined I could never have babies and promptly kicked me out.
I hadn’t been sad about not being able to have kids… I’d never imagined myself with them. But being told I had no use to anyone without functioning ovaries? That hurt. I’d always dreamed of having a pack and creating a home together. To have that ripped away from me had been horrific. It saved me from spending more time at the DA, but I’d still been left with scars.
I flipped through the packet in front of me to read more details about the policies and my eyes caught on a particular line:Omega fertility requirements are maintained due tothe innate biological drive shared by alphas and omegas to procreate.
I read the sentence over and over, my heart slowly sinking.
There went my chances of ever getting a pack.
I didn’t know why I thought things would be different under this new government. I was still useless to anyone as an omega.
“There’s nothing here that says what disqualifies alphas from the process besides the medical and mental health evaluations. What about their criminal history? Or if they were Designation Government supporters? Alphas should have to face consequences,” Poppy said, scowling.
“I’m with you,” Henry responded. “Unfortunately, the legislature is still ninety-five percent alpha. One beta senator raised your concerns, but was quickly shot down. They didn’t want to implement any alpha restrictions.”
“But let’s say someone finds a pack outside the Omega Center. They could just be together without all of this,” Poppy said.
