Page 52 of Zodiac Monsters

“Was a trigger involved in this transformation?” I supplied next, hoping whoever she’d been rendezvousing with that night had provided some sort of insight, be it Emery or her other potential mate.

She shook her head. “Just the moon.”

“Forced transformation?” I asked to confirm. She tipped her chin in an affirmative. Interesting. “So you’re a Hybrid and a Beta.” The way my whole chest relaxed at the confirmation that she was not, in fact, an Alpha, could not be overstated. “A hybrid what exactly?”

“I don’t know. I was hoping you could help me figure that out.” She played with her fingers like a nervous tick. “Or at least help me understand the positives and negatives and whatever comes with being a Beta.”

Oh my, that is tragic. But then, at least she wasn’t an Omega. I suppose the breeding-resistant bracelet I’d given her hadn’t been necessary after all. I’d have preferred to be a Beta, myself, honestly. The silent nobodies in the background could lead a peaceful existence compared to… the rest of us.

“There’s no test to determine your other bloodline, but those characteristics should surface and make themselves obvious with time.” I felt confident I could get those out of her as we spent more time together, anyway. “But as for being a Beta…” Positives. What are the positives? “It doesn’t mean a tremendous amount in this day and age. It’s a fairly innocuous designation. Your only responsibility is to exist and be just-productive-enough. Alphas might try to take advantage of you, but you should be largely infertile and useless as breeding stock, so there’s no reason they should be terribly possessive.”

“Wait, I’m infertile?” Lila’s eyes widened, and I wondered if I’d said something wrong. Was that a bad thing?

“Largely.” I restated. “Only Omegas are capable of breeding another shifter. But while a female Alpha can be impregnated by a Male Omega, or a female Omega can be impregnated by a male Alpha, only a male Omega can impregnate a female Beta. A male Beta is completely infertile, and a female Beta is completely immune to Alpha seed. The hierarchy is reasonably simple.”

She swallowed, but as much as I hated the concepts and expectations placed on Omegas, she seemed even more uncomfortable with that brief explanation than I was. “So an Alpha can’t really be with a Beta at all if they want to have a happily ever after with kids and a house in the suburbs?”

I snorted, and she frowned, and that made me realize I’d definitely missed some nuance of the situation. What exactly that nuance was though, I was at a total loss. What shifter was trying to live a traditional human life?

… One who thought she was a human until a week ago, most likely…

“Is that what you were hoping to find here at Graves?” I asked with a furrowed brow.

“I don’t know.” She fidgeted uncomfortably in her chair. The frown weighing on her lips bothered me viscerally. “I don’t know what I want out of life yet, but I figured ‘normal’ was still on the table.”

I sighed, then took a moment to better parse my words so I wouldn’t upset her further. I’d thought infertility was a gift, but my perspective may have been skewed. Plus, she was still perfectly capable of bearing children with the right Omega, and many an Alpha learned the hard way that they weren’t as immune to pregnancy when mixing species. She simply wouldn’t have to worry about anyone who smelled like Sage or Rosemary.

“Normal,” I added finger quotes for emphasis, “is entirely possible. If it makes you feel any better, other species have no such limitations when paired with shifters, which is what has created so many hybrid species. And even among shifters, an Alpha can use an Omega as a middleman if they insist on choosing a Beta as their mate.” Going into the whole system of imprinting and sexual slavery involved in that dynamic was the type of heavy trauma-laden lesson that was entirely too much for Shifter 101. I rubbed at the necklace beneath my coat, and I opted to force the conversation to go literally anywhere else. “We’re getting way too far ahead of ourselves here. All of that is a bit more in depth than you need to know right now. What will be much more important is assuring your safety during full moons going forward, and understanding the unique way that the moon affects your bloodline.”

“Right.” She said, her chin dipping to her chest. “Sorry, I don’t even know how much I don’t know, so I’m not sure what to ask here to be productive. It’s a lot all at once.”

“It’s fine.” Hoping to reassure her, I closed the skin walker tome, and instead pushed the Calculus book between us. “You have all the time in the world to figure it out. You don’t have to know everything right now. Why don’t we focus on something less daunting for a bit?”

She nodded, but said nothing as she turned the page to the current homework. I wasn’t sure if this discovery was a positive revelation. I was assuming her parents were out of the picture, considering this complete lack of baseline knowledge and her initial denial. Fortunately, whether we figured out the rest of her blood or not, there were many aspects of shifter life that I could help her with as she navigated this new chapter. I felt lucky that she’d agree to work with me, even if I wasn’t terribly thrilled about the prospect of contending with at least two different Alphas in the process.

That was no matter. Fortunately for both of us, there was much, much more to my bloodline than the curse of being an Omega Gemini.